Design Mechanical opened for business on September 1, 2003. Many thought it wouldn’t last in such a poor economy. However, in our first full year of business, our revenue was over $9 million! Five years later, the revenues grew to over $20 million. It certainly didn’t grow that quickly on good looks alone;. It was the career-long relationships of both Bill Iler and Mike Chieppo, along with a great office staff and highly experienced field crew that helped this company survive the start-up, and grow to what it is today.
We have moved our operations from a 4,000 square foot space to our new building which is over 26,000 square feet, located off I-35 and Cambridge Circle. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, please feel free to stop by— we’d love to show you around!
Now since the beginning of business, we’ve kept busy. Real busy! Our first initiative was to become a Mechanical Service Contractor’s Association STAR Contractor. Our first challenge was to get our technicians STAR certified, which involved them passing the STAR test. We were very pleased to find that many volunteered to take the test and passed it on the first try! Next we provided documentation on our safety record, which was easy since DMI has achieved both the MCA and SMACNA safety excellence certificates every year since our inception.
After that, it was about providing on-going education to our employees, establishing an inventory control system and maintaining the highest level of customer service standards. All in all, it took about nine months to prove our company worthy of such a designation. DMI was the first contractor in Kansas City to achieve STAR certification.
Also, we’ve held two refrigeration seminars, where representatives from DuPont came in to talk to our customers about R-22 phase out, and the future of refrigerants. Along those lines, we’ve also put into place a Refrigerant Tracking System for our customers where we provide documentation relating to their refrigerant usage, from life to death. As part of the EPA guidelines, customers are responsible for keeping track of their HVAC system refrigerant usage. This is where we help maintain those records and help keep them in good standing.
We’ve also managed to receive the Kansas City Kansas Chamber of Commerce “New Small Business of the Year” award, Ingram’s “Best Companies to Work For” and their Corporate Report 100 for 2008 and 2009.
So you see, there’s no rest for the best! And we’ve got a whole lot more in store!
