• Roy Inch | Changing with the customer's needs: A success for over 70 years

People, places & innovations

It's not easy to run any business, even in the Me, Too! 80s and certainly not the Frustrating 90s. But just think what Roy Inch & Sons has survived: The Roaring Twenties, the Devastating 30s, the Warring 40s, the Rock 'n Roll 50s, the Drop Out 60s, the ..., well you see the point-customers change, sometimes radically.

Starting out in the appliance service business in 1927, the Inch family has adapted their business successfully to the many ups-and-downs of life. In those early days, founder Roy Inch' instincts and hard nosed business attitude played as much a part as the business strategies of the last decade or two.

He started out as a Frigidaire Appliance sales and service dealer providing mechanical refrigeration to butcher shops who had depended on ice to preserve their meats. And 70 years later, the company is still a domestic appliance service centre in the south western Ontario area. But the family has long since added Carrier and York HVAC products to that list.

Roy Inch was also a dealer for International Harvester farm equipment. He was given that franchise in 1944 over a 25 cent cheque charge. The existing dealer, who was not involved in a $19,056.00 cash sale, demanded Roy Inch pay the bank charge. It was a lesson in how not to treat a customer the family and employees have not forgotten. Roy Inch was given the dealership by International Harvester over that and his reputation as a businessman. But he gave it up when the IH attitude to its dealers became equally short-sighted a decade later.

Founder Roy Inch, who used his business acumen to build the foundation for today's successful family-run contracting firm.

Roy Inch also sold his Chatham appliance store for twice what his bank manager estimated its value. The buyer, World War II veterans, still realized they got a good deal. The family firm had settled in St. Thomas. Again instinct convinced him to buy an unsold load of appliances at the start of the war. Mr. Inch Sr. saw the opportunity to stock up with products that were sure to be scarce and so go, and did, quickly during the war.

It is over 50 years since Roy's sons, Cliff and Gearld, joined their father. Roy retained his interest in the business and came to the office every day until he was 88. Cliff is now semi-retired and Gearld's two sons have already been active for more than 20 years, Tim joining the family business in 1972 and Peter in 1977. The firm expanded to London in 1958 with a showroom and branch operation and has been a member of the Union Gas Heating Dealer organization since its inception.

Reproduced by permission of Mechanical Buyer & Specifier HVAC/Refrigeration Magazine.