The History of Butcher Air Conditioning
Every family business starts somewhere. Ours started on the streets of Lafayette, before most homes even had air conditioning, and it’s been growing alongside this community ever since.
Four Generations, One Set of Values
The numbers tell part of the story. The people behind them tell the rest.
Starting Out
The Butcher name has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the 1930s. Like so many others of their generation, Lawrence and his two younger brothers, Edwin and Jerry, left the farm after service in World War I and opened Dixie Electric. They worked on cars, 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 other appliances, especially washing machines, throughout Acadiana. As a sideline, they began offering refrigeration equipment, mainly commercial-size freezers and ice machines.
Continuing to Grow
The business prospered. The brothers changed their company name to Butcher Brothers in the 1930s, eventually opening three additional appliance stores under that name in Crowley, Opelousas, and Lake Charles. As the business grew, the brothers increasingly specialized. Jerry was into electronics, an early advocate of radio, and one of the first in the area to offer television. Edwin specialized in the appliance side of the business, and Lawrence specialized in refrigeration and air conditioning.
Lawrence was an outstanding salesman and technical man. He sold some of the first refrigeration systems between New Orleans and Houston, including several ice-producing plants and some of the first home refrigerators. When air conditioning first arrived in the 1930s, Lawrence was again ahead of the pack. The first unit was sold to the Antlers Pool Hall. The next units went to Maurice Heymann for his drug store, and later his department store. From there, it moved steadily up and down Jefferson Street.
Air Conditioning Becomes a Necessity
Lawrence retired in 1949. His brothers were eager to keep the highly profitable appliance side of the business, but without Lawrence's expertise, they weren't interested in the refrigeration side.
Instead of letting it die, Lawrence split that part of the business off between his sons, Tom, Warren, and Matt, forming the newly created Butcher Refrigeration. To house the new company, Lawrence built a modest building on the corner of East Third and Orange Streets, now North Evangeline Thruway, and rented it to them until they could buy it on their own.
In their first year of business, the brothers sold a total of 15 air conditioners, with most of their work still centered on commercial refrigeration equipment. Butcher sold mainly window units at first, gradually moving into whole-house and commercial cooling and heating. With the arrival of the oil industry came good jobs, and people started building nicer homes. Air conditioning began shifting from a luxury to a necessity.
By 1953, Butcher Refrigeration had sold over 300 units. General Electric approached the brothers about becoming a distributor, and the business started to grow in earnest. As air conditioning increasingly dominated the brothers' business, the company changed its name again in 1955 to Butcher Air Conditioning.
Building a Legacy
By 1981, the business had grown to the point of selling 5,000 units a year. A third generation of Butchers came on board when Tom's son, Bobby, graduated from LSU with a degree in business and joined his father in the company.
In 1990, Trane approached Butcher Air Conditioning about taking over its New Orleans and Southern Mississippi wholesale distribution territories, a large undertaking that would have tripled Butcher's dealer base if accepted. To help manage the transition, Tom called on his youngest son, John, to head the new division. Tom spun off the company's small distribution arm to create a new company, Butcher Distributors Inc.
Expanding Across Acadiana
Butcher Air Conditioning and Butcher Distributors continued to grow through the 2000s. The company grew to over 100 employees and 75 trucks on the road, and Butcher Air Conditioning became the largest Trane dealer in Louisiana, servicing over 21,000 calls a year across Acadiana.
Butcher Distributors expanded its warehouse operations to Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Mandeville, and Gulfport, earning recognition as one of Trane's top distributors along the way, including the Pacesetter Award in 2006, 2009, and 2014, an honor given to only three distributors nationwide.
Science-Backed Problem Solving
As Butcher Air Conditioning grew across Acadiana, the family kept running into the same problem on service calls: mold, moisture, and comfort issues that a new HVAC system alone couldn't fix. Rather than treat the symptoms, the family decided to address the root cause and launched Butcher Insulation in 2009, operating out of the same Lafayette location under a new name.
The new division started with a single rig and the same building-science approach that had always guided the family's HVAC work, diagnosing why a home or building wasn't performing before recommending a fix. Since then, our operation has grown, and the team has taken that same philosophy into homes, pole barns, and businesses throughout Acadiana.
A New Generation Carries the Torch
Tom "Pops" Butcher passed away in 2020, but his presence is still felt at Butcher Air Conditioning, including in the commercials he became known for, which the company has kept on the air by popular request.
Since taking over after 2020, the current generation of Butcher family leadership has continued building on what began nearly a century ago, earning Trane Flagship Dealer status, a distinction held by fewer than 15 dealers nationwide. You'll still spot the company's restored 1951 truck around town from time to time, a small nod to where it all started. The goal now is the same as it's always been: run the business the right way, and keep it in the family for another 77 years.
A Legacy We’re Still Building
We’ve spent 77 years earning Acadiana’s trust, one home, one honest job, at a time. If you’re ready to see what that kind of experience actually looks like, we’d love the chance to show you.
Reach out today for a free estimate, a repair, or just a conversation with a team that’s been part of this community since before most HVAC companies existed.
