Marc Cowden knows how to turn around struggling HVAC operations. He did it several times in his career. So when he finally decided to buy his own business, he knew what he was getting into. Or he thought he did.
Cowden bought Beco Air and Heat in Arlington, Texas, in October 2019. The owner was older and in poor health, so the business declined. But it had what folks in home improvement call “good bones.” Beco started in 1974 as an engineering firm and evolved into an HVAC contractor. That meant a customer base built up over the course of a half century. Some of them had soured on Beco, but Cowden was prepared to win them back.