When you’ve been in business for more than 50 years, it takes more than a little fire to slow you down.
This is the case for Snyder’s Heating and Cooling in Platte City, which reopened earlier this year after their building was destroyed by a fire last summer. The family-owned business occupied its current location at 610 Second Street since the early 90s, but a lightning strike during a thunderstorm in June 2017 sparked off a fire that destroyed their building.
“We had been working on plans to give people easier access to the building, but this wasn’t quite the way we had in mind,” said Dean Snyder, current manager of the family business. “It worked out, though. We had the opportunity to put in some things we wanted.”
It took nearly a year to rebuild, while operating from a leased space in Platte City. In April, the new expanded headquarters opened in the same familiar spot on Second Street. The complete rebuild features a new office area, higher ceilings and room to grow.
Growth is something the company has been doing since its inception. Ken Snyder — Dean’s father — purchased Wade’s Heating and Cooling on Platte City’s Main Street in 1966. The business moved to First Street in Platte City for a while, then to Tracy, but came back to Platte City around 1992. In 1993, Ken Snyder retired and Dean took over. Now, his son also works in the family business and his mother Joyce still works in the office.
“It’s different working with your family, but it helps to have people at your back,” Dean Snyder said. “Since I’ve always been here it doesn’t seem odd to me, but when I tell people I work with my family they’re surprised.”
Of their eight-employee staff, three family members still work at Snyder’s, handling plumbing, heating and cooling needs around the Northland. With seven trucks on the road, Snyder’s handles mostly residential and light construction work, with much of their business focused on retrofitting and renovations.
Dean Snyder said about 70 percent of their business involves heating and cooling work, installing, servicing and maintaining York and Lennox systems. The remainder is plumbing work, an area of service he said he wants to expand.
The Northland has grown substantially since 1966, with Dean Snyder saying that even 30 years ago most of their business was in rural areas. More and more of the Northland, in both Platte and Clay counties, has evolved into suburbs over the last few decades. Snyder’s fleet of seven trucks will travel to North Kansas City and Riverside to Holt and Faucett and anywhere in between.
Snyder’s is online at snydersphc.com and offers additional services including duct cleaning and emergency repair services.