Peaden Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Electrical

Dotting Florida’s northern Gulf Coast shore from Panama City to Sandestin to Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola is Peaden Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Electrical (Peaden), a full-service mechanical-electrical-plumbing (MEP) contractor. After 45 years in operation, Peaden has emerged as one of the top-rated HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors in the Florida Panhandle.

Peaden employs a highly-skilled staff of NATE-certified, Comfort Institute and NADCA technicians, consultants and customer service representatives. Every employee is focused on provided the highest quality service and installation, backed by the best MEP products in the industry.

Expanding into electrical and plumbing

Today, Peaden runs robust HVAC, plumbing and electric retrofit, service and maintenance divisions, as well as new construction for both residential and commercial; however, the company started small.

“Peaden was founded by Robert Peaden in 1969 as a small family-owned operation,” tells Richard Sisk, now senior vice president of Peaden. “Robert actually opened the company out of his garage. He eventually had his son take over the business.”

Over the years, Peaden gradually built its services, spanning from residential and light commercial work into heavier commercial and major maintenance contracts. “We started selling maintenance contracts in 1984 to strengthen our customer base,” recounts Sisk. “You can’t really say someone is truly a customer until they have purchased a maintenance contract. Once they do, they’re generally a customer for life and will use you for everything. Peaden now has more than 15,000 maintenance contracts.”

Building lifelong customers and furthering a strong reputation is core to Peaden’s business to this day, even though the company has grown by leaps and bounds. “About 10 years ago the company was sold to an investment group and at that time we expanded into electrical and plumbing service,” tells Sisk. “Now we’re a total MEP contractor. Several years ago, Peaden was purchased by one of the investors and the company went back to its family-owned origins; now we’re a family-run business again.”

Maintenance and service across the Florida Panhandle

Today, Peaden has two full-service offices in the Florida Panhandle, serving Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Sandestin, Fort Walton and Panama City, Florida. “We’re now running at approximately 400 employees across these locations,” notes Sisk.

From Panama City to Pensacola, Peaden is equipped to handle the full life cycle of a project -residential or commercial- from concept inception to completion. The company’s skilled design-build team draws from years of field experience to create modeling and preliminary drawings. After conceptualization, Peaden will create detailed drawings of the project to ensure attention is given to all important factors, including cost efficiency and risk mitigation.

Next, Peaden’s fabrication and construction teams complete the project in accordance with the design plan. The company’s highly trained staff ensures that a quality job is done in all phases of development -even after completion, Peaden is there to make sure the facility is operating as intended.

Ongoing maintenance and service make up the lion’s share of Peaden’s contracts, including the sizable community at the Sandestin Beach Resort in Sandestin, Florida. “We do all of the service work for the Sandestin community,” tells Sisk. “The resort community encompasses almost the entire town of Sandestin, so it’s a major area for us.”

Peaden also delivers specialized HVAC systems and more for a range of multimillion dollar area homes. “Aside from the residential side, Peaden just completed the University Academy Charter School on a tight timeline,” recounts Sisk. “We broke ground in November 2013 a completed renovated the full scope of MEP. It was a maze of ductwork, both really challenging and fun to complete. We finished it in just nine months.”

Peaden also delivers complete MEP for military clients, recently completing a project at the Army Reserve Center on Highway 77 in Panama City. “This million dollar plus job started in January 2014,” tells Sisk.

Sisk says Peaden’s newest office in Pensacola is part of an effort to expand the company’s range in northern Florida. “The Pensacola market is fresh for us and we’re working to strengthen it moving forward,” he adds.

Now that the local economy is picking back up, Sisk says it’s the right time for the company to make geographical moves. “Before the downturn we were over built with a huge inventory we couldn’t sell when people got very tight with their money,” he recounts. “Fortunately our maintenance agreements carried us through and the fact we’re diversified in both residential and commercial avenues.”

Residential or commercial, new construction or maintenance, Sisk says Peaden now measures every department for productivity. “It’s all about the percentage of labor and material, man hours on the job and how productive our techs are,” he explains. “We’re fortunate to have a really great group of hard-working individuals with 10 to 20-plus years of experience. Our people take a lot of pride in Peaden and doing a job right the first time.”

With sales looking up rounding out 2014, Peaden Air Conditioning Plumbing and Electric is in a prime position to continue to grow throughout the Florida Panhandle.