Appliance Doctor Company History
The year 2014 marked Appliance Doctor’s 50th year in business! We celebrate this amazing milestone.
In 1964, our founder, Paul W. Guckin started Guckin’s Washer Service. A small washer and dryer repair service based in Mayfair, Northeast Philadelphia. Paul worked tirelessly literally 7 days a week for the next 20 years. Throughout these years, Paul had many different reconditioned washer and dryer stores in the city. He sold the best darn reconditioned appliances. He offered an unheard of 2-year guarantee on his machines. He was convinced that his machines were done right. Everything he did was based on quality first.
In 1980, Paul renamed Guckin’s Washer service to The Washer Doctor. The name change happened after Paul’s 5 year old son, Eric, asked if dad was a “washer doctor” since he fixed sick washers. In 1985, Paul opened a massive reconditioned appliance store on Bristol Pike in Croydon, Pa. By then, he had trained on dishwashers, ranges, ovens, and refrigeration equipment.
By 1987, Paul changed the company name once again, to Appliance Doctor. A name that better represented the service we offered. Our company had since expanded to Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Camden County, NJ. By the end of 1988, Appliance Doctor had registered $1 million in annual revenue. Our company had experienced aggressive growth for the next several years. The Croydon store was subsequently closed to focus strictly on the service business. In 1990, revenue approached $2 million. In June of 1990, The US government announced our country was in a recession. Due to the economic recession, the Gulf War, and other mitigating factors, business began to decline. Paul spent the next 6 years running the business as lean as possible. By September 1997, Paul came to a decision. He decided that after 33 years in the business, it was time for him to step aside and enjoy life a bit. Paul’s sons Joe, Paul, Eric, and Scott had all been in the business as technicians for some time. It was decided that the company would be spun off into 2 separate entities. Eric controlled the southern territory while Scott controlled the northern territory. Eric incorporated the name Appliance Doctor, Inc. on August 4, 1998. After a short time, Eric and Scott merged the 2 companies in order to share resources and lower costs. Eric became our company president. In 1998, Appliance Doctor acquired a small firm out of Willingboro, NJ named Associated Appliance Service.
1999 was a big year for our company. We moved into a 5,000 square foot facility to prepare for another aggressive expansion effort. We acquired Anthony’s Appliance Service from Northeast Philadelphia and increased revenue 214% from 1998.
By the start of the 21st century, we were back on track after the recession of 1990 had really taken a toll on the business. 2001 was the year that revenues climbed back above $1 million. It was also the year that we acquired Father & Son Appliance Service from Bensalem, Pa.
In 2002, we continued our expansion to the State of Delaware. Our service area now included a population of more than 7 million people. In 2004, we moved to an executive office suite located on State Road in Bensalem. Annual revenue approached $1.7 million in 2004.
In 2005, Eric sold the Delaware division to his brother Paul. Paul, Jr. formed a new LLC for his division. Appliance Doctor of Delaware, LLC is wholly owned by Paul, Jr. and has no affiliation to Appliance Doctor, Inc. in Pennsylvania.
In 2006, Eric added the position of Managing Director to assist expansion efforts into the residential and commercial HVAC/R industry. By April 2007 after more than 12 months of preparation, we hired our first HVAC/R technician and began offering repair services on all types of heating and air conditioning equipment. At the end of 2007, Appliance Doctor had officially, for the first time in company history, reached $2 million in total revenue. We employed a total of 28 people at this time.
In 2009, our country’s economy had all but collapsed. We were literally in the middle of the worst financial crisis that many of us have ever witnessed. We made the extremely difficult decision to close our new HVAC/R division after only 18 months due to economic factors. Focusing on our core refrigeration and appliance repair business was deemed the most important thing during these most difficult times.
Fortunately, this decision was made early enough to maintain our stability during a very unstable time for our country.
2012 proved to be the toughest year in our company’s history. On January 17, 2012, our incredibly talented refrigeration technician, Charles Tolbert, passed away. He suffered complications from an organ transplant. He was expected to make a full recovery and return to work. This was shocking and extremely difficult for all of us to bear. We mourn his loss and will remember him as a unique and very dedicated person. He provided unparalleled service to our customers and represented our company with expertise and professionalism each and every day.
We miss you “Junior”.
In January 2013, we moved into a brand new facility. After more than 9 years at our State Rd location, we purchased a commercial property and customized it for our needs. We added brand new offices, indoor space for fleet inventory management, dedicated space for training, private parking for our fleet, and now offer drop off service for our customers. We designed this space for the comfort of our employees as well as for energy efficiency.
2014: 50 Years in Business!