Then vs. Now

Richard O. Hunton, the forerunner, founded the Hunton Group in November 1981 as a subsidiary of the Trane company. Houston Trane was then located in southwest Houston on Landsbury Dr. and consisted of three divisions, Commercial Sales, Services, and Parts. However, from the start, Mr. Hunton envisioned that the company would become the dominant supplier in the HVAC market for Southeast Texas.

The company started out with seventy-five associates and total sales in the first full year of operation of $28 million. Early 1983, the Building Controls division was formed and on January 1, 1984, the company was purchased by Mr. Hunton as an independent operation. During the early years (1983-1989) the Houston economy was in a downward spiral and sales of commercial equipment decreased sharply; however, revenues from service and parts continued to grow in each succeeding year. As a result of unfavorable local economic conditions, management had to develop long-term growth strategies to reposition the company for opportunities that would develop when the economy turned around.

The company continued a pattern of slow steady growth during the mid-eighties by prudently increasing its resources (financial, workforce, and technology) to match the growth it was experiencing, revenues more than double by 1986. In 1988, the company began planning for a new acquisition into the residential market and in 1990 Houston Trane acquired the exclusive distribution for Trane Residential & LCU products in S.E. Texas and constructed a new headquarters in the Westchase area of Houston to consolidate all divisions.

In 1993 the Existing Building Systems division was added and in 1994, an in-house financing company (Vical Financial) was formed. At the end of 1994, total sales exceeded $60 million with 115 associates, and the original vision of being the dominant HVAC force in SE Texas had been realized. Hunton Group is the only major supplier of HVAC equipment in Southwest Texas that remained intact from 1981 to the present; all others either had major reorganizations or ownership changes.

In 1997, due to its significant amount of international business involvement, Hunton Trane changed its name to Hou-Tra International and established a Specialty Products group to supply major non-Trane components for central chilled water systems.

In 1998, HVAC Mechanical Services, Inc. was purchased by Hou-Tra International and merged with Hou-Tra’s aftermarket services division to form a new division – a full service, turnkey solutions provider for commercial, institutional, and industrial markets. In 2002, Hunton Distribution was formed as a separate company by merging Residential equipment sales, Parts, Supplies, and Vical Financial. At the same time, Hunton Distribution expanded its territory to included West Texas, Oklahoma, and Eastern New Mexico with distribution locations in Houston (2), Lubbock, Abilene, Oklahoma, and El Paso.