Built on the roots, core principles of the past, focused on the future

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

July 15, 2024

FOND DU LAC – Few companies can say they’ve been in business for nearly 145 years.

Tony Ahern, president/COO, said J.F. Ahern of Fond du Lac has survived that many years in business and has remained profitable, maintained an impeccable safety record and has been the recipient of several awards and distinctions for its work, innovation and business excellence.

What started as a one-man operation, Tony said, has grown into one of the largest specialty contractors in the United States – with several generations of the Ahern family working for and running the business.

At the foundation of the Ahern company’s success and longevity, he said, is its single core purpose – to create and maintain systems that save lives, improve the environment and ensure personal comfort and well-being. 

According to the company’s website (jfahern.com), that core purpose “gets to the heart of exactly what we do and why we do it.”

The early days revisited

In his youth, Tony said his great-great-great grandfather, David Ahern – an Irish immigrant – had a passion for the trades and spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of plumbing, steam and gas pipe fitting.

Upon settling in Fond du Lac in approximately 1860, Tony said David worked for a local company where he put his knowledge, skills and dedication to customer service to work. 

David was eventually put in charge of operations – remaining at that job until 1879 when the company was sold.

In 1880, Tony said David opened a plumbing business – D. Ahern & Son – in downtown Fond du Lac, working alongside his son, John.

The company focused on sanitary plumbing, steam and hot-water heating.

“Back then, that was new technology,” Tony said. “But (David) was able to get things started and off the ground.”

Over time, more members of the Ahern family joined the company, including David’s other sons, William and John Francis (J.F.).

The company name changed to D. Ahern & Sons.

In 1921, the company was incorporated and changed its name to John F. Ahern Company.

Tony said it was also in the 1920s that the company began to reach out to commercial markets – a move that proved fortuitous.

“Back then, the congregation of the sisters of St. Agnes were working on getting the first hospital in Fond du Lac,” he said. 

The sisters were successful in their efforts, and not only was St. Agnes Hospital born, but Tony said it became one of the largest hospitals in Wisconsin. 

St. Agnes Hospital hired Ahern to perform boiler and plumbing installations – something they did through the ’20s.

That relationship, Tony said, continues today, even though it’s now under the SSM Health umbrella – an organization that was also an Ahern customer at the time. 

“SSM continues to be a customer in Fond du Lac, as is SSM in all their other Wisconsin locations,” he said. “(It) is probably our longest-standing customer.”

Additionally, Tony said the company took on commercial work at disposal plants, schools, hotels and government buildings throughout the state.

During this period, the company, he said, also got its first work outside of Wisconsin, beginning the journey of being widely recognized throughout the U.S.

Tony said the company continued to expand its physical location and service offerings to customers as well.

In the 1930s, the company began doing air-conditioning work, as well as plumbing and heating. 

Tony said in 1951, after 71 years in business and three generations, the John F. Ahern Company hit a massive milestone – $1 million in sales for the first time in its history.

Growth and demand eventually prompted the company to build a new headquarters in Fond du Lac, and in 1953, the John F. Ahern Company was renamed and shortened to J. F. Ahern Co., as it is known today.

Tony said it is also commonly known simply as Ahern. 

As the company grew, Tony said Ahern continued climbing the ranks of nationally recognized mechanical contractors, reaching No. 65 in Domestic Engineering magazine’s 1978 “Book of Giants” – reporting $13.4 million in annual sales, another record as it neared its 100-year-old mark. 

The later years

With the environmental concerns of the 1970s, Tony said Ahern positioned itself as water treatment experts – and also began doing pipe fabrication.

A major milestone in the company’s history, he said, came in 1980 when – at the age of 100 – Ahern established a fire protection division providing all types of fire sprinkler installation and related services. 

By creating a commercial customer base that had put itself on the national map, Tony said a difficult decision was made in 1983 to sell the residential plumbing business. 

As the company grew and added more services, it also added to its number of employees and opened additional offices in places beyond Fond du Lac and Wisconsin.

By 2004, Tony said the company’s number of employees surpassed 1,000 and annual sales reached another record – $160 million.

Today, Ahern has approximately 1,800 employees throughout 18 offices in seven states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota.

“We’ve continued to branch out from that core business of plumbing and steam heating from residential to commercial to manufacturing to virtually nearly every vertical market Wisconsin has to offer,” he said. “That means food and beverage, manufacturing, health care, aviation, data centers – and jump far forward – power plants, municipal water and wastewater, you name it.”

Tony said he can’t think of a vertical that Ahern is not involved in in the State of Wisconsin on the mechanical side of the business today.

“What we’ve tried to do is look to where we can expand our competencies within the mechanical and fire protection industries as time went on,” he said. “Over the years, we continued to keep the customer in the forefront of those things in which we wanted to provide value.”

Tony said about 80% of Ahern’s customers are repeat customers, not only for existing services but as they, too, continue to expand their service offerings into their customers’ businesses. 

“For example, back in the ’80s, we didn’t have fire protection – but now we have fire protection, as well as controls and automation,” he said. “We’re working with all customers to expand our services into our current customer base, as well as working to gain new customers.”

That said, Ahern’s customer growth has happened because of two things, Tony said:

• Word-of-mouth of the high quality and value it strives to bring customers
• Ahern’s expertise and excellence in highly complex work bring more business

“We’ve let our work speak for itself,” he said.

Challenges, learning from others’ mistakes

Being in business for nearly 145 years, Tony said, as one would imagine, the company has seen about every kind of challenge possible – including every war dating back to World War II, economic crises, political changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, to name some.

But he said the company has learned from those things – in turn, making Ahern stronger.

“Every generation has gone through good times and bad times,” he said. “It’s how you react and learn from the challenges of the past that sets you up to avoid them in the future when they arise because they will – or to minimize them and make sure things don’t get out of control.”

Tony said construction is a difficult industry.

“I think we’ve done a good job of learning from other companies’ mistakes,” he said. “(How you handle or don’t handle things) can easily become a reputational issue. Our motto when we make a mistake is to stand up and fix it right away. We’re not a perfect company, and we do make mistakes, but what we have seen, particularly in construction, is people can be driven largely by growth and volume. That is not how we do it, and have no desire to do it that way.”

Tony said the company’s longevity can be explained with some common-sense approaches and by doing right by its employees and customers.  

“You need to have good people,” he said. “Without good people, you can grow, but it’s not sustainable. So, you have to have the best and brightest talent. I know everybody says that, but for us, we mean it.”

Tony said Ahern will not grow or take on additional work – or certain kinds of work – if it doesn’t have the right expertise to provide value to customers.

“We’re not going to jeopardize our reputation for revenue or growth,” he said. “(Another) motto (of ours) has always been to take care of our employees and our customers. We can do that when we take care of and make sure we have a strong balance sheet. We don’t over-extend ourselves, yet we continue to make heavy investments in technology, tools, equipment and good working environments for our employees.”

Tony said it’s important to note a company can’t simply surround itself with talented workers – to keep them happy and loyal, companies have to pay them well and listen. 

“Maintaining a strong workforce is a multi-faceted approach,” he said. “It starts with a competitive wage and benefits packages. It also includes providing the best tools – software, hardware, whatever they need – to do their best work. Every two years, we also do an in-depth employee engagement survey. We ask them a series of questions, then we work on those things they think we need to work on.” 

Tony said the company spends an immense amount of time on training and career development, and offers multiple programs and resources internally and externally for employees who want to learn and grow in their careers. 

Bringing in women, young people

Tony said there is a heavy push in the trade fields today to recruit women.

Ahern, he said, is involved in the Women in Construction programs – which aim to engage girls and young women at an early enough age to enter a trades line of work.

“The other thing we’ve done – and it’s not women-specific, though we drive at females – is our youth apprenticeship program,” he said. “We want to show everybody the construction trade is an awesome way to make a living – whether you’re male or female, or (anyone).”

Tony said Ahern’s youth apprenticeship programs start at the high school level – “which have been successful for us.”

“Our conversion rate on youth apprentices is strong,” he said. “Our recruiting efforts at universities, two-year schools and high schools are robust. We target anybody interested in the construction trade.”

The next century

In looking ahead to the next century-plus, Tony said he believes the lessons of the last 144 years will keep them on the right track for the future.

“We must continue to remind ourselves (of) what got us here – making sure we’re taking good care of our employees and our customers,” he said. “We do a good job of that, and we’ll continue to have opportunities to do so as those opportunities arise through the vertical markets we work in.”

The goal for the future, Tony said, also includes controlled, profitable growth.

“We want to strive to be operationally excellent,” he said. “We want to make sure safety is at the forefront of our mind. We want to make sure we philosophically stay between the goalposts. We have to be adaptable.”

As it has been the focus of Ahern throughout its history, Tony said the company will continue to keep people and community at its core.

“We do that by being straightforward and honest and by doing what we say we’re going to do,” he said. “If we do those things, we’ll be good.”