US Air Conditioning History

US Air Conditioning Distributors, Inc. was incorporated in July of 1990 when long time Carrier employees John Staples and John Scarsi purchased the distributorship and began operations as Southern California Air Conditioning Distributors. The company was formerly owned by Carrier Corporation and was called Carrier Los Angeles. It was the largest wholly owned branch of Carrier in the United States. The number of employees totaled 140 and sales were estimated at $75 million. The Carrier Los Angeles branch only distributed Carrier brand products and had seven branch locations.

Both John Staples and John Scarsi viewed owning a Carrier distributorship as a challenge, not only in terms of their ability to successfully operate a large and demanding business, but also in their ability to win the confidence of their employees and customers. The first two operating years of 1991 and 1992 were a challenge for the new company as the Southern California area was still in a recession mode. Both years were profitable for the new company, but sales hovered only slightly above the 1990

In 1993, Carrier approached US Air Conditioning Distributors and suggested that they look into buying the Day and Night Distributorship from Bell Industries in Southern California. After several meetings with Bell Industries executives, US Air Conditioning Distributors completed the acquisition of the Day and Night brand distributorship from Bell Industries in July 1993. Additionally in 1993, Carrier approached US Air Conditioning Distributors again with the opportunity to buy the Payne brand distributorship from Carrier Corporation. The distributorship, located in the City of Industry, was headquartered in the building right next door to their existing operation. In September 1993, US Air Conditioning Distributors purchased the Payne brand distributorship from Carrier Corporation. As a result of these acquisitions, US Air Conditioning Distributors had employment of approximately 200 people, 17 branch locations and sales of slightly under $100 million by the end of 1993.

In 1994 and 1995, the new organization, which included all the brands of Carrier Corporation’s products, started to build their infrastructure to handle the needs of their growing customer base. It was during this time that the company started to operate their own delivery service for their customers. During the periods of 1994 and 1995, sales steadily increased to a level of $136 to $137 million. In 1996, sales exceeded 140 million as the operation continued to improve and add customer services which helped to generate the increased sales.

In 1997, US Air Conditioning Distributors made another acquisition, again with the cooperation of Carrier Corporation. US Air Conditioning Distributors acquired the Carrier Intermountain branch of Carrier Corporation, which was headquartered in Salt lake City, Utah. The distributorship, which included a branch in Boise, Idaho, has a large territory covering most of Utah, Idaho and parts of Montana, Oregon and Nevada. As a result of that acquisition, US Air Conditioning Distributors sales increased in 1998 to over $200 million.

At the end of December 2002 sales were $258 million. In May of 2003 US Air Conditioning Distributors was granted the opportunity to distribute the Bryant Brand in Northern California by Carrier Corporation. At the same time, US Air Conditioning Distributors purchased 17 branches from the Pameco Corporation. The Pameco branches purchased were located in several key locations in Northern California. This enabled the company to handle the new customer base in Northern California without a long startup phase. As a result of these most recent events, the company officially changed its name from SCACD, Inc. to US Air Conditioning Distributors.