Our History

The Butcher name has come a long way since it's humble beginnings in the 1930s. Like so many other members of their generation, after service in WW1, Lawrence, and his two younger brothers, Edwin and Jerry left the farm and opened Dixie Electric.  They worked on cars, they sold batteries and did anything electrical.  When car radios came along, they were among the first in the area to offer service.  From there, it was a small step into the appliance business, selling home radios and soon other appliances, especially washing machines, throughout Acadiana. As a sideline, they began to offer refrigeration equipment-mainly commercial size freezers and ice machines.

Lawrence decided to retire in 1949.  His brothers were eager to keep the highly profitable appliance side of the business. But without Lawrence’s expertise, the brothers were not interested in the refrigeration business.  Instead of letting it die, Lawrence split that part of the business off between his sons: Tom, Warren and Matt into the newly created, Butcher Refrigeration. To house the new company, Lawrence built a modest building of their use on the corner of East Third and Orange Streets-now North Evangeline Thruway, and rented the building to them until they could buy it on their own.

The first year of business, they sold a total of 15 air conditioners.  Most of their business back then was installing commercial refrigeration equipment.  Butcher sold mainly window units at first and gradually ventured into the whole house and commercial cooling and heating. With the coming of the oil industry, came many good jobs.  People started to build nicer homes.  Air Conditioning began to move from a luxury to a necessity.  By 1953, Butcher Refridgeration sold over 300 units.  The brothers were approached by General Electric to become a distributor and the business started to grow.  Increasingly, air conditioners started to dominate the brother’s business, so in 1955, the company changed its name again to Butcher Air Conditioning.

Today, Butcher Air Conditioning and Butcher Distributors continue to grow.  With over 100 employees and 75 trucks on the road,  Butcher Air conditioning services over 21,000 calls a year in the Acadiana area, and is the biggest Trane dealer Louisiana.  Butcher Distribution now has warehouses in Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Mandeville and Gulfport.  Butcher Distributors is proud to have been recognized as one of their top distributors.  Butcher earned the Pacesetter Award in 2006, 2009, and 2014.  This award is given to only three distributors nationwide and establishes Butcher as a top tier performer in premium systems. Butcher expanded into the Insulation business in 2009. Butcher Air Conditioning continues with a fourth generation of Butchers expanding on the values that were instilled since the start.