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December 29, 2025
NEENAH – For nearly half a century, Central Temperature has made sure businesses across Northeast Wisconsin have enjoyed an “air” of success.
Central President Peter Joch said the company – located at 1054 American Drive in Neenah – has provided HVAC and related services for commercial and industrial buildings since its founding in 1978.
“We started off as a commercial heating and cooling and refrigeration company – an HVAC company that did refrigeration,” he said. “Our focus in the beginning was on service – that was really where our roots began. As time went on, we grew, and we started up a dedicated installation division as well.”
Joch – who co-owns the company with his wife, Mandy – said Central supports a diverse range of regional clients, including healthcare centers, apartment complexes, restaurants, schools and churches through its service and installation divisions.
“In the beginning, there were three full-time and one part-time employees, and today, we have around 40 employees,” he said. “We have more than 30 vehicles on the road every day, out servicing our customers.”
Service ‘Central’ to success
Joch said Central Temperature’s client base is concentrated in Northeast Wisconsin, close to its shop, where the company custom-fabricates nearly all – about 95% – of the ductwork it installs daily.
Though this range can limit the number of customers Central can take on, he said the relative proximity ensures technicians can address issues and emergencies as rapidly as possible.
“Our onus is [on] the service to the customer,” he said. “We put the customer first in everything, and [that includes] how quickly we can get to the customer and how well of a job we can do.”
To deliver the best possible results, Joch said Central’s technicians are skilled in both installation and service/maintenance.
On the installation side, he said the team receives training that “gives them a diversified education on application of fabrication and installation.”
“And on the service side, we train people to be multifaceted…,” he said. “We’re all human, and we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but we’re of the size that we complement each other very well. Our team is pretty well suited to go out and handle whatever they need to do…, and if a technician is working through something and needs support, we’ve got the people here to support them.”
By equipping technicians to handle such a scope of work, Joch said Central has been able to build long-term trust with its customers.
“This is something that differentiates us,” he said. “We don’t look at something as a transaction. We look at it as a relationship.”
Round-the-clock responsibility
Joch said Central offers a more comprehensive range of services than some competitors, which “will do installation only and don’t offer a lot of service support.”
“Seems pretty crazy to me that anybody would sell something they aren’t willing to back up with service or maintenance,” he said. “That’s certainly not how we approach it.”
Joch said Central takes on a sense of responsibility toward its clients, knowing how vital it is to provide them with quality equipment/systems, complete installations with integrity and provide regular maintenance as well as emergency service.
Commercial kitchens, he said, are one example of Central’s capabilities – “which involve not just the heating and cooling you may be thinking about in the dining room.”
“On the kitchen side of things, you have ventilation systems, coolers and freezers, ice machines, things of that sort,” he said.
Because businesses and organizations depend so heavily on these systems and equipment – from manufacturers’ production and storage abilities, to hospitals’ abilities to take proper care of patients and store medical supplies – Joch said Central has always offered 24/7 emergency service.
“We have a rotating call schedule, where we always have technicians on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – including holidays, because in our business, we have to be ready for that,” he said. “With the people we serve, they have needs around the clock, and we’re staffed to be able to do that.”
In addition to having ready and able staff, Joch said the company benefits from a well-stocked inventory of parts and equipment – largely a result of his experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shortly after purchasing Central Temperature in October 2019, Joch said the pandemic hit, and they faced unprecedented supply-chain issues that impacted both the availability of equipment and delivery timelines.
“It wasn’t that we lost any customers or business during that time,” he said. “It was managing getting the parts and the equipment we needed.”
Looking back, Joch said it’s “incredible we navigated so many things so well through [COVID-19]” – but the lessons learned have endured well beyond the pandemic.
“We’ve done a lot to manage things internally,” he said.
Joch said the company’s size allows it to maintain an in-house inventory of equipment, materials and parts, ensuring work continues without interruption.
“During COVID, we took deliberate steps to second-source and accumulate enough inventory of raw materials – sheet metal and copper being the basic, biggest examples – because in some cases, they weren’t readily available,” he said.
By establishing a deep and wide inventory, and by “partnering with good suppliers,” Joch said Central has been able to navigate ongoing supply-chain challenges and ensure customers receive timely service.
Joch said this is just the latest way the company has worked to earn clients’ trust and build relationships – goals with historic precedence.
“Earlier this month, we changed out a piece of equipment for a longtime customer of ours, and the equipment we took out had our stamps and stickering on it,” he said. “We found that piece of equipment was actually installed in November 1984 by us. Forty-one years later, and we have the same customer who’s having us back there, and of course, we’ve done all of the service and maintenance on this piece of equipment, and here we are.”
Joch said due to its sense of responsibility, Central has many similar examples.
“We’re very blessed to have the amount of repeat business we have,” he said. “I think our customers… feel that we put them first, do right by them, make them a priority and do whatever we can to help them do what they need to do.”
Keeping cool/heating up
The HVAC industry, Joch said, always has and always will experience changes, from EPA mandates to supply chains to technology.
“The equipment is going to continue to evolve,” he said. “Technology is going to continue to play a bigger role.”
For Central Temperature, Joch said the 47-year-old company will have to maintain a balance of implementing the newest tech while “sticking to our roots, taking care of our customers – putting them first – [and] having dedicated, well-trained employees serving the community that we live and operate in.”
To set the company up for future success, he said Central has been able to acquire other locally owned companies with complementary skill sets and similar values.
Furthermore, Joch said Central has also been proactive in its staffing practices by participating in apprenticeship programs to develop the next generation of talent – including his oldest son.
Employee retention, he said, is fostered in part by offering company-sponsored volunteering and regularly supporting local nonprofits and beneficial community initiatives.
“We’re very fortunate to have some dedicated employees,” he said. “In the last 90 days of this calendar year, we’ve had two employees who retired with more than 35 years of service to our company. One gentleman is actually going to have 40 years when he retires next month. We’re fortunate to have that base.”
Between Central’s long-term customers and longtime employees, Joch said running the company is “inspiring and humbling all at once.”
He said he’s especially proud when customers contact him to praise technicians’ professional work and demeanor, particularly late at night and/or on weekends.
“Those are all the things that are very, very rewarding,” he said. “If we can be good stewards of the company and pass it along to continue for the next 47 years, I think we’ll have done our part here.”
For more, visit centraltemperature.com.
