A familiar buisness in the Northwoods business world is changing hands, as last week Ron Orzech of Orzech’s Heating & Cooling announced the sale of his business to Frasier’s Plumbing, Heating & Cooling of Rhinelander.

Orzech decided to retire, and said that he went to great lengths to determine who he’d sell his 27+ year business to. Orzech determined that Frasier’s, a company that has done business in Rhinelander for more than 95 years, was the right choice.

“My main concern was being able to sell the business to a solid, well-established, local company with a great reputation,” said Orzech. “Frasier’s offers that and more.”

According to Frasier’s owner and president Phil Frasier, his company has both streamlined and expanded in recent years, which has led to additional opportunities.

“We’re really growing right now,” said Frasier. “Right now, business is up 23 percent from where we were last year. Things have been very busy, but also very exciting.”

According to Fraiser, the nearly century-old company has embraced technology whole-heartedly, which he says has led to a significant savings in the company’s overhead costs.

“Our techs are only in the office now to get supplies; otherwise we run our scheduling through smart phones,” said Frasier. “We’re doing some things a little different now, and it’s working. A 23 percent jump in market share is huge for any industry.”

Frasier went on to say that the cost savings has allowed the company to drastically reduce service costs for customers, too. “We’ve dropped our prices by 37 percent nearly across the board,” said Frasier. “Customers are taking notice of that.”

In fact, Frasier said the company has been hiring new technicians nearly constantly over the last year in an effort to keep up to the amount of work they are bringing in. He said the techs go through an extensive training before they are allowed out on the road, even though there is often an urge to get them out sooner.

“As soon as a tech is put on the road, their schedules get booked pretty quickly,” said Frasier. “It’s sometimes a struggle to keep up, but we can’t sacrifice quality.”

Fraiser also pointed out that with the heavier workload, the company now works six days a week, adding regular Saturday jobs to the mix. Previously techs only worked on Saturdays in emergency situations.

“Adding Saturdays is going to be a great thing for customers,” said Fraiser. “Our goal is to not make people have to take off of work to have a technician out.”

According to Fraiser, the changes have led record business. In fact, this past May was the best month in the company’s long history.

“It was phenominal,” said Frasier of the busy month. “We’re trying very hard to embrace a new way of coordinating and doing business, and have passed a lot of that savings on to our customers.”

Fraiser said that the changes have been company-wide.

“We’re looking at each division of the company, looking for ways to streamline without cutting quality,” he said. “I give credit to the unique group of people we have working for us. They are all pulling for each other.”