In 1957 Wayne Thompson and his best friend, Chuck Gregory, started C&W Appliance Service in Wayne’s garage. Chuck and Wayne had been the highest producers working as technicians for the same company, but wanted to do better. So, they bought a business from an appliance servicer and became equal partners starting up with two trucks and two men. Four years went by as they worked 12 and 18 hour days sometimes 7 days a week repairing appliances and installing air conditioning units in windows. Admiral Services came to them wanting their service. Also, Admiral asked C&W to distribute their parts to the southern United States. This development forged the move out of their garage into the industrial district to be closer to distributors. At that time, the decision was made that Wayne would run the business and Chuck would run the technical end. Next came Amana Appliances and 13 White’s Auto stores. The company expanded, and another move to a larger building followed. The business prospered for several years.
Eventually Chuck decided he wanted to sell his shares of the business to Wayne. As with most companies, downturns seem to happen all at once. As is the case with businesses today, patterns seem to repeat themselves. Philco Ford sold to White’s Consolidated, Amana sold to Maytag, and White’s Auto Parts opened their own service department. C&W lost most all of their accounts. However, Wayne was inspired by adversity and immediately took hold of the situation, making cold calls and knocking on doors. Within 30 days business took off again. Wayne started his own parts department and Frigidaire became a major player. The 10 trucks and technicians were back in operation.
In addition, twenty years ago, C&W Appliance Service aligned with high-end appliances such as Sub-Zero, Wolf and Asko and the business grew exponentially. Now there are 20 trucks and 20 technicians working from sun up to sun down. There are 11 office staff employees. Ten years ago, Wayne’s son, David Thompson, took the lead as President and CEO while Wayne took a step back. David is committed to ensuring C&W will continue to be a leading appliance service business by its long founded reputation of integrity, meticulous hard work, and doing what is right for the customer. Everyone at C&W is dedicated to continuing the high standards of business ethics while maintaining efficient management skills, keeping abreast of new technology, and respecting customers, employees and business accounts.
