Nevadan At Work: Recession pushed and plumbing company boss shifted

In the midst of a late-'80s recession in the San Diego construction industry, Greg Hawthorne moved to Las Vegas.

Twenty years later, Hawthorne, a successful plumbing, heating and cooling company owner, faced another recession, this one even more devastating. Rather than move again, Hawthorne decided to radically change his business model.

Hawthorne Plumbing Heating & Cooling, once a commercial installation company, now focuses exclusively on service. The company's client base is now 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial. Its customers are no longer megaresorts, but homeowners.

Hawthorne, who laughs when he says he hasn't installed a water heater in five years, emphasizes employee training and education to stay ahead of the curve. He regularly brings in experts to teach his staff the latest industry information.

"We're very focused on training our technicians. It's a skilled trade. There's definitely a lack of that at this point. We focus on that," Hawthorne said.

After a few bumpy years, Hawthorne said his business is bouncing back. He plans to build Hawthorne Plumbing Heating & Cooling into a regional company soon.

Question: Why did you want to start your own company?

Answer: I've always had the entrepreneurial bug; I've always wanted to start my own business. I felt that I just had some methods of servicing our customers we could do better.

Question: What did you think you could do better? Answer: Deliver better service, better product.

Question: Why did you go into this industry?

Answer: I've grown up in the industry. My father is a plumber, my great-grandfather was a plumber. I've had a shovel in my hand since I was (a) preteen. I was a helper. I was on the dumb end of the tape. I used to come up here in the summers a lot and work with my dad.

Question: How did the recession affect your business?

Answer: Hard. Very hard. We were primarily a commercial construction plumbing company and HVAC. In 2009, the brakes just hit. We finished up some projects on CityCenter and we had to make a 180-degree turn in how we did business. We had a service division, but that wasn't the bulk of our business. We went from 15 percent service to 100 percent service in a matter of days.

Question: What has changed about your model?

Answer: You're dealing more with homeowners. A job can be an hour as opposed to months. You're dealing with a lot of mini-jobs and more customers. You have a broader customer base, obviously, because instead of one job that lasts six months with 20 people on it, you have maybe 40 jobs a day with face-to-face (interaction). There's different communication. It really is about providing the best service. You can't relax. You have to better yourself every day and find out what the customer wants.

Question: Do you plan to return to installation?

Answer: No. I love service; I love the whole process. I wish I'd done it a long time ago.

Question: Has the plumbing industry contracted in recent years?

Answer: The plumbing industry has proliferated with a lot of unlicensed people and handymen doing a lot of work. We've seen a lot of the bigger companies recently disappear. The game has changed.

Question: Did you have to lay off staff?

Answer: We had about a 40 percent layoff. We've been growing slowly since then. We went from having 17 people to about 26 or 27 now.

Question: Do you think the Las Vegas economy has hit the bottom?

Answer: I don't think we've hit the bottom commercially, in commercial real estate. That still has a ways to go. But in residential, I hope so. I think the interest rates right now are very appealing. We're seeing a lot of homes being bought at this point, a lot of investors.

Question: You emphasize employee training. Has the technology in the industry evolved?

Answer: Physics is the same. You see some trends coming and going. The advent of the hybrid water heaters is starting to come in. We're waiting and hoping that thermal solar will become more popular, as it is in Arizona right now.

Question: Do you plan to expand your business?

Answer: Yes. We plan to expand regionally and focus on the Southwest.

Contact reporter Caitlin McGarry at cmcgarry@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.