WARREN, Mich. - The road to success has been a long and bumpy one for Gary Marowske, president of Flame Heating Cooling Electrical. It is a company that primarily serves residential customers in suburban Detroit. What started as a company founded by his father in 1949 has morphed itself several times. Some of the bumps in the road included a utility company buyout with an eventual buyback, and a struggle to maintain profitability while digging out from piles of red tape generated by the ill-fated business decisions of its utility company owner. All of the while, Marowske has continued to make employee relations a top priority and offer some of the best working conditions and career paths in the highly competitive metropolitan Detroit HVAC market.
Because of Marowske’s dedication to his employees under some very adverse conditions, he was chosen as The NEWS’ Best Contractor to Work For in the North Central region. “After we bought Flame back from the utility company [Michigan Consolidated Gas], we noticed that a sense of pride had gone away from the company,” said Marowske. “I wanted to restore pride and help employees, because it isn’t just the employees who need support, it is their families, too.”
One example of Marowske’s care for his employees involves Frank Lang, who works in the purchasing department. “I was out of work for a year, undergoing cancer treatment,” Lang said. “Gary was always in contact with me. I never feared that my job was in jeopardy. He was very supportive.
“Gary also approved a plan that Flame employees made to help an employee on disability leave to save his home. We raised funds to help pay the mortgage and Gary helped by contributing too. Today, that employee is back to work.”
Flame employs between 56-60 workers. Technicians average 10 years of continuous employment with the company. More than 25 percent of these technicians have worked for Flame for over 17 years. There has to be many reasons why employees stay - and there are.