BUDA — After serving in the Air Force for six years, Aaron Mudry knew that he wanted to help the local heroes in the community when he opened the Buda franchise location of One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning.
For decades, the company has been providing “quality and reliable HVAC services to homeowners across the country,” according to its website, with the main priority of ensuring that every customer receives honest work and an excellent experience.
One Hour has nearly 400 franchise locations across the U.S., which now includes a location in Buda. Mudry explained that they chose Buda because it was centrally located off IH-35, right in the heart of the service territory, but when looking at a map, the jurisdiction is vast, from Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Buda, Kyle and San Marcos to Manchaca, Lockhart, Johnson City, Blanco and parts of New Braunfels.
“Hays County, it's where I live. I live in Dripping [Springs]. I know that it's growing. It's a great community. I think we're becoming locally involved and building local connections,” said Mudry. “Dripping and Kyle, they still maintain their local roots in a lot of ways — the local fairs, the local events and the community functions. There’s a lot of community pride in these areas … This is a place that's underserved by some of the bigger companies, in our opinion, a lot of them operate up north and we thought there was an opportunity to come in to help provide great service in a community that we could actually jump right into and be part of.”
While air conditioning and heating businesses are not uncommon, Mudry explained that One Hour is a “great hybrid” of the best of both worlds, being part of a larger organization or company, but with the ability to run it as a small, locally-owned business. They also get to do the following: leverage the vendor relationships for pricing; regular training for technicians; existing marketing contacts; and satisfaction guarantee.
One component that is near and dear to Mudry is the Heroes Club, which is an opportunity to say "thank you" to the local heroes for what they do in the community, offering them reduced rates for their services. He also shared that Authority Brands, which One Hour is a member of, also offers discounts for veterans who are looking at buying into a franchise, which is about twice of what is offered elsewhere.
“It was created because Authority Brands is a company that really believes that veterans, first responders and those in the field deserve an opportunity for us to give back to them. They give a lot to us … They work hard at what they do. They sacrifice every day and I think it’s just a small token of appreciation that we could do,” Mudry said. “I appreciate it, being part of the military myself before I moved to Austin, because I know the sacrifice that the military [makes]. I know the people that are in there and so, I love the opportunity to help them. We’ve done a lot of promotion with that program, working with the VFW in Buda and Kyle and the other veterans associations. It's near and dear to me.”
Locally, there is some leeway on who can be part of the Heroes Club, so Mudry ensured that at his location, it included military service members, their spouses, veterans, first responders — firefighters, EMS and police — and teachers.
As the location recently held its ribbon cutting March 27, Mudry said that he is looking forward to continuing to be involved in getting more involved in the community’s events and sponsorships.
Learn more about One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning at www.onehourheatandair.com.
