A Look Inside: Benedict Sales & Service

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Three years ago, Benedict Refrigeration transitioned their business to Benedict Sales & Service. A mainstay in the Chippewa Valley for more than eight decades, Benedict has been providing refrigeration and cooling service and equipment to its customers.

“It’s where great-grandpa landed and we have been here ever since.”

For Tony and Luke Benedict they are proud to call themselves fourth-generation ‘refrigeration guys’.

“We were established in 1938 as a refrigeration company with my great-grandpa Sam, and that transitioned to my grandfather John, my dad Tim and now my brother Tony and I,” says Luke Benedict, Benedict Sales & Service, CEO/Owner.

“Anything that has to do with cooking or cooling we’ve got you covered.”

“So what we’re walking out into here is what we affectionately refer to as ‘candy land’ for our customers because if you look around we have a little bit of everything,” says Luke Benedict.

While the Benedict brothers love to show off their showroom, the company has faced obstacles through the years.

In October 2006, a fire destroyed their former home base in Altoona and while plans had already been in the works to move into a new building across the street, the fire did not deter the Benedict’s from moving forward with business as usual.

“That morning after the fire had been put out, Dad had a meeting with all the staff that was around and said, well we moved, we’re here. Some customers never knew we had a fire. All our trucks were all still on the road, we were still taking service calls,” Tony Benedict, Benedict Sales & Service President/Owner.

16 years later, Benedict Sales & Service continues to take service calls. In fact, serving more than 8500 customers across Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

“I hear comments all the time, I saw your van over here today, I saw your van here and as we’ve grown we have 30-40 vans just here in the Eau Claire area. We service what we sell and we take care if you buy it from us we will help you if there’s a problem,” says Tony Benedict.

Not just a refrigeration company anymore, Benedict also specializes in HVAC, food service and beer and draft systems. When the Chippewa Valley welcomed Hy-Vee last year, the grocery store turned to Benedict for all their refrigeration and cooling needs.

Store Directory Brandon Hofelt says there’s 25-thousand square feet that need to be chilled.

“Having this much refrigeration from the coolers that are behind the scenes to where we keep all product in to the coolers that are out here on the sales floor, being able to keep that up and running is a big task. And when dealing with those guys they’re service team is incredible, they lead us through it, they show us what’s wrong. I’ve learned more about refrigeration at this store than I have at any of the six previous stores I’ve worked at,” says Hofelt.

“You take care of your customers, your staff and the rest just kind of falls into place,” says Tony Benedict.

“Our purpose statement is to even go the extra mile to connect business to family. And to us that’s a powerful statement internally and externally because if you’re working with Benedict, you are family,” says Luke Benedict.

Team Benedict was honored as the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year in 2021.

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