Reader Mail: 09/19/2005
Profit Is A Good Word, Not A Dirty Word
[Editor's note: This letter is in response to John R. Hall's column "Profit Shouldn't Be A Dirty Word," Aug. 1.]Maybe "profits" should not be a dirty word, but they are when there are none. John's column was so on target.
For more years than I want to recall, we have told our customers if they would like to see our financial report or a copy of the final breakdown cost on their job, they are welcome to do so. And guess what. Not one single customer has ever asked to see either.
The good contractors who strive very hard to run ethical and quality businesses have absolutely nothing of which to be ashamed.
Some years ago I saw a financial report of one of our leading automobile companies. Its net profit was 36 percent. I know of another growing manufacturer that starts cost-cutting procedures and tightening the belt when their net is less than 25 percent - and that is today.
Come on, industry. Believe John Hall. The only dirty profits are those we don't have. Let us set our sights above the gutter and look upward to the sky.
Aaron York Sr., Owner
Aaron York's Quality Air Conditioning & Heating Inc.
Indianapolis
Embracing The 13 SEER Future
I am an avid reader of The News. I find the articles a good way to stay ahead on some of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and other important issues. However, I am uncertain of all the grief caused by the 13-SEER unit. The company I work for has been in business for 55 years. We know you have to embrace the future if you are going to have a place in it.I, myself, put in a 13-SEER unit almost eight years ago. My hope for the future is that by the government mandating this, that the fly-by-night companies and manufacturers will step aside and let the people who know what is going on take over. I personally embrace the idea that my grandchildren will be able to breathe cleaner air.
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I have in my own house two 13-SEER units, one of which has been in operation for almost seven years.
Rusty Russell, Service Manager
Lees Cooling & Heating Co. Inc.
Independence, Kan.
Tecumseh Takes Issue With Stock Index Summary
The Aug. 8 issue contains your quarterly stock review ["The News' Stock Index Stumbles"]. Unfortunately, the contributing writer fails to discern what is relevant to the readers and winds up doing our business and your readers a disservice. While it is a fact that Tecumseh Products Company experienced a decline in its share price, that was almost entirely as a result of challenges in our engine and pump companies.That point being left out leads the reader, who is associating the Tecumseh name only with the HVACR world, to view us in a less positive light. In fact, sales performance in the compressor company improved even before the benefits of this wonderfully hot summer.
This same situation can certainly be true of other, multi-industry companies that comprise the index.
James Rutz
NACG director of marketing
Tecumseh Compressor Company
Tecumseh, Mich.
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Publication date: 09/19/2005