GRAFTON – K Komfort Heating & Cooling prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary this week, but a high school band adds a twist to its plans.
Grafton-based K Komfort invites its employees and their families to a Milwaukee Brewers game every summer for a day of tailgating and baseball games. It was originally expected to mark its exact anniversary on August 8. On the 29th, the company saw a unique opportunity to both celebrate the occasion early and help high school bands in need.
The Grafton High School Band was invited by the Brewers to play the national anthem ahead of August 8th. 18 games, but it still needs to sell more tickets if it wants to perform. Slava Krol, president and founding member of K Komfort, didn’t hesitate to save the situation.
“We reached out to the brewers and told them we would buy tickets to help them perform and make that happen,” Kroll said. “I’m biased because I have two daughters in the band, but we do buy a portion of the tickets and we go to hear the band play the national anthem. It’s fun and it’s great to help the kids.”
Since opening, Krol and K Komfort have been mainstays of the community. The company repairs and installs heating and cooling systems. In fact, it’s included in the company’s mission statement. When not dealing with a high volume of service requests, Ñ Krol estimates that in addition to various business inquiries, there are 150 calls per month on the residential side. Ñ K Komfort spends a lot of energy contributing to local causes.
K Komfort Bank In Grafton, Krol is past chairman of the Grafton Lions Club and is also active in the Grafton Chamber of Commerce. All of these efforts, and more, add up to 15 years of community trust and confidence.
“There is an opportunity to do business locally,” Kroll said. “We want to be trusted, and Ozaukee County isn’t very big, so there’s only one way to treat your customers, and that’s to make them trusted. If you’re not trustworthy in a community like this, you don’t live long.”
Since its establishment in 2007, K Komfort has grown to 50 employees. One of the most significant hurdles to overcome after opening, Krol noted, was the Great Recession of 2008, which destroyed many businesses. Krol and his family have not paid their own bills for an extended period of time, and ensuring the well-being of the business and its employees has always been a top priority.
“We’re trying to build a company at a time when a lot of businesses are failing, so we’re swimming upstream for a while,” Kroll said. “But we have this dream and we know we need to get over it to survive.
“The biggest reward is looking back and seeing everything we’ve done and knowing that you’re supporting 50 families with stable incomes.”
The coronavirus pandemic has created more challenges for K Komfort, but Krol and his team are doing their best to overcome this new hurdle. K Komfort has had to address common issues such as rising supply costs, but other issues are evolving.
“We’re still trying to get back to normal,” Kroll said. “We’re not just dealing with residential, we’re dealing with a large multifamily rebuild, and the area is really hurting right now because of the uncertainty in the lending market. That’s a challenge that will ultimately affect us.”
Krol hopes to one day see K Komfort do more out of state, but without sacrificing the lasting relationships the company has built. Krol is ramping up mentoring and training efforts to develop stronger leaders within K Komfort who can eventually lead on larger projects.
Looking back on where the company is now and where it’s heading in the future, Krol is both grateful for the community’s support and eager to see how the development of K Komfort continues to unfold.
“For us, it’s not just about making money. It’s our livelihood,” Kroll said. “We have a lot of recurring partners who keep coming back to us, even though we might be a little more expensive, they know we’ll be there if they need us. We’re always trying to find a way to help people. We’re always there. It’s about trying harder.”
K Komfort is located at 1201 6th Avenue in Grafton. Their phone number is 262-375-0075.