Tommy Dutton Sells His Aire Servr Heating And Air Conditioning Franchise

GREENVILLE , SOUTH CAROLINA (Tuesday, July 20, 2004) - Retirement isn't a word in Tommy Dutton's vocabulary. But selling a business is something he knows quite well. At age 50, he's done it twice.

"It's one of the things you build a business for," Dutton said. Selling a business is the exit strategy.

However, Dutton's exit from Dutton Refrigeration, an independent commercial refrigeration business, in Greenville , S.C. , was a lot different than his recent sale of his Aire Serv Heating & Air Conditioning franchise.

After successfully growing Dutton Refrigeration, heating and air conditioning work became a popular sideline to the business. So, Dutton purchased an Aire Serv franchise nine years ago to separate and build that part of the operation. He was one of the first investors to purchase an Aire Serv franchise, but things went so well that he even borrowed a lot of Aire Serv's principles for managing and expanding his commercial refrigeration company.

Four years later, Dutton decided to sell the independent operation. He had to hire a broker to find a buyer, and he also had to communicate the value of Dutton Refrigeration without "Mr. Dutton" at the helm.

"As a buyer, someone always wonders: How much of the business is the owner? How many of the customers are loyal just to him?" Dutton said. When he found a buyer and got the right offer, he focused all of his attention on his Aire Serv business.

As Dutton's franchise and the national Aire Serv network expanded, the value of the Aire Serv brand proved to be a sound investment. Then, one day, Dutton's operations manager, Mark DeFilippo, approached him about buying his franchise. Although Dutton hadn't planned to sell the franchise so soon, it was an offer that looked attractive.

"Being part of a national company, I think I had a lot more to sell the second time around, " he said.

And DeFilippo was the kind of man who would take care of things. Dutton also knew the jobs of his two children who worked at Aire Serv, Emily, 22, and Brian, 20, would be secure with DeFilippo as the owner.

So, what's Dutton up to now?

Less than three weeks after the sale, Dutton and his wife Patricia, have purchased a second home in Las Vegas, to be closer to their other daughter and son-in-law and their two granddaughters. But Dutton isn't on vacation for good.

While he admits that he doesn't have to work, as luck would have it, a new Aire Serv franchise has just opened in Las Vegas , and Dutton has been tapped by Aire Serv's corporate headquarters to help the franchisee part-time.

"I knew when I sold the business that it meant starting something else," Dutton said.

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