Girard Heating & Air Conditioning Celebrates 30 Years
Reflecting on a Legacy
From left, partners Steve Girard, Jennifer Gagnon, and Bob Girard.
Photo by Market Mentors
To build a company and steer it to three decades of growth, one needs to be future-focused. But Steve Girard has been thinking a lot about the past, too.
“When you get to my age, you start thinking about your legacy,” said Steve Girard, president of Girard Heating and Air Conditioning, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023. “I’m proud of the guys I’ve trained over the years who are doing great things in the industry — they can track their lineage back to me, and that means a lot. The other thing is, we’ve got customers who are grandparents, and we took care of their kids and then their grandchildren. I look at the generations of people we’ve helped, and in some instances, they almost feel like part of the family.”
Since opening his doors in Westfield in 1993, Girard said, the company has become the premier installer of ductless Mitsubishi Electric cooling and heating systems and has consistently provided service that exceeds customer expectations. It’s a legacy — there’s that word again — he says he’s continuing from previous generations.
Indeed, Girard began his career during his middle-school years when he worked for his grandfather, who owned a heating and cooling company. “I didn’t realize I was learning anything,” he said. “I thought I was just hanging out with my grandfather.”
After enrolling at Westfield State University, Girard continued working during school breaks for the person who bought his grandfather’s shop. Realizing how much he knew about the industry, he took a summer job at Westside Air Conditioning.
“It’s not like we came up with a recipe 30 years ago and just rode it out. We come up with a plan for three or four years, then we have to scrap it and come up with a new one.”
“I had a great summer and loved what I was doing,” he recalled. “I decided to continue working, and did not go back to college.”
After being employed as an installation foreman for another company, Girard decided to start his own business. He brought his brother, Bob Girard, and his cousin, Jennifer Gagnon, into the business, and about a decade in, the three became partners in the company.
“Having been a part of the business since its inception, I am so proud to see Girard thrive over the past 30 years,” Bob Girard said. “I’m excited to see what future successes lie ahead for our business.”
Steve Girard said one of the biggest changes he’s witnessed in the industry has been technology. “There’s just so much going on now with technology, connectivity, smart systems, and everything else. It can be daunting at times.”
He added that, over the past three decades, he’s had to adapt the business many times to meet consumer demands and trends, such as the recent interest in heat pumps (see related story on page 43).
“It’s not like we came up with a recipe 30 years ago and just rode it out,” he concluded. “We come up with a plan for three or four years, then we have to scrap it and come up with a new one.”
