OUR STORY
Eric Pereira was just a “20-something kid” in 1988 when he started Air Around the Clock with his friend, Steve Cartier. Eric’s father, Lenny had been in the A/C business since the late 70’s, so it was in his blood. Eric and Steve hit the road with two trucks and a lot of heart.
“Steve and I would do service calls during the day and installations at night. We worked 7 days a week, 20 hours a day,” says Eric, Air Around the Clock President.
Eric and his dad, Lenny were pioneers in an industry that wasn’t used to putting customers first. When Lenny started in the business in the late 70’s, it would take days for companies to respond to a service request and they would charge a service fee, in addition to charging for any work that was done.
Air Around the Clock started offering same day service and would not charge a service fee if customers had them do the work. Soon thereafter, same-day service and “service fee included” became a standard in the industry.
“People would call saying their A/C was broken and we would tell them to expect us between 2 and 4pm and they would say TODAY?!? Most people were not used to A/C companies responding so quickly,” says Eric.
Air Around the Clock’s business really took off in the 90’s. Eric and Steve hired mechanics, added trucks and brought on friend Mike Lang who had his own appliance business. Mike understood marketing and sales and also had their drive.
“We had no quit in us. We went full tilt. That’s what made this business successful,” says Mike, Air Around the Clock Operations Manager.
Some 30 years later, Air Around the Clock is still a solid family operation with longtime friends and family members running all aspects of the business. Although Lenny passed away in 2019, Eric says his father worked until the day he died at the age of 82. Eric’s children are now involved with Air Around the Clock. His son, Sam is a service technician and Eric’s daughter, Juliana is on the company’s new billboards and social media. Juliana is a kindergarten teacher in Palm Beach County, but agreed to be part of the re-branded “My Wife is Hot” campaign. Eric says they created the campaign during the recession in 2009 as a way to make people laugh, but had no idea just how popular it would become.
“We had a guy who called us up one day. He was on I-595 headed east in dead stop traffic and said, ‘I just saw your billboard, your truck is driving next to me, Joe Rose is singing about you on the radio and my wife just called and said my A/C is out. How can I not call your company?’”
It’s not just the customers who have stuck with Air Around the Clock over the years, but also the company’s technicians. Eric says they treat their employees like family and it shows in their low turnover rate for technicians. Some have been with them for more than 25 years.
Today, Air Around the Clock is the largest Rheem dealer in the state and answers up to 2000 phone calls and handles 400 service calls each day.
“I lay in bed and wonder how it even happens. You just can’t imagine what you’ve accomplished and we also have to thank our customers for trusting us and coming along with us on this amazing ride,” says Mike.
Work Here
Air Around the Clock has been a leader in the industry for more than 30 years and our people are what make us special. We are hiring salespeople, mechanics, installers, dispatchers and customer service representatives. Contact us today if you would like to be a part of our growing team. We offer:
- Competitive pay
- Paid holidays
- Medical and dental insurance
- Incentive programs
- 401k
