Acclaimed HVAC Specialists and Industry Innovators

DMG Corporation/DMG North
Written by Jessica Ferlaino

Since 1967, DMG Corporation has been a leading regional independent sales agency for engineered HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) equipment. Representing HVAC systems and products that have been designed and customized to meet and exceed customer specific needs, it has become California and Northern Nevada’s first choice for HVAC systems and solutions.
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From its inception, DMG Corporation, which was established by Al Dokter, Don Miller and Bill Gebbie, set out to represent only the highest standards of HVAC products, bringing those to the Los Angeles market. Since that time, the company has continued to grow its offerings and its footprint across the west coast.

DMG Corporation is headquartered in Orange, California, along with DMG Parts which was established in 2005 to better support its customers with parts and service, as well as Sharpe Heating and Ventilation, a manufacturer of custom fan assemblies and dampers.

DMG Corporation also services San Diego and Imperial Counties from its San Diego office; Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties from its Santa Barbara office; the greater central San Joaquin Valley region from its Harlan Central Valley office; and Hawaii and Guam from its Hawaii office.

In order to better serve its customers in Northern California, DMG North was established in 1988 and operates out of offices in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento and Reno, Nevada. Each of the DMG offices is strategically located to satisfy growing demand for its products.

“DMG, Dokter, Miller and Gebbie, when they opened up their first office, they serviced all of California from the Los Angeles area. As that sales office grew and their reach grew, it became more important for them to have local representation so that they could service the customers in person,” explained Joe Pipitone, president of DMG North.

The company specializes in custom and semi-custom air handlers, direct and indirect evaporative cooling, centrifugal and axial fans, laboratory exhaust systems, as well as a range of other related HVAC equipment. It also maintains an extensive parts and service catalog for products from a long list of manufacturers.

Pipitone highlighted LG’s emerging variable refrigerant flow (VFR) technologies as a major growth market for DMG over the last several years. This technological advancement has been met with great success, thanks in large part to the training and support offered. “We built out a whole training facility. We have taken a good piece of market share, from pretty small numbers up to reasonably top three in the industry. We’re pretty proud of that. We’re building upon the success and growth of the business in that sector by adding staff and expertise and field technicians from cradle to grave,” said Pipitone.

DMG North has grown from the same commitment and principles of DMG Corporation. By establishing additional offices and conducting business face-to-face, it has been able to build a rapport and trust with its customers. Indeed, DMG takes pride in working closely with its customers, which include consulting engineers, contractors, developers, owners, and facility engineers, assisting them with the design, selection and installation of HVAC equipment of the highest quality and supporting those customers with service and parts after the sale.

Being a partner to its customers is a source of pride for DMG. Pipitone cited an example of the lengths to which DMG will go to meet the needs of its customers and demonstrate the quality of its offerings. For one customer, a pilot installation was developed in order for the customer to test equipment and interact with.

“We executed flawlessly and made it easy for them to do business with us,” said Pipitone. “That was three to four years ago and at this point, campus-wide, this client has standardized on this product. That was a huge win for us. This customer ended up changing the entire campus standard and there are thousands of these on site that they will be switching over little by little.”

DMG goes the distance for customers thanks to its well-trained and highly professional team of employees, which includes sales professionals, engineers and technical support assistants who bring a breadth of expertise and experience. A strong mentorship program and training efforts reinforce DMG’s reputation in this regard.

Pipitone believes that DMG is differentiated by, “our innovation and the fact that we try to stay ahead of the new and emerging technology in our field.” This is achieved through, “research and participating in social and educational seminars that the HVAC industry has to offer – between print, actual meetings, and webinars, seminars and other opportunities.”

At DMG, great care is taken in selecting product and equipment, as well as the manufacturers it chooses to work with, and these efforts are supported by the company’s focus on continuing education. The team works hard to develop the expansive knowledge and expertise contained within its ranks. For DMG, it’s not about selling a product; it’s about knowing the products being sold to deliver complete solutions.

“Besides carefully selecting the products we work with, we only want to represent the best of the products that are out there of the highest quality. We also spend a lot of time training our sales staff and even our service staff. We’re not actual contractors but we have technicians that are almost like quality assurance technicians,” explained Pipitone of the company’s end-to-end service.

“We advise the customers as early as we can on dimensions and weight and making sure it’s going to fit – and if it fits, that it’s going to serve their purpose. If it’s the right voltage, if it’s the right size, if it’s the right capacity: many of the features are customizable so we want to make sure that the customers know what they are getting early on in the process. It’s part of our QA.”

DMG Corporation, as well as DMG North, has experienced significant growth, and as it grows it endeavors to maintain and enhance the quality of its service, which means bolstering infrastructure, creating new positions and leveraging talent to be able to deliver in accordance with its customers’ needs. “Growth has been carefully moving along,” said Pipitone. “We don’t want to grow too fast so we try to temper that growth with smart moves to address different areas of concern and try to give our employees a fun place – a safe place – to work, that has good features and benefits for them to grow with us as well.”

DMG Corporation, including DMG North, while sustaining this growth, continues to identify new opportunities to build on its product offerings and further integrate vertically to support future expansion. Efforts are also being made to plan for attrition as the team looks to establish a legacy for generations to come.

“The plan for the company is to continue to grow and prosper, and we’ve got a lot of people involved in this operation. Our contractors, our customers, they rely on us to continue to be viable and to continue to grow and show them new innovations,” said Pipitone. And in doing so, “we can keep DMG Corporation and DMG North strong and viable.”

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