DOWN TO BUSINESS

Brandon Delfino and Chris McNelly met at Lake Forest High School and have been friends ever since. The two graduated from the University of Iowa a year apart. Delfino went into business for himself while McNelly worked for a freight brokerage company and learned the ins and outs of customer service. In 2015, they decided to team up and start their own company.

Delfino and McNelly’s first business venture was so successful that it reached a point it needed to relocate to Texas to continue.

“Both of us have families in the area and we didn’t want to move,” McNelly says, explaining that the duo decided to sell their share of the company and took the following year to decide what would come next.

“The riskiest period for a business is generally the very beginning,” Delfino says. “When we got advice about launching another company, people told us not to start from scratch. They recommended buying an existing business that has cash flow, a customer base, and reputation—all the things that take 50 years to build.”

Delfino explains that many business schools today are teaching “ETA”—entrepreneurship through acquisition. After evaluating several industries, and vetting 30 to 40 local businesses, Delfino and McNelly cold-called Dennis Cahill and Paul Maxwell—owners of Cahill—and asked them if they had any thoughts about the next chapter of their company. For more than five decades, Cahill has provided quality heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing, and sewer services to North Shore homes and businesses.

“There are a lot of private equity firms consolidating the trades, and we saw that as an opportunity,” Delfino says. “Local ownership with an indefinite timeline is a win-win for both customers and employees. We can’t sacrifice quality or our reputation in the pursuit of a quick buck.” From a business perspective, Delfino and McNelly really liked the heating and cooling industry, specifically. If a furnace goes out, the client needs to replace it. That’s why private equity businesses like it, too. But Delfino and McNelly used the fact that they were local to the community—knowing many of the clients on Cahill’s customer list—to their advantage.

“After you’ve spent your whole life building a business, who would you rather sell it to?” Delfino asks. “To two local guys who want to run it honestly the way you have, or some firm from New York who will squeeze as much money from it so they can and sell it to the next guy? When these big investment firms come in and buy companies like Cahill, they turn their tradesmen into salesmen. That’s their model and it doesn’t work. It’s not what’s best for the customer.”

Delfino and McNelly signed the papers to acquire Cahill in June 2023 and have tripled the size of the business since they took over.

“There have been a lot of sleepless nights,” McNelly says. “We’ve done every job in this business since we took over—answered lots of phone calls. I deal mostly with the day-to-day operations, making sure our guys have what they need before they leave for the day. Brandon handles more of the back-office stuff that positions us strategically in the market.”

One of Delfino’s biggest tasks is helping clients understand that even though Cahill is based in Lake Bluff, it doesn’t mean that their company is more expensive. “Here’s the massive misconception in the industry. People believe that if you hire the one-man shop, the guy working out of his truck, you’ll get better pricing. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Delfino says. “The number one expense in this industry is equipment. And with our scale, we pay about half for a furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump than what a single proprietor does.

“We cost, on average, 20 percent less than our competitors. That’s a big number. We pass some of that savings on to you. With the rest of it, we’re able to do 24-7 service. We stock all parts on site in our warehouse, and we are constantly training our employees. Our goal is to grow organically by telling the story of why we’re the logical choice.”

Delfino and McNelly believe that because they live in the community, that’s an advantage when it comes to how they run Cahill.

“We’re locally owned and operated and we have no intention of selling this business,” Delfino says. “This impacts every decision we make every day. We want to serve this community. That’s it. If we serve the community well, in the long run, we will profit.”

To McNelly, his belief in the posterity of Cahill is even more simple.

“I grew up in this community and this community has been good to me,” he says. “I now have the chance to be good to it. I want my 1-year-old to take over this company someday. That’s the dream.”

To learn more about Cahill, visit cahillheating.com.