DALLAS - American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning recently honored eight distributors who won its first annual Pinnacle Award at a two-day event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dallas.

American Standard leadership was on hand and accessible to the senior management of the winning firms during the two days of celebration, best practice training, and candid dialogue.

“We shared information and also solicited our winners’ feedback on everything from product development and promotion plans,” said Jamie Byrne, vice president of sales for American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning. “It makes sense for us and for our entire family of distributors to hear from the best of the best.”

The Pinnacle winners include A/C Supply Inc., Aces A/C Supply Inc., American/Universal Supply Inc., J. B. Myers Group Inc., Lyon, Conklin & Co. Inc., O’Connor Co. Inc., Specialty A/C Products, and Yandle-Witherspoon Supply Inc.

AMERICAN STANDARD CLARIFICATION

At the event, attendees shared candid dialogue with company executives. This included time with Fred Poses, chairman and CEO of American Standard Companies Inc. Poses took questions from the winners on a wide range of topics, including the corporation’s recent announcement that it plans to sell its bath and kitchen unit, also sold under the American Standard brand name. Poses clarified that the American Standard corporation will retain the right to use the American Standard name and logo for the HVAC industry so that it’s “business as usual” for American Standard Heating & Air distributors and dealers.

There had been some recent confusion among some American Standard distributors and dealers who thought the spin-off of the American Standard bath and kitchen unit might affect the HVAC brand. The American Standard brand is alive and well, according to Poses. “We will still be selling a premium HVAC brand called American Standard after the sale of the bath and kitchen unit,” Poses said. “Our aggressive growth goals haven’t changed.”

The Pinnacle Award is all new for 2006, replacing a prior distributor of the year award. Pinnacle Awards are given in four groups, based on the size of a distributor’s business. Distributors win the award for meeting metrics aligned with business goals, as compared to others in their peer group.

“Our Pinnacle winners win access to American Standard’s top leadership and to other top-performing, non-competitive distributors,” Byrne said. “It’s a valuable meeting.” Additional meetings will be held this year, and the 2007 Pinnacle Awards program is already underway.

Publication date:04/09/2007