Sunday, March 30
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
2017 First Quarter - Generation to Generation

Changing Trends

By on 88 Comments
Changing Trends

Keep HVAC, Flooring Companies on Their Toes

| 2017 Q1 | story by Emily Mulligan
Changing Trends Scott Temperature and Kring’s Interiors both bear the family names of their founders. And it is only fitting for these home-service businesses, because nothing goes together quite like families and homes.

Scott Temperature is run by Sarahjane Scott, the company’s vice president and third generation. Her grandfather, Emory Scott, founded the company, and her father, Roger, is Scott Temperature’s president.

The 82-year-old business sells and services both residential and commercial HVAC systems. Scott is a Carrier Authorized Dealer and service provider for traditional air conditioners and furnaces, and also specializes in selling, installing and servicing geothermal heat pumps and ductless climate-control systems.

Kring’s Interiors, now at 634 Massachusetts St., is run by Brit Kring. The store began 55 years ago as a mobile floor installation business operated by Brit’s father, Dale Kring, and Lou Parsons. Today, Kring’s still sells and installs all types of flooring, including tile, hardwood and carpet, and also provides interior-design services for homes and businesses.

Scott Temperature Early Days

Emory Scott, an electrician by trade, started what would become Scott Temperature in 1945, when he and a friend began a mobile repair service. At first, he rode the city bus with his tools to make repairs. Then, he brought on a partner who had a truck—whom he eventually bought out, along with the truck. In 1946, the business became a Carrier dealer. Emory’s brother Vern joined the business, with Emory taking on sales and Vern doing the repairs.

Residential air conditioning was a new technology, so business took off quickly after the war.

“We always had air conditioning in our house in the spring,” Roger Scott says. “But my dad took it out and sold it to a customer every year. So by summer, when it was hot, we didn’t have air conditioning anymore. We were like the cobbler’s kids with no shoes.”

By the mid-1960s, the business outgrew its New Hampshire Street locations downtown, so Emory, whose son Roger began working for him in 1963, built the current building at 1815 Bullene Ave. Emory’s wife, Dutch, did all of the bookkeeping for the business, as well. Roger began working for Emory after college, became a sheet metal tenor and specialized in troubleshooting and repairs.

“My dad said, ‘Whatever you want to do, go do it. But I found I really enjoyed fixing things and working with my hands,” Roger says.

He began running the business in the late 1960s, and Emory stayed around and helped out, as needed, regularly driving to Kansas City for parts and equipment.

Roger had three daughters, Sherry, Stacey and Sarahjane. Sherry and Stacey pursued their own schooling and career options. After she graduated from the University of Kansas, Sarahjane approached Roger and offered to come work for him.

“My dad said ‘no.’ There were never any other options for him, so he wanted to make sure all of us had the option to do something else,” Sarajane Scott says.

She went to work for Radio Shack for 10 years—a male-dominated, mechanically oriented company, much like Scott Temperature—and then she asked Roger again if she could work for him.

At that time, Roger was in his 60s and was looking into options for how to keep the business going when he retired.

“I was talking to consolidators about selling the business. I didn’t want to close the front doors, and that would be it,” he says.

So when he realized Sarahjane was serious, he dropped all the sale negotiations.

“He said, ‘I hire kids out of the training program at Johnson County Community College (JCCC), so go there,’ ” she says.

Sarahjane studied HVAC for the three-semester program at JCCC 12 years ago, while still working at Radio Shack and raising a daughter. When she finished the program, she ran service calls and did sales and bookkeeping.

Roger is still the president of Scott Temperature, and Sarahjane is the vice president, but about five years ago, Roger handed over the day-to-day operations to Sarahjane, the third-generation Scott.
Changing Trends

Kring’s Interiors Early Days

In 1961, Dale Kring and his Baldwin City high school classmate’s husband, Lou Parsons, pooled their money and bought a truck to start a flooring installation business in Lawrence. Parsons had done floor installing in Texas, so he had tools, and they were on their way. Three years later, the partners opened a storefront, Parsons and Kring, at 1035 Massachusetts St. (now Papa Keno’s Pizzeria).

Lou’s wife, Cindy, and Brit’s mom, Wanda, ran the showroom and even helped transport flooring materials to Lawrence from Kansas City. As the business grew, Dale and Lou took turns working two weeks in the office and two weeks on the job sites.

“They both hated to work in the office,” Brit says. “Eventually, it got to the point that they both always had to be in the office.”

In 1975, the store moved to its current location, but only the south half of the building existed at that point, which had previously been a motorcycle dealership and car dealership.

Brit started helping with flooring installations in the summers when he was 14. When Lou retired in 1981, Brit began working in the showroom.

“In high school and college, I also sold shoes at Gordon’s. That’s what made me like selling. I enjoyed selling, and I knew something about flooring, so it seemed like a really natural fit,” he explains.

The store doubled in size with an expansion in 1990 and became the current space.

Dale retired in 1994, and Brit took over the business upon his retirement.

“As Dad neared retirement, and we had discussion of whether I wanted to take over, I couldn’t think of anything else that I’d rather go do,” Brit says. “Before I was in any position of making decisions, I had done everything there was to be done.”

For about five years after he retired, Brit says, Dale helped out at the store or on jobs as needed.

Other Family Members

Sarahjane Scott’s two sisters have part ownership in the business and still live in the area, but they have respective careers in public relations and IT (information technology).

“My sisters probably don’t even know how to set their thermostats,” Sarahjane jokes. “I go over and change their filters for them.”

Brit’s sister, Kayla Kring, has a law degree and lives in Lawrence, and has only worked at Kring’s short-term in the office. Wanda, his mom—after running the showroom for Parsons and Kring in the early days—worked at the Douglas County Courthouse as the clerk of the district court.

Evolving Businesses

Sarahjane says business has really increased in sales since the recent recession because of new residential construction, commercial new construction and commercial remodeling.

“The recession affected us because people repaired their equipment instead of replacing it. Now, they are replacing it,” she says.

Scott has also aimed to keep up with trends in the HVAC industry, in particular the energy-saving and “green” options now available, such as variable refrigerant flow (VRF), which are ductless systems with multiple units in one building or residence.

“We are an elite dealer for Mitsubishi in northeast Kansas. We are a small company, and we sell more than the bigger companies,” Sarahjane says.

With the growth and business expansion, however, one of the challenges facing HVAC companies nationwide has affected Scott.

“My labor force is the hardest commodity to find and manage. They don’t stay as HVAC techs for 20 to 30 years; they look for changing roles and the opportunity to transition to the next level,” she says.

Many baby boomers chose to retire during the recent recession, as well, leaving a gap in the trained HVAC workforce.

With the increase in business, Scott has hired several people to oversee and manage different aspects of the business.

“As we continue to grow, my focus is on putting people in key positions. We’re putting a responsibility chart together so we can grow at a manageable speed. We’re actively going after emerging markets, moving from a small shop to a medium shop,” Sarahjane says.

She recently hired a residential salesperson, front office manager and operations coordinator, and she has established an installation manager position so she can focus on the growth and direction of the business.

Kring’s is also benefitting from improvements in the housing and construction markets. Brit says the store is also navigating its role in the home-improvement market in Lawrence.

“We’re part of a national cooperative that buys more floor covering than Home Depot and Lowe’s combined. I choose not to sell inexpensive commodity products. Home centers fill a niche for a do-it-yourselfer, but if you need help, like design or installation, they don’t do it well,” Brit says.

Kring’s has five staff members with degrees in design, and the store provides ongoing training to its staff about products and installation. But Brit’s favorite part of the work is getting to meet and interact with his customers.

“I still think there are a lot of people who want to know the people they’re buying from and have that point of contact. When you deal with a local business, you get to deal with the people who make the decisions and whose name is attached to the business,” he says.

Brit says some people have the impression that Kring’s must be expensive, because it’s a specialty business located downtown, but because of the cooperative and other efficiencies in addition to the expertise, Kring’s offers a good value. He has looked into moving from downtown Lawrence but says he would miss all the people and especially events like the annual Mass. St. Mosey.

Next Generation?

Neither Scott nor Kring’s is close to moving on to the next generation just yet, so there’s no way to tell just how multigenerational each business will become.

Sarahjane has two daughters, one in her early 20s and the other in elementary school, so she has some time to plan for the future. In the meantime, she says she and Roger still run the business well together, implementing her strategic plans.

Brit has four children—two sons in their 20s and two daughters in elementary school.

“Do I think the kids might take it over? My oldest son, maybe, but I want him to work a few years away from the business so he can learn about other management styles, both good and bad,” he says. “The business will continue to run. Will it be Kring’s or Parsons? That remains to be seen.”

Share.

Related Posts

88 Comments

  1. TYMLESS Home Decor on

    Having read this I thought it was really enlightening. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this content together. I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worth it.

  5. best bitcoin casino on

    Thanks for your write-up. I would love to say this that the very first thing you will need to do is verify if you really need repairing credit. To do that you will have to get your hands on a replica of your credit score. That should never be difficult, because the government necessitates that you are allowed to be issued one cost-free copy of your actual credit report every year. You just have to request that from the right people today. You can either check out the website owned by the Federal Trade Commission and also contact one of the main credit agencies right away.

  12. planning on

    Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!|

  14. VNM Soft VN on

    An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been conducting a little research on this. And he in fact ordered me dinner simply because I discovered it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this subject here on your web page.

  17. guided meditation script on

    I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here regularly. I am quite certain I will learn many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!

  19. australian crypto casinos on

    One thing I would like to touch upon is that weightloss routine fast may be possible by the correct diet and exercise. Someone’s size not merely affects the look, but also the general quality of life. Self-esteem, depressive disorders, health risks, along with physical ability are affected in excess weight. It is possible to do everything right and still gain. Should this happen, a condition may be the root cause. While excessive food and never enough exercising are usually the culprit, common medical conditions and trusted prescriptions can certainly greatly add to size. Many thanks for your post in this article.

  27. pi coin price on

    I’ve been surfing on-line more than 3 hours lately, but I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is beautiful worth sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the net can be a lot more useful than ever before.

  29. best bitcoin casino on

    My partner and I stumbled over here from a different web page and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.

  41. FAKE ID on

    Hello it’s me, I am also visiting this web site regularly, this site is really good and the users are in fact sharing fastidious thoughts.|

  42. by88 on

    Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?

  48. by88 on

    I?m impressed, I have to say. Really not often do I encounter a weblog that?s each educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you might have hit the nail on the head. Your thought is outstanding; the problem is one thing that not enough people are talking intelligently about. I’m very completely happy that I stumbled throughout this in my search for something relating to this.

  58. bet88 on

    Thanks for these pointers. One thing I additionally believe is the fact that credit cards presenting a 0 monthly interest often appeal to consumers together with zero rate of interest, instant authorization and easy internet balance transfers, nevertheless beware of the main factor that can void your 0 easy street annual percentage rate and to throw you out into the bad house quick.

  59. tacgiatranmylan on

    Interesting post here. One thing I would really like to say is the fact most professional job areas consider the Bachelor Degree like thejust like the entry level requirement for an online college degree. Whilst Associate Certifications are a great way to get started on, completing the Bachelors starts up many good opportunities to various careers, there are numerous internet Bachelor Diploma Programs available via institutions like The University of Phoenix, Intercontinental University Online and Kaplan. Another thing is that many brick and mortar institutions make available Online editions of their degree programs but normally for a drastically higher payment than the organizations that specialize in online qualification programs.

  60. huvip88 on

    I realized more interesting things on this losing weight issue. A single issue is a good nutrition is vital while dieting. An enormous reduction in fast foods, sugary foodstuff, fried foods, sweet foods, pork, and white colored flour products might be necessary. Possessing wastes bloodsuckers, and toxins may prevent aims for fat loss. While specified drugs quickly solve the issue, the horrible side effects usually are not worth it, and they also never supply more than a short-lived solution. It can be a known fact that 95 of dietary fads fail. Many thanks sharing your ideas on this weblog.

  64. bet88 on

    Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely magnificent. I really like what you’ve acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it wise. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually a terrific web site.

  70. bet88 on

    I do like the way you have presented this problem plus it does indeed offer me personally a lot of fodder for thought. However, from what precisely I have personally seen, I just hope as the comments stack on that folks stay on point and not get started on a soap box involving the news of the day. All the same, thank you for this outstanding point and whilst I do not really concur with this in totality, I respect the viewpoint.

  71. kairoscleanandcozy on

    I do not even know the way I stopped up right here, however I assumed this post was once great. I do not know who you’re however certainly you’re going to a famous blogger in case you are not already. Cheers!|

  76. bet88 on

    Have you ever thought about writing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites? I have a blog based on the same topics you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e mail.

  78. cổng game huvip88 on

    Today, with all the fast way of living that everyone is having, credit cards have a big demand throughout the market. Persons coming from every area of life are using the credit card and people who are not using the credit cards have made arrangements to apply for 1. Thanks for giving your ideas in credit cards.

  80. gay porn on

    I am really inspired along with your writing abilities as smartly as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid subject or did you modify it your self? Anyway stay up the excellent high quality writing, it’s uncommon to see a great weblog like this one nowadays..|

  81. AI-assisted video production​ on

    Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!

  82. Brick Pallet on

    When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the same comment. Is there a means you can remove me from that service? Thanks a lot.

  86. 宮崎県知事選挙速報 on

    The Barr marketing campaign filed a lawsuit to stop John McCain and Barack Obama from showing on the ballot in Texas, charging that the candidates’ parties didn’t reach the state’s August 26 deadline to report their nominations to the Secretary of State.

  87. AI video maker​ on

    Hello There. I found your blog the usage of msn. That is a very neatly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and return to learn extra of your useful information. Thank you for the post. I will certainly comeback.

  88. porn video on

    I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. kudos|

Leave A Reply