Congratulations Ken McLeod and RST

At the end of November, Ken McLeod, owner of Refrigeration Services Townsville (RST) celebrated an impressive 35 years of air conditioning in North Queensland. Ken was kind enough to speak to Temperzone News recently and share his view on a range of things, most of which we could include in this story!

For the recent celebrations, Temperzone Australia Managing Director, Alan Channels and National Service Manager, Mark Howcroft, travelled from Sydney up to Townsville where they were joined by Brisbane Sales Engineer, Richard Benedetti and Northern Air Conditioning’s, Paul Stevenson.

Not only were they celebrating RST’s 35 years in business but also their 30 years as a Temperzone customer. Such loyalty is very rare these days.

Ken and Paul had known each other for years before doing business together. That all started in the late 1980’s when Paul became the North Queensland distributor for Temperzone products. Paul rang Ken and said, “I’ve finally got something you can sell”, and neither have looked back since.

RST does Commercial and Industrial refrigeration and air conditioning as well as residential air conditioning. They also handle service, maintenance and repairs. With an area that stretches from Townsville up to Ingham and across to Charters Towers, they travel a bit too.

According to Ken, “We offer a broad range of services which also means that the boys learn a bit of everything.

“It’s been good 35 years in business, I can’t complain too much.

“I remember when I first started selling Temperzone units I had meetings with Temperzone Founder Eric Kendall - he came up to see me in Townsville a few times. I also made a few trips to New Zealand to the factory. We would have a look at the units and figure out what was right and wrong, and work out ways to make the units better. I was just one of the people Eric talked to about making sure the products suited Australian conditions.

Temperzone National Service Manager, Mark Howcroft made a speech on the night in which he spoke about the fact that, “RST have been an impeccable company to deal with throughout our long association. RST are particularly renowned for their high quality of service. They are now and have always been a great company to work with.

“Over their 35 year history RST has employed 125 apprentices. That's correct, 125 apprentices!!! For a small to medium sized business, that's enormous. That's 125 families around Australia who now have food on the table thanks to the start Ken and Anne McLeod gave them.

Ken has very strong views on apprentices. “If you don’t train them, you can’t complain about not getting good tradesmen. I wish more companies took more apprentices on. If you have a tradesman you need to have an apprentice with them, simple as that. If you don’t you aren’t looking after yourself or the industry.

“Some years we took on 5 new apprentices a year, which meant we could have 20 working with us from 1st to 4th year.

When we asked Ken what happened to the apprentices at the end of their apprenticeship he replied, “If there is work and they wanted to stay, we would keep them - the good ones anyway.

“There are probably half a dozen companies in Townsville where I have trained the owners. We are going to have competition no matter what, either people we have trained or Mexicans up from down south, least I know these guys are doing it right.”

According to Brisbane Sales Engineer Richard Benedetti, “It was a privilege to join Ken and Anne in celebrating such a tremendous milestone. It is a testament to their courage, strength of character and persistence.

“Being an old Townsville boy myself I am delighted that RST has been around for this length of time and been an important part of Temperzone’s history and no doubt equally significant in our future.”

And what are Ken’s thoughts on Temperzone products?

“Good quality equipment, just as simple as that.

“Made for our climate and works well. They are robust, long lasting, and reliable.

“It’s true. I’m not just blowing smoke. I wouldn’t have been using then for 30 years if it wasn’t true!”