Finding Success in Turbulent Times

In the past five years, Gary and Troy Karwowski have watched as companies throughout the state have collapsed under the growing pressures and costs associated with doing business in a tough economy.

Not , Inc.

The Southington-based company owned by the father and son team has found a way to buck the trend, growing its employees by 100 percent over the past two years and more recently beginning work on a 3,200-square-foot expansion to its headquarters along Captain Lewis Drive.

“It hasn’t come easy,” said Troy Karwowski, 30. “We’ve had to change the way we do business and change with the times without changing our quality. The success has been found in accommodating to the needs of new customers while finding ways to keep the old.”

The company itself has been a story of success, said Southington Economic Development Coordinator Louis Perillo III. Perillo said the company has built a reputation for providing quality, timely services in a professional manner.

“You ask their customers about them and they will all tell you the same thing — they get the job done and they get it done right,” Perillo said. “To have a business like this growing rapidly in the construction industry speaks volumes to quality of the company.”

The recent success of the HVAC full service commercial and residential cooling and heating company has come at a time when many others have gone out of business, Karwowski said. But the growth and success didn’t come easy either.

When Karwowski was just 2 years old, he watched as his father Gary began building the company from the ground up.

Gary started the business as a one-man show in 1983, Troy Karwowski said. Headquarters was a self-built workshop in the family garage just outside the Karwowski home in Plainville. The customers were anyone the family could attract by word of mouth.

Troy Karwowski said he admired the way his dad was able to keep the business alive and make ends meet when others would have considered closing shop. Slowly but surely, customers continued to return and would bring new ones along with them, he said. By the late 1980s, the garage was no longer enough to hold the growing business.

“Throughout the years, Sav-Mor rented shops at a couple different locations and my father was able to buy a building in Plainville in mid-to-late 90s,” Karwowski said. “We moved from there to our current location in 2006. Now it’s time to add on.”

Karwowski said the company is happy to call Southington home and looks forward to see a new addition added to its existing 4,000-square-foot facility. The addition will include a new employees' lounge and conference room. Construction is slated to be completed by Christmas.

Town Council Chairman Edward Pocock III said success stories like these are “exactly what Southington has been pushing for in recent years” and efforts like that of the Karwoski’s have been critical in allowing the town to defy state and national numbers.

In the end, however, Karwowski said, it’s all about reputation and professional but aggressive work as a business owner.

“It’s not easy but there are a lot of avenues in the construction business. There are still a lot of opportunities going on,” Karwowski said. “This company was built on darn good reputation and a lot of customers have stayed with us for 20-plus years.”

For more information about the company, visit their website by clicking on the link.

Have your own business success story? Contact Local Editor Jason Vallee at Jason.Vallee@patch.com or tell us in comments below.