Long-Lasting Relationships Shape Marijuana Industry
As more and more U.S. states continue to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the amount of marijuana sales are expected to increase significantly over the next few years.
More marijuana sales means more grow operations, so there’s also an increase in the amount of steady HVAC job opportunities for contractors to work on these operations.
Due to the fact that people are still hesitant to trust others within the marijuana industry, contractors who have earned the trust of a marijuana grower can formulate a long-lasting and profitable relationship.
For Bill Kean, director of field operations, Dynamic Air Services, he’s found that forming a good relationship with a marijuana grower leads to recurring work because you become their HVAC point of contact.
“Generally, we stay onboard for good,” said Kean. “Most of the time, they want their go-to guy and don’t want to have to continuously rebuild relationships with new people.”
Bryson Guyer, president, E3 Service Group, said formulating relationships with the marijuana growers has been a huge help for business.
“With us being the pioneers and some of the first really doing this in our area, I have customers that walk into my office asking for my help every day,” he said. “And the biggest reason is, we build a grow facility, the guys get really successful, and a year later, they want to build a second one. With me being in their facility once every 30 days cleaning coils and changing filters, I get that relationship with them.”
Looking for quick answers on air conditioning, heating and refrigeration topics? Try Ask ACHR NEWS, our new smart AI search tool. Ask ACHR NEWS
Furthermore, by setting up recurring service contracts with clients, Guyer has had a lot of success being viewed as the go-to guy in the area.
“With our company, it doesn’t matter what we are building, we try to stay in and get the service contract and make sure the customer is taken care of,” he said. “We built the system, so we know it better than anyone else. So why wouldn’t we lock up the service side?”
As contractors figure out if they want to get into this market, it is important to point out the jobs themselves are not cheap, and even one individual job can be extremely rewarding.
“This industry is very lucrative,” said Ken Osborne, president, Dick’s Heating & Air Conditioning, East Wenatchee, Washington. “I was approached by a man who trusted me, so he hired me to do the work on his marijuana grow project. It was one of the biggest in the state with a 20,000 square foot grow room. It was $2.5 million worth of work for this new project.”
Publication date: 4/25/2018
Want more HVAC industry news and information? Join The NEWS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn today!
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
