Third-generation HVAC distributor acquires Florida territory
By Harper Harwell
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 16, 2024

A family-owned HVAC distribution company based in Birmingham, Alabama, recently finalized a contract to expand its presence into West Florida.

Air Engineers, a wholesale distributor of HVAC equipment across Alabama and areas of Florida, will add the entire Tampa region down through Naples to its distribution market. According to AE President Gil Murdock, this new territory will double the number of HVAC units the company distributes.

Murdock said this contract will increase AE’s overall current revenue by 20% initially and has the potential to increase it by up to 40% in the next three years and 75% to 80% in the next five years.

“It’s going to be very rapid growth given the size and scale of that market,” he said. “It’s pretty substantial given the fact that there have been eight decades of the company covering the entire state [of Alabama] and the panhandle of Florida.”

Air Engineers is an independent distributor for Trane Technologies manufacturing company. AE has three offices in Alabama, including its headquarters in Birmingham and six in Florida.

Murdock said with the expansion into West Florida, he expects that AE will add around 10 to 20 jobs in Birmingham and around 20 at the Florida locations as well.

Murdock said the effects of rising national HVAC equipment prices are hitting companies both on the manufacturing side and distribution side.

“[The effect] is both Trane increasing their pricing and then us, in turn, figuring out how we’re laying that cost increase onto our clients, then they metric out their pricing sales plans on how they’re selling the equipment to the homeowners themselves,” he said.

Murdock said about 80% to 85% of AE’s revenue comes from residential clients and the rest from commercial HVAC companies.

AE has been a family-owned business operating in Birmingham for almost 85 years, Murdock said, and its position in the industry is becoming increasingly rare and thus valuable.

“The fact that we want to remain family-owned ... is very meaningful to a lot of these dealer clients who are seeing other distributors and manufacturers become very corporate, very cold and move to become larger,” he said. “It is just so rare to have in this day and age a third-generation company that is continuing to thrive and remain in the community they’ve always been.”