Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 286. Leadership Training for Technicians with Jim Pape of The Arcticom Group

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Episode 286. Leadership Training for Technicians with Jim Pape of The Arcticom Group · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Jim: I think the next decade for The supermarket refrigeration experience, both on the construction and the, and the service side, it's going to change a lot. I think of it as a professionalization curve where we're just going to get better and better and better and better.
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  We got to bring in young people, we got to make them happy, we got to train them, we got to give them the tools to be effective in the field fast. , it's going to be very different
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  Trevor: What's up, everyone? Trevor Matthews here, and super happy that you're here listening, watching this. As always, if you like any of these episodes, please like and share it so other people can find out about it. If it's on Spotify, Apple, the YouTube channel. This next episode was recorded live from the 2025 AHR Expo.
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  And as always, like I talk about, getting out to these events, networking, growing. There's many different events that I go to just trying to learn and grow from the different people inside at these events. This podcast is with a friend of mine, Jim Pape. He runs a company and is the CEO of the Articom group.
• 0:01
  And as always, like I talk about, getting out to these events, networking, growing. There's many different events that I go to just trying to learn and grow from the different people inside at these events. This podcast is with a friend of mine, Jim Pape. He runs a company and is the CEO of the Articom group.
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  We did a podcast that I'll talk about back a few months ago on leadership and, you know, management, which is super key for a lot of technicians that reach out to me that are like, man, I want to, I want to grow, I want to get into that. Leadership role. I want to become a service manager, operation manager.
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  So definitely check out that, that previous episode, but this one, we dive in on the current state of the industry. We talk a little bit about what we're trying to do to help the technicians out there and kind of how we see the industry, which is super cool to chat with someone who has so many people inside their organization, trying to uplift the industry, trying to help out the customers, trying to grow and share the knowledge we get into training.
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  We talk about a lot of different things. In a short amount of time. And if you enjoy this podcast, please share it, like it, comment it, like I mentioned earlier. And as always, let's get a conversation going.
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  Super excited to be here at the 2025 AHR Expo. I want to thank you all for joining us. I'm here with my good friend Jim Pape. Jim, how you doing brother? Good to see you Trevor. It's great that you made it out here. I know we, I've seen your LinkedIn post saying, I'm coming to a chair and I'm like, man, I want to reach out and see, try to get you on the podcast again.
• 0:02
  Super excited to be here at the 2025 AHR Expo. I want to thank you all for joining us. I'm here with my good friend Jim Pape. Jim, how you doing brother? Good to see you Trevor. It's great that you made it out here. I know we, I've seen your LinkedIn post saying, I'm coming to a chair and I'm like, man, I want to reach out and see, try to get you on the podcast again.
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  Jim: That turned out to be a pretty powerful vehicle. I got a lot of people reached out and said, I'll see you at the show. I didn't realize how many people I knew. It was a very, it was a very nice little little bump for me.
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  Trevor: Yeah, no, that's perfect. So we did a podcast a couple of months back, but I think yeah, last year talking about leadership and training, great managers, which is really important to our industry, right?
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  We got to develop. Not, not only the technician, but develop them all the way up through what you, you guys do really well at Articom because you, you want to make sure that you have the right people in place to help each level of management, each level of technician, which is great. And then definitely go check out that podcast because I thought it was really good.
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  Jim: Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I got some nice feedback. The, the passion for building great middle managers. is something that I brought from my experience in the past. And like I think I said before, it's not a crime that most people got promoted to leadership, but haven't had a chance to really learn good basic principles of leadership and management.
• 0:03
  Jim: Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I got some nice feedback. The, the passion for building great middle managers. is something that I brought from my experience in the past. And like I think I said before, it's not a crime that most people got promoted to leadership, but haven't had a chance to really learn good basic principles of leadership and management.
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  And so for a modest investment, I think we've now put a hundred and ten people, a hundred and fifteen people through our management development program that's customized just for the Arctic Comm. group experience. Yeah. And. Not only do you build a community from the teams that go through that class, because you think of how we're built, we're built by putting companies together that formerly were not.
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  And so you get that benefit of cohesion of that leadership team. And I get to teach conflict resolution to some guys that maybe learned it the wrong way. Right. It's entirely possible that that or compensation or about, you know, interviewing skills. Think of all the interviewing that all of that we do from the.
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  technician level up. Well, there's skills. It's an actual skill that you can teach and learn. And most people just go at it and wind up picking somebody they like. And we all know that in interview and anybody that's been in management for a while, you realize fairly quickly if you just hire the people you like, you may wind up with a fun group, but it's not going to be a productive work environment.
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  technician level up. Well, there's skills. It's an actual skill that you can teach and learn. And most people just go at it and wind up picking somebody they like. And we all know that in interview and anybody that's been in management for a while, you realize fairly quickly if you just hire the people you like, you may wind up with a fun group, but it's not going to be a productive work environment.
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  And so all teaching all those basic skills and getting middle managers some basic skills is a real big passion of mine. And I think it's been a big accelerator for really important things like the technician experience, because the technician experience, because our guys are in the field, sometimes not coming back to the office for long periods of time.
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  And I know brother. And so you're, you're, you're manager, the person who's giving you guidance and taking care of your daily care and feeding of both work and your, your, your company related issues that matters a lot. And if that guy is a bully. Or is unskilled man. Those guys leave. They just leave. And so are really, really high retention rate is I think it's I think it ties very directly to the investment in managers.
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  And I know brother. And so you're, you're, you're manager, the person who's giving you guidance and taking care of your daily care and feeding of both work and your, your, your company related issues that matters a lot. And if that guy is a bully. Or is unskilled man. Those guys leave. They just leave. And so are really, really high retention rate is I think it's I think it ties very directly to the investment in managers. Not too slight. Attention to the, to the technician and construction technician level experience as well.
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  Trevor: Yeah, no, I think it's really important because I talk about this in all my training programs, like with the technicians. Even if you're starting out, even if you're two or three and you've got to plan your journey in refrigeration because this is a, this is a young man's job.
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  Like refrigerate, especially supermarket refrigeration, not easy. 12 hour days, seven days a week. You know, I've, I've been there. So I talked with them about you're going to start planning now. Like, so. Communication skills is a big one. Conflict resolution, and I talk about this in my training programs. You may not be doing it now, and you may not become a service manager for 10 years.
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  Or management, that's fine. But if you start now and every year you put a little bit of investment in that, your people skills are going to get better, your management skills are going to get better, and you're going to really just grow yourself personally.
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  Jim: Right. No, and you're right. You know, we've got a lot of guys my age still in the field, and God bless them.
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  But you're right, it's a hard job. And you do need to Think about planning your way off the tools at some point because it's a hard job. I mean, I think about topics that are Near and dear to me today. I think safety, you know, I put it out on LinkedIn the other day, but I've been Getting copied on all injuries that come in through the Arctic on group So I used to just happened and I'd it was a number and I was engaged But I felt disconnected from it and starting this last year I started being copied on every injury that we have inside the Arctic on group Well, brother, it is eye opening how dangerous what we do is and, you know, you just read through those things.
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  But you're right, it's a hard job. And you do need to Think about planning your way off the tools at some point because it's a hard job. I mean, I think about topics that are Near and dear to me today. I think safety, you know, I put it out on LinkedIn the other day, but I've been Getting copied on all injuries that come in through the Arctic on group So I used to just happened and I'd it was a number and I was engaged But I felt disconnected from it and starting this last year I started being copied on every injury that we have inside the Arctic on group Well, brother, it is eye opening how dangerous what we do is and, you know, you just read through those things.
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  They're heartbreaking. Every one of them is heartbreaking. And so we ask guys to work fast, but safe,
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  be smart and safe, drive quickly, but don't break the law and don't. Rack, right? So you got to be a professional driver. You got to be a professional technician You got to be a you got to be a professional user of all these tools, right that we hand you It's there are multiple layers of the guys you're building and growing.
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  smart and safe, drive quickly, but don't break the law and don't. Rack, right? So you got to be a professional driver. You got to be a professional technician You got to be a you got to be a professional user of all these tools, right that we hand you It's there are multiple layers of the guys you're building and growing.
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  They've got to be great at all those things Maybe you should add defensive driving to your to your class
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  And
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  Trevor: I've heard that before because that is it that's a skill that you need because we are driving We got windshield time eight hours a day, you know what I mean, sometimes, you know, you got to do long calls and it's brutal traffic
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  Jim: and we hand them a phone, an iPhone and say, your life is going to come through here, but don't look at it when you're in your truck.
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  Really?
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  Yeah. And, and it's brutal, man. I really, I'm not to mention the ladder safety, the overhead safety. I mean, how do you tie off? How do you tie off when you're working on top of a case? How do you tie off? What's the fall protection strategy for that?
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  Trevor: Well, people are taught though, and I've seen it. Oh, well, why should I tie off when my journeyman never tied off before?
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  And they learn from someone who's not doing it safely. And I've got caught in that many times as a technician where, Oh, I can't reach it right now. Maybe I'll just stand on the top of the, the J rails of a Skyjack. Even though I have a harness on, but I could have fell very easily, but not knowing from inexperience.
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  And they learn from someone who's not doing it safely. And I've got caught in that many times as a technician where, Oh, I can't reach it right now. Maybe I'll just stand on the top of the, the J rails of a Skyjack. Even though I have a harness on, but I could have fell very easily, but not knowing from inexperience.
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  And that's it. That's all it is,
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  Jim: inexperience. Oh, and I sure didn't plan to go down this road today, but I'll tell you, the heartbreak of, of that is when you've got to look at a really experienced, really seasoned guy Who on one hand, you can't live without and you tell him you just can't work here anymore because you refuse to work safely.
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  And that happens and it is the most heartbreaking thing. And I, I, so we keep, keep leaning into it and trying to protect our guys.
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  Trevor: Tough duty. But it's important, you know what I mean? And I don't blame the technicians because I was at that point too. Because if they're not with people who teach them that.
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  How do you know? You know what I mean? It's good that
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  Jim: back to the reason I just said for having middle manager training is because we're leveraging up skills that guys are planning skills and leveraging up skills they don't have. Well, the same with the safety thing. Like you said, guys been working the field.
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  Jim: back to the reason I just said for having middle manager training is because we're leveraging up skills that guys are planning skills and leveraging up skills they don't have. Well, the same with the safety thing. Like you said, guys been working the field.
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  He's never seen anybody do it right. And you tell him you got to wear these gloves or this mask and they're like, what? How am I gonna do that? Like, no, that's what, that's the way we do this, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. It is, it is hard
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  Trevor: because I remember lots of times not doing it safely to, to get the job done and so I could get home.
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  Jim: No, I, every task I do at home, I seem to act like I'm in a hurry. And, you know, I come out of the workshop with a little blood on my hand. My wife just shakes her head like, what's wrong with you, ? And so I'm, I get it. I'm sympathetic, but.
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  Trevor: One good thing though is that I know you guys, you believe in training heavily at Articom.
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  You guys put tons and tons of technicians through our training programs. You guys have Jason Fay, great guy, great trainer there. The best. And you believe in training. Why, what are some of the reasons why you invest heavily in training for the technicians and your managers as well at the organization?
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  Jim: Well, just, I mean, skills transfer, right? We've got to get guys from entry level up to being able to take a hot case call. as fast as we can. That is the industry. I mean, if we can trust a guy to go out there and go do the diagnosis on his own going from zero to that point, that's the, that's the benchmark in our industry.
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  Jim: Well, just, I mean, skills transfer, right? We've got to get guys from entry level up to being able to take a hot case call. as fast as we can. That is the industry. I mean, if we can trust a guy to go out there and go do the diagnosis on his own going from zero to that point, that's the, that's the benchmark in our industry.
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  There's mastered journeyman skills. There's all kinds of skills. You can keep going, keep going. But, but that is the big leverage point is getting from from entry to up. Now, guys like you have been really, really good at taking those guys who are in that low middle and then taking them up to really, cause the things you talk about, I don't understand any of the things you talk about.
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  But I, but I but I have deep respect for it. The other thing is for us, the training school is because almost all of our guys are thirsty for knowledge. They don't, the last thing they want to do is ask for help. They want the have the answer. They want to know I fixed it. Those are the those are the people that love doing what we do is they like to go fix it and say I fixed it.
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  And so getting them to ask for help is hard. So so they're also therefore they're thirsty for knowledge. And so we continue to kind of feed that as a personal development thing. The other thing is again back to how the Arctic on group is built. The Arctic on groups built by putting 24 companies together in Canada and North America.
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  And so getting them to ask for help is hard. So so they're also therefore they're thirsty for knowledge. And so we continue to kind of feed that as a personal development thing. The other thing is again back to how the Arctic on group is built. The Arctic on groups built by putting 24 companies together in Canada and North America.
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  And When I send guys from a freshly acquired company, someone's joining our team, and we pick a couple of their guys and send them to a class, they go back and they tell their guys, we're part of something cool, big, interesting, there's stuff to learn. The CO2 rack is now up and running there in in CO2 classes are underway.
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  And so we just keep pouring the knowledge in. Controls training is always the number one request by managers. Managers are always the first one they want is because they got a guy who's got the mechanics, but he needs the controls. Maybe he's got the hydraulics, the pneumatics, the something, but he needs the controls.
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  And so that's a, that's a big one. So the, the technical training is table stakes. I think all of us in the industry have to do it. Many of the union locals do an excellent job of, you visited many of them, many of them do an excellent job in their own right. And so. We kind of, as a community, I think, have an obligation to keep moving the skills up.
• 0:12
  And so that's a, that's a big one. So the, the technical training is table stakes. I think all of us in the industry have to do it. Many of the union locals do an excellent job of, you visited many of them, many of them do an excellent job in their own right. And so. We kind of, as a community, I think, have an obligation to keep moving the skills up.
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  Now, though, we've got a much more interesting obligation, and that is the natural refrigerant race, right? The race is on because we cannot survive as a business where only Johnny knows how to go do that. And when that call comes in at the Trader Joe's, he's the only guy that can go. That's not, that doesn't work.
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  That is unscalable. So we're in a, we as an industry are in a, you know, we're training customers. We're training our people. We're training as many people as we can because we've got to go fast because this is this adoption curve is just launching. It's just launching. We're on the early acceleration days of what this technology is going to look like.
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  That is unscalable. So we're in a, we as an industry are in a, you know, we're training customers. We're training our people. We're training as many people as we can because we've got to go fast because this is this adoption curve is just launching. It's just launching. We're on the early acceleration days of what this technology is going to look like.
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  And in our niche of this niche in this giant building.
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  Trevor: Yeah, and I totally agree because we are a small niche, but the CO2, the natural refrigerants are going to really continue to grow really fast. And like what you said, well, not all alike, but I was that technician too that didn't have that confidence.
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  And you know, I do, I can solve the problem, but needed that validation. And I think that Jason does a great job, job at that, and I think working with your team, like that service manager working with your team, I talk about it all the time, is that you got to follow up, you got to talk to them, you got to give them the confidence to really go out and to do that job and complete that job safely and on time.
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  And we're actually working on a refrigeration buddy AI app that is that support tool for technicians. So to give that, that validation for them, because that's what I struggle with making. That's a scared of two o'clock in the morning to call the, you know, the senior technician and the lead guy.
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  Jim: I'm interested in hearing more about that because, you know, we tooled up a, you know, like everybody, a hotline of the smart guys to help the guys in the field.
• 0:14
  Jim: I'm interested in hearing more about that because, you know, we tooled up a, you know, like everybody, a hotline of the smart guys to help the guys in the field.
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  They don't call.
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  Yeah,
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  they just don't call. And it's hard to make them call. And so, but they're very comfortable with apps. And so if they could go in like, like we're all learning to do with chat, GPT and other tools. Just go in and ask the question in long form and let the tool go answer it. And then you tell
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  Trevor: them a question and they'll ask you a question back just like you're talking to a lead service technician.
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  And then, did you check this? Did you get your suction pressure? Did you check the high pressure valve screen? We'll take 2, 000 of those please. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that a good first order? Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's amazing. But that's the thing. It's like we gotta help. It's all about training, education, and mentorship.
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  You know what I mean? I think that's the part that Over, I think over the last maybe 10 or 15 years, there has been mentorship in the industry but it's getting less and less because of cost. Like to have a technician at a job site, having two journeyman technicians or a journeyman and an apprentice has been such a strain because the prices that we're charging out for supermarkets, I can't believe how low it is in some places.
• 0:15
  You know what I mean? I think that's the part that Over, I think over the last maybe 10 or 15 years, there has been mentorship in the industry but it's getting less and less because of cost. Like to have a technician at a job site, having two journeyman technicians or a journeyman and an apprentice has been such a strain because the prices that we're charging out for supermarkets, I can't believe how low it is in some places.
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  You can send a chiller tech out, but it's 300 now. But the supermarket technician with thousands and thousands of other products, 50 And they're paying their unitary
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  Jim: HVAC guy on the roof 30 percent more. Yeah, I know.
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  Trevor: Explain that. I know, I know. So, we can have a whole conversation about that, and I've had it with lots of supermarket business owners.
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  Jim: Well, our customers are professional purchasers. That's what supermarkets, these retailers are. They're professional purchasers, and so we can't be surprised. When we wake up and they're good at buying our services, they are pretty good at buying them. So it's incumbent on us to be able to achieve all those things you just talked about and still make a buck.
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  And it's a, it's a, it's a It's a challenge. Yeah, no, it is. And I had
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  Trevor: lots of talks with different service managers and business owners on the podcast about it. And it's, it's the thing is, is that, okay, HVAC's comfort so you can feel it. You know, you can touch it and it affects you there. Refrigeration, you just, you don't feel it.
• 0:16
  Trevor: lots of talks with different service managers and business owners on the podcast about it. And it's, it's the thing is, is that, okay, HVAC's comfort so you can feel it. You know, you can touch it and it affects you there. Refrigeration, you just, you don't feel it.
• 0:16
  You may see it a little bit, but you don't see it. It's just, oh, it's something behind a glass door, so. As for another conversation, for sure. I'm always up for another one. I love it. So, we, in our last podcast, we started talking about consolidation and how that may work, because there's a lot of inefficiencies in our industry that, I think, going forward with AI, predictive maintenance.
• 0:16
  team building. I think we're going to get better and better. I wonder, I want to know if you can talk a little bit about that on how you see maybe potentially consolidation going forward in the future from the refrigeration industry.
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  Jim: Yeah, that's a really, really big topic. So it starts with the retailers themselves who are consolidating, right?
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  And so that's, that was the first mover. Yeah. And so the first mover in our industry is that You know what? 80 percent of the tons of refrigeration in the U. S. Oil down to 10 brands. Something like that is rough math. And so that is a lot of consolidation that's happening. And it's not slowing down.
• 0:16
  You know, Rayleigh's buys basha save on buys who they bought in the northwest. It's just it is not slowing down. And so that piece of the consolidation is the marketplace The dynamic that we're not going to change. We have to co exist with it's fundamentally what drove me to have the idea for building the Arctic on group in the first place, which was the idea that I saw a mismatch between this rampant consolidation and the increasing expectations of the customers.
• 0:17
  You know, Rayleigh's buys basha save on buys who they bought in the northwest. It's just it is not slowing down. And so that piece of the consolidation is the marketplace The dynamic that we're not going to change. We have to co exist with it's fundamentally what drove me to have the idea for building the Arctic on group in the first place, which was the idea that I saw a mismatch between this rampant consolidation and the increasing expectations of the customers.
• 0:17
  Yet the small independent mechanical service company having an increasingly difficult time meeting those needs. And so that stress struck me as something that needed to be dealt with. Now, of course, it took me some years to have the courage to do something about it personally. But, but I, but my circumstances hit the right note where I figured out how to go build the company.
• 0:17
  And it turned out to be right. I mean, it's one of the only PowerPoints I ever created that was right. Because what it said was, it says that if you build a business that has scale reach, provides professional account management, and has skilled technicians who are. reliable, dependable, available. If you put those things together, there will be demand.
• 0:18
  And it turned out to be right. I mean, it's one of the only PowerPoints I ever created that was right. Because what it said was, it says that if you build a business that has scale reach, provides professional account management, and has skilled technicians who are. reliable, dependable, available. If you put those things together, there will be demand.
• 0:18
  And that has turned out to be true. And it's happening so across the mechanical services landscape. So you look at us and and cool sis and climate pros. The I mean, we are in a kind of a continuing evolution to kind of put pins on the map and be able to tell our customers. Yes, we're live there. We went, we're live in Buffalo as of last week.
• 0:18
  And so that's the game is to continue to build out a coverage map that meets the needs of our customers. And that's very different from the old days where local business served local retailer and that relationship was 100 percent of the commercial reality. The world today is very, very different. Deals are being done in Bentonville and in Cincinnati and in Minneapolis and Boise.
• 0:19
  And so that's the game is to continue to build out a coverage map that meets the needs of our customers. And that's very different from the old days where local business served local retailer and that relationship was 100 percent of the commercial reality. The world today is very, very different. Deals are being done in Bentonville and in Cincinnati and in Minneapolis and Boise. Those, that's the, you know, that's where the deals are being done now. And so you really have to have the scale to be able to be part of that ecosystem. And so that's, that's what we put together. What that means is everything we're talking about is now in play because a lot of the stuff we couldn't do as small independent retail or service companies or retailer, for example, wasn't.
• 0:19
  wasn't mathematically affordable. You just couldn't do it. Now we have the opportunity to really professionalize the experience for the technician and for the customer. So focus on the customer, but main focus on technician experience. And so tools like you're talking about things that we can lever up that are investments that are way bigger than anyone company could have done.
• 0:19
  But now we can. And so I think the next decade for The supermarket refrigeration experience, if you will, both on the construction and the, and the service side, it's going to change a lot. And it's a, I think of it as a professionalization curve where we're just going to get better and better and better and better.
• 0:20
  But now we can. And so I think the next decade for The supermarket refrigeration experience, if you will, both on the construction and the, and the service side, it's going to change a lot. And it's a, I think of it as a professionalization curve where we're just going to get better and better and better and better.
• 0:20
  We got to bring in young people, we got to make them happy, we got to train them, we got to give them the tools to be effective in the field fast. It's, it's going to be very different because the other thing on the mentor side Even though you're wearing the name mentor, you're younger than the guys that are running around out there in the field that we're trying to use as, as mentors.
• 0:20
  And those guys are, they're not going to, they're not going to be in the business forever. There is a demographic shift that's in front of us. And we look at the age demographics of our workforce and making progress on professionalizing the onboarding, training, and time to relevant. experience, relevant skills, it's got to get faster, like it's got to get a lot faster.
• 0:20
  Yeah. Trevor: I've been in lots of conversations lately for a long time where it's like, okay, technicians that they don't like school and they don't like numbers, so they have to go into trades, but that's not true. It's just the way school has been done for them. Like most of the technicians that I know, they love learning.
• 0:21
  Trevor: I've been in lots of conversations lately for a long time where it's like, okay, technicians that they don't like school and they don't like numbers, so they have to go into trades, but that's not true. It's just the way school has been done for them. Like most of the technicians that I know, they love learning.
• 0:21
  Jim: Yeah. Trevor: They love learning, they love getting it, and a lot of people say, Oh, they only like working with their hands. That's still not true either. I know lots of technicians who love working on controls and under computers and on their phone. So there's a stigma in the industry, and I really think that that's what we're trying to do as uplifting the industry is help us become more refrigeration professionals because It's what you learn, right?
• 0:21
  So it's what you've always seen. So if the people before you were not professional or didn't take it as a, well, you don't need school to do a refrigeration, well, you have to be super smart to do refrigeration,
• 0:21
  Jim: you Trevor: know, and know numbers and know how to calculate stuff and know how to figure things out logically that most people can't and No, it's a
• 0:21
  Jim: It's an excellent experience and job for a lot of people, but they just don't know.
• 0:21
  I don't know about it. I think the trades in general are going to see a resurgence of interested. You know, what we tend to talk about as the young man crisis in this country. And so I think there is a legitimate not that it's only men. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't mean to drive into that brick canyon here.
• 0:22
  I don't know about it. I think the trades in general are going to see a resurgence of interested. You know, what we tend to talk about as the young man crisis in this country. And so I think there is a legitimate not that it's only men. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't mean to drive into that brick canyon here.
• 0:22
  But the, but the point here is that I think the trades are going to see a solid resurgence. of interest by capable and qualified people. And so, but we gotta be ready for that. We gotta serve that. We gotta push it. So it's get the message out, be ready to give them the kind of tools they're gonna expect to take it on.
• 0:22
  A lot of people don't like school because they don't like learning things they know they're never gonna need.
• 0:22
  But when you're teaching people things they know they're gonna need, that you're gonna go in the field, you're gonna be by yourself, it's gonna be two in the morning, and you're gonna, you're gonna run the following set of diagnostics, and this is what it's gonna mean?
• 0:22
  Dude, that's powerful. And, and so I think that's a, I think there's a broad market for it. I think we're, you know, I get this question mostly from the investment community is, but there's not enough technicians. We'll never, this industry is gonna die. There's not enough technicians. I say, we're gonna be just fine.
• 0:23
  Dude, that's powerful. And, and so I think that's a, I think there's a broad market for it. I think we're, you know, I get this question mostly from the investment community is, but there's not enough technicians. We'll never, this industry is gonna die. There's not enough technicians. I say, we're gonna be just fine.
• 0:23
  We're gonna be just fine. We have work to do, like what we're talking about. But, Don't, don't worry about that. We'll, we will build and grow them. We'll be just fine. I
• 0:23
  know.
• 0:23
  Trevor: I have deep conversations with my good friend Stephen Gill. And he was like, Trevor, I was in Chilventa two years ago. And he was like, Trevor, do you know back in the 1970s what they said?
• 0:23
  We've got a skill shortage in the HVAC industry. Do you know what they said in the 1990s, Trevor? They got, we got a skill short and we're not going to be able to to, to solve this problem. He said in the early 2000s, mid 2000s, 2010, you know, we got a skill short. So it's the same story. But do you know what he said?
• 0:23
  You know what, Trevor, the jobs all got done. Some of them might've took longer. They might've been delayed, but they still all got, they all got done. So it's, I think it's the acknowledging that there's a good opportunity here for. For children and young people and even adults because there's such a, a journey you can have on refrigeration, just like I have.
• 0:23
  You can travel the world, you can make lots of money, you can become smarter at what you do. Well,
• 0:23
  Jim: and give yourself a skill you can use anytime, anywhere for the rest of your life. Right? How many, I mean, that's not, it's not going away. Right? This idea of, of, of critical temperature control and asset protection, that's not going away.
• 0:24
  Jim: and give yourself a skill you can use anytime, anywhere for the rest of your life. Right? How many, I mean, that's not, it's not going away. Right? This idea of, of, of critical temperature control and asset protection, that's not going away.
• 0:24
  That's not a, that's not a, that's not a There's all kinds of things you can go learn that are going to, that might go away someday. You know, orthodontists are being replaced by Invisalign. There's a whole bunch of businesses you can go into that may have market share decline. That is not this place.
• 0:24
  Trevor: I have conversations with people, it's like, well, universities are better in trades and trades are better in universities. No, it's different. You know, I, I, I talk to, I, when I look back, I'm like, I went to university first, you know, to get the business, and then I went into the trades, but I think The trades really made me become who I was, because I learned more about money, and making money, and how to spend money.
• 0:24
  When I went to university, I wasn't learning that, but I was learning a different skill, right? So I really think a lot of, I talk to a lot of students in my training courses that, like, okay, you're doing a trade now, but while you're coming up through the trades, like, take a business course, a business acumen course, a public speaking course, you know.
• 0:25
  When I went to university, I wasn't learning that, but I was learning a different skill, right? So I really think a lot of, I talk to a lot of students in my training courses that, like, okay, you're doing a trade now, but while you're coming up through the trades, like, take a business course, a business acumen course, a public speaking course, you know.
• 0:25
  Kind of like we were talking about earlier, Crucial Conversation Course. And so maybe you're not going directly to the university, but you're taking all these courses to build your professional development skills.
• 0:25
  Jim: Yeah. No, I know we talked about this last time, but that, the opportunity to grow and take on more is absolutely there.
• 0:25
  Because, you know, because of the types of people that love this work, not all of them dream of management. So if you do have an aspiration for doing more, Man, come, come here.
• 0:25
  Come
• 0:25
  here, because people that are willing to step up and take more it's absolutely available, and we'll train you, and we'll train you on the skills to at least be successful.
• 0:25
  In the beginning.
• 0:25
  Trevor: Yeah,
• 0:25
  Jim: I totally agree that
• 0:25
  Trevor: so we're seeing this this big shift into co2 and you talked about it We're gonna see this big curve How have you been seeing it because I know like I said you you put hundreds of guys through our co2 training program You're seeing more and more stores you guys reach out to me all the time.
• 0:25
  What is that stepping stone? Cuz for you guys because this is a transition right because there's there's a lot of newer people coming in That are learning a firsthand. You've got a lot of older people that have a lot of really good supermarket skills, but not worked on CO2. And then you have a big middle group who learned a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but need to be at the next stepping stone.
• 0:26
  What is that stepping stone? Cuz for you guys because this is a transition right because there's there's a lot of newer people coming in That are learning a firsthand. You've got a lot of older people that have a lot of really good supermarket skills, but not worked on CO2. And then you have a big middle group who learned a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but need to be at the next stepping stone.
• 0:26
  What are some of your thoughts on that? Well, it
• 0:26
  Jim: countered everything I just said. In this particular piece of the problem, the challenge, we do have a shortage, right? We do have a shortage and and we have technology that is mature in other Places, but brand new and developing here or, or maybe not mature, but maybe early stage.
• 0:26
  And so you've got multiple things going on. You got the early stage of the technology development going on, which is going to be a wild ride because as you and I were talking earlier, this is something that, you know, 10 years ago there were five people working on it. Today there's hundreds, thousands of people working on it.
• 0:26
  And so the technology acceleration, the first cost issue. of the natural refrigerant systems is going to go down for sure, right? Just on volume alone, it's going to go down. But I think the technology ramp, like I said, I spent some time in the solar industry. I watched the solar prices just drop like mad as we got better and better at making solar cells more efficient and cheaper.
• 0:27
  And so the technology acceleration, the first cost issue. of the natural refrigerant systems is going to go down for sure, right? Just on volume alone, it's going to go down. But I think the technology ramp, like I said, I spent some time in the solar industry. I watched the solar prices just drop like mad as we got better and better at making solar cells more efficient and cheaper.
• 0:27
  Just, you know, the just doubling efficiency and and having cost year after year after year. Same in energy storage. Lithium ion batteries today are so cheap, it's weird. And so the idea of early adoption must be incentivized to drive the curve of technology development. That's where we are on CO2.
• 0:27
  We're at the front end of that ramp, and it's going to be really, really fun. Then on the skills side of it, it's train, train, train. You know, you've got VHS and Betamax, you've got different technologies out there in the natural refrigerant world. And so we, as a, as a servicing contractor, have to be able to say yes to whatever system is out there.
• 0:28
  We're at the front end of that ramp, and it's going to be really, really fun. Then on the skills side of it, it's train, train, train. You know, you've got VHS and Betamax, you've got different technologies out there in the natural refrigerant world. And so we, as a, as a servicing contractor, have to be able to say yes to whatever system is out there.
• 0:28
  And so, we've got a lot to do to get everybody, because you can't just have these three guys are trained on propane, and these four guys are trained on CO2. That's not going to work. That is absolutely unscalable. And so an entire generation of technicians have to relearn how to troubleshoot and do their job.
• 0:28
  And
• 0:28
  you do these distributed systems, micro distributed, all the different things. And so we talk about a technician today, how hard it is to walk into a machine room, because of the, you know, there's, you've seen weird stuff too. I mean, every machine room's got its own creativity going on. And. You see guys, you know, that used to be the challenge.
• 0:28
  Now the challenge is, that challenge is still here. Plus, it's what kind of system is it? Where is it? What's that connected to? Is that standalone? Where's that loop? How is that powered? OMG, where's the controller for all of this? I mean, just Oh, you know, you're almost a refrigeration technician. I hang around with a lot of refrigeration guys.
• 0:29
  Now the challenge is, that challenge is still here. Plus, it's what kind of system is it? Where is it? What's that connected to? Is that standalone? Where's that loop? How is that powered? OMG, where's the controller for all of this? I mean, just Oh, you know, you're almost a refrigeration technician. I hang around with a lot of refrigeration guys.
• 0:29
  Never on the tools. Doesn't mean you can't love it. The The path from here to there is a little bit daunting and a little scary. And so
• 0:29
  Trevor: I think you've
• 0:29
  Jim: done something at exactly the right time, my friend. But like the CO two rack that we purchased and stood up in our training center. That's all, that's the training everybody wants, right?
• 0:29
  That's the training everybody wants. And so we gotta go very, very fast. We're gonna need to put up another training CO2 rack, probably on the East Coast, fast. I mean, we just, we just gotta go fast. Just gotta go fast.
• 0:29
  Trevor: The thing is, I talk with people all over the world. Even in Europe, they've been doing it a lot longer.
• 0:29
  But they still, they're running into the same, similar challenges with technicians. You know, with knowing the skills, because there's so many. There's A2Ls, there's propane, there's CO2. There's ammonia. So there's still challenges all over the world. I talked to so many people in different countries. Like we don't have a training guys know how to work on them, but there's no training system.
• 0:30
  But they still, they're running into the same, similar challenges with technicians. You know, with knowing the skills, because there's so many. There's A2Ls, there's propane, there's CO2. There's ammonia. So there's still challenges all over the world. I talked to so many people in different countries. Like we don't have a training guys know how to work on them, but there's no training system.
• 0:30
  There's no nothing that makes it easier for the guys. And then you know, the curriculum at some of the schools are
• 0:30
  Jim: still even outdated. Right? Does your dispatch system know what's there? Right? Do you even know what you're sending the guy to? Right? You got to have that. You got those are all problems that all have to be solved.
• 0:30
  I mean, we're all getting down to the point of of individual equipment identification and tracking. I mean, that's the world that's that's coming. The idea of our dispatch center knowing exactly what kind of system is on the other side of this trouble call and matching that up to skills of the technician.
• 0:30
  That's That's another layer of complexity. We didn't, we didn't have that five years ago.
• 0:30
  Trevor: Yeah, but I've talked to lots of contractors though. They've ran into that over the decades too. It's like you get a bunch of technicians in and have these guys focus on supermarkets. So they're really good at supermarkets.
• 0:30
  And you have these guys that work on chillers. They're just really good at chillers. And then these guys on package units. But then all of a sudden you get a call. But all those guys are busy and you need to get the package unit to go work on a rack. And it just doesn't work. Yeah, and
• 0:31
  And you have these guys that work on chillers. They're just really good at chillers. And then these guys on package units. But then all of a sudden you get a call. But all those guys are busy and you need to get the package unit to go work on a rack. And it just doesn't work. Yeah, and
• 0:31
  Jim: does the dispatcher know?
• 0:31
  Because because somebody may know, but but it doesn't work fast, which it needs to work fast. It doesn't work fast unless it's automated and systematized. And that's what we're working on at the outcome group is making sure that intelligent dispatch is a big part of what we do because I hear it way too much.
• 0:31
  We sent the wrong guy. You sent the wrong guy or the customer. The guy you sent Didn't know the system like yeah,
• 0:31
  Trevor: and I think that's that comes with training and development and knowing your clients and knowing your cousin But that comes in time right because I hear from other business owners saying like they come in for an interview And it's a really great resume but you send them out to a call and they can't fix the problems that they said that they could fix and then it's the Kind of like it's hard for you guys.
• 0:31
  I had a few people ask me and build a test For any guy that comes in and I'm working on one right now So and if you're hiring someone you give them this and it'll give them kind of a knowledge base And then you just have to send them up to the hands on portion to do that So you can judge as a business business be like are you ready to go into a co2 rack?
• 0:32
  I had a few people ask me and build a test For any guy that comes in and I'm working on one right now So and if you're hiring someone you give them this and it'll give them kind of a knowledge base And then you just have to send them up to the hands on portion to do that So you can judge as a business business be like are you ready to go into a co2 rack?
• 0:32
  Or are you ready just to go to Pat like? What food service I guess
• 0:32
  Jim: has has Faye shared with you his interest exam I'll, I'll, I'll force it. You gotta, you should look, you should look at his entrance exam because he's got a really good exam for just, just before you come to class. He needs to know where you are.
• 0:32
  And so it's not long. It's not a big deal. And, and guys, they squirm a little bit, but, but
• 0:32
  Trevor: this is for people you're hiring. So before they even get in on your team, I know we do some of that too. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I, I'd love to see, you're
• 0:32
  Jim: right. That's different.
• 0:32
  Trevor: I'd love to see Jason, because he's a great guy.
• 0:32
  He is the best. He loves sharing. He cares about the industry. He cares about uplifting the technicians and
• 0:32
  Jim: yeah, it's the answer. He started to talk about retirement. We gotta, we gotta stop that somehow. We gotta, we gotta make that not happen. I love it. I love it.
• 0:32
  Trevor: So Jim, how can people find out more about you, more about the Articom group if they want to get involved or learn more about you guys?
• 0:32
  Jim: Well we're pretty, we're pretty much everywhere now. So, so call your local office. You know, the, what the website will tell you who we are. You know, in brief, as you well know, we're a North American mechanical services company. We're about 85 percent supermarket refrigeration. It's about split 50 50 construction and service.
• 0:33
  Jim: Well we're pretty, we're pretty much everywhere now. So, so call your local office. You know, the, what the website will tell you who we are. You know, in brief, as you well know, we're a North American mechanical services company. We're about 85 percent supermarket refrigeration. It's about split 50 50 construction and service.
• 0:33
  We've got 2500 people, about 2000 technicians. Yeah. all running and working off the same operating platform. And so all of our companies speak the same language, are using the same tools, are working the same way. We the companies as acquired, we typically let them keep their, their name. And because we figured out in the B2B world, it doesn't matter.
• 0:33
  I don't need to rename you when I acquire you to be part of the Archicom group, hence the name group. And so we are a a collection of top tier mechanical service companies. across North America and Canada. As you know, 20 percent of our our revenue is from your native country. And so we're very, we're deeply committed to continuing to, to grow the Canadian footprint along with our footprint here in the U.
• 0:33
  S. About 20 percent of our revenue is in the HVAC services world. So, chiller services, straight stick, mechanical, like, like the language most of this hall is talking. And so, we're very inquisitive in that area. We'll continue to grow in the mechanical service world. Call it HVAC, commercial HVAC, but we're primarily focused on finishing the map in the supermarket refrigeration world.
• 0:34
  S. About 20 percent of our revenue is in the HVAC services world. So, chiller services, straight stick, mechanical, like, like the language most of this hall is talking. And so, we're very inquisitive in that area. We'll continue to grow in the mechanical service world. Call it HVAC, commercial HVAC, but we're primarily focused on finishing the map in the supermarket refrigeration world.
• 0:34
  And so we'll continue to build and grow through acquisition. We've hard started in a number of markets. Florida, we hard started in Florida this year. And so we've got, we've got three offices now in Florida and we just couldn't find an acquisition that worked for us. And so we just moved in. Customers were.
• 0:34
  asking us to come here. And so we said, let's just go to Florida. So we're in Florida. We're moving. We're hard starting in the Carolinas currently. And so we're moving into the call it the Charlotte triangle there. We're moving in there and starting to take on construction and service jobs there. So just continue to build and grow.
• 0:34
  But if someone is interested in anything to do with the company call our offices. We're, we're, we're, we're sitting there. There's hello at Arctic on group dot com. There you go.
• 0:35
  But if someone is interested in anything to do with the company call our offices. We're, we're, we're, we're sitting there. There's hello at Arctic on group dot com. There you go.
• 0:35
  Trevor: I love it, Jim. Thank you so
• 0:35
  Jim: much, Trevor. Good to talk to you again.