Episode 172: The Journey From Apprentice to President of a 100MM+ Home Services Company, Pt. 1

How does an HVAC Apprentice turn into President of a 100+MM trades organization in under two decades? For that, we welcome Jonathan Bancroft, President of Morris-Jenkins to To The Point to tell his incredible journey through the trades.

Jonathan is Mr. Jenkins’ right-hand man, and has been with Morris-Jenkins since January 11th, 1999. He’s grown up in this industry, and has watched the organization grow by a multiplier of almost 40 since then. To find out how, you’ll have to listen to the episode!

Growth, Leaning, and Change

Jonathan’s story will be familiar to many. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an architect, but that didn’t take. Finding himself in a cycle of paying for school while working, his personal debt climbed and he was looking for a way forward. Fortunately, fate found Jonathan at the doorsteps of Morris-Jenkins in late 1988.

At that time, Morris-Jenkins was at 3.5MM and had 42 employees. Jonathan started out as an Apprentice cleaning evaporator coils, and learned the ropes with ride-alongs. It was a rough start, but he stuck with it. He moved up through the ranks, becoming a technician, then joined sales, and continued to climb rung after rung.

• Going from Apprentice to President
• Morris-Jenkins going from 5MM to 100MM+
• Being an introvert and learning sales
• Systems put in place to grow exponentially
• Jonathan’s book, Mr. Jenkins Told Me
• Succession planning
• Marrying the boss’ daughter
• Solving the labor problem
• Joining Nexstar
• M&A and taking things to the next level
• Expansion plans
• And more!

By 2000, Morris-Jenkins had just about reached 5MM in revenue. After implementing solid systems and processes, the 08-09 time saw the company at 22MM. By 2014, Jonathan had become the President of Morris-Jenkins, and the growth has continued onwards from there!

Growth Never Stops

In 2021, Morris-Jenkins hit 100MM in revenue as a family-owned, single-location trades company serving a 40-mile radius in Charlotte. At the end of 2021, they had a great M&A experience and found a home with the Wrench Group, which has helped the organization position itself for further growth and expansion into new markets and even greater heights.

Jonathan and his team are going to spread the Morris-Jenkins name throughout the Carolinas. Join us for part two of our conversation with Jonathan next week! Stay tuned!