By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 21, 2025 | A Gwinnett County company has achieved a significant goal: sales of $1 billion in the calendar year 2024.
That company is Mingledorff’s of Peachtree Corners, the heating, air conditioning and plumbing distributor in Georgia, Alabama, part of South Carolina, in the panhandle of Florida and southeastern Mississippi. Its headquarters is at 6675 Jones Mill Road, just off Peachtree Boulevard.
Bud Mingledorff, chairman of the board, says it was close: “We hit $1 billion in sales at 1:30 in the afternoon of December 31.”
Theo Stathakis, marketing manager, remembers: “We knew we were close to achieving that goal, so our sales team was pushing to get all the sales we could in that year.”
Sales in 2023 had ended at $847 million. Stathakis says: “We thought that the $1 billion in sales would arrive in 2025, but it surprised us that it came in 2024, but just barely.” Mingledorffs has 780 employees in its 41 locations.
Bud Mingledorff
Mingledorff’s was founded in Savannah in 1939 by Walter Lee Mingledorff, then a 25 year old Georgia Tech engineer. It was originally a franchised Carrier heating and cooling equipment installation contractor. It moved its operations to Atlanta in 1958, and to Gwinnett in 1985.
The company’s first job was to install an air conditioning system in Mindledorff’s father-in-law’s Savannah home. He was from Canada and didn’t like hot weather. His was the first air conditioner in Savannah. That original Carrier compressor was still operating when it was replaced in 1988, after 49 years of operation.
Before World War II came, Mingledorff bid on a government contract to build one minesweeper for the Navy, before there was a shipyard in Savannah. The firm, under the name of Savannah Machine and Foundry, constructed the shipyard, then built 25 minesweepers and four submarine rescue vessels. At their peak of production, the shipyard employed between 2,800-3,300 people.
When the war ended, Mingledorff became a direct distributor for Carrier Company in 1946. Since 1958, Mingledorffs has concentrated on wholesale distribution and industrial accounts. Today it is a dealer for Carrier, Bryant, Totaline, Weathermaker, Heil and Bard equipment.
Meanwhile, Walter Lee Mingledorff became the youngest president of the Savannah Chamber of Commerce, then served for three terms as mayor of Savannah. He moved the company headquarters to Atlanta in 1958, but then lost a race for Chatham County commissioner. He died in 1965.
By 1959, the company had achieved sales of $2 million. In those days, it had nine employees. Bud Mingledorff, Walter’s son, says: “When I got out of the Army in 1970, we had grown to $12.5 million in sales. I never expected that I would live long enough to see us grow to $1 billion in sales.”
He adds: “Our mission has always been to remain the same: to equip our heating and air conditioning wholesale customers, the companies that install our equipment, to be professionals and to succeed. Our top objective is to provide these dealers and contractors with the tools and equipment needed for continued success. So far, we have had 9,800 of our professional customers attend the dealer training sessions. That totals over 50,000 hours of professional training to make these people better at installing our equipment.” This training is in-person and online.
All the Mingledorff employees benefitted once the $1 billion in sales was reached. Bud Mingledorff recognized: “It wasn’t possible to get everyone together for a celebration, but we provided everyone with their choice of a significant gift from a catalog, allowing them a tangible recognition of something of value to them.”
Congratulations, Mingledorffs, for $1 billion in sales in one year!
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