41 Things You May Not Know About Ferrara’s!

Since 1982, Ferrara’s Heating & Air Conditioning has been striving to serve the HVAC needs of our community. Our founder, Sammy Ferrara, and his beautiful bride, Shirley—AKA, the “First Lady” of Ferrara’s, set out to do one thing and one thing only: Provide exceptional customer service and become the leading HVAC provider in Lufkin & Angelina County. By putting all of their blood, sweat, and tears into creating a people-pleasing company that would continue on through generations to come. 

In honor of celebrating our 41st anniversary, here are 41 things you may not know about Ferrara’s! 

1. At 20 years old, Sammy Ferrara attended Temple Junior College where he completed a heating and air conditioning class. He realized this occupation is what he would enjoy, thus setting his career path in motion. The rest? History!
2. In an effort to keep the company aligned with their morals, the Ferrara’s made sure that Jesus always remained the center of their personal and professional life, and would tell any and everyone they could about their faith. 
3. Ferrara’s Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. was established by Sammy and Shirley Ferrara on May 1, 1982, with the purpose of being a full-service air conditioning contractor for the HVAC industry. 
4. Beginning as just a small company with 2 employees, (the founder and CEO, and of course, his leading lady) we now have 60+ employees, spread across multiple locations. 
5. Among those 60+ employees, our team has over 500 years of combined HVAC experience!
6. In 2011, Sammy passed the torch (no pun intended) on to his eldest son, Brannon Ferrara, and the new leading lady, Kelly!
7. Brannon and Kelly met in French class when they were in high school—a true high school sweetheart love story!
8. When Brannon isn’t cutting sheet metal or talking about the latest HVAC features, he cooks a mean pork butt and absolutely loves BBQ competitions! The members of our community get to witness his passion firsthand at our Alzheimers Fundraiser each year. He’s even won several awards! BBQ, BBQ for everyone!
9. Although we’re widely known for being an HVAC company, we actually have 4 divisions of the company to best serve any and all of our consumers’ needs! Those 4 divisions include residential, commercial service, commercial new construction, and mechanical controls.  
10. When it comes to sheet metal fabrication, you could say we have all of our ducts in a row! We have a 10,700 sqft in-house sheet metal facility where we make all of our own sheet metal for each and every job we perform. 
11. In December of 2021, we were excited to announce the acquisition of Pax-Sun Heating & Cooling. Pax-Sun + Ferrara’s = An unstoppable force!
12. Out of our humble beginnings in Sammy’s garage, we now have 3 locations spread across Lufkin and Nacogdoches!
13. We are proud to be Trane Comfort Specialists as well as a Trane dealer, offering a wide variety of Trane products. After all, It’s Hard To Stop A Trane!
14. Our General Manager, Jake Squiers, or as we like to call him, Jake From Ferrara’s, is the man who keeps the ball rolling around here! If you visit our Lufkin location, you can see several pieces of furniture he’s created through his love for woodworking.
15. Our Trane Comfort Specialists install, repair, and maintain heating and cooling systems, air cleaners, and thermostats for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. 
16. Our mechanical controls group ensures superb climate control in East Texas’ education and healthcare facilities.
17. We’ve been blessed with wonderful support from the community over the decades, and it’s important to us that we give back. We frequently host or sponsor fundraisers, picnics, and other events open to the public. 
18. As Lufkin Natives, we LOVE Lufkin! Are we a little partial? Eh—that’s up for debate. As a way to show our love for our amazing hometown, Ferrara’s is a proud member of the Lufkin Angelina County Chamber of Commerce and has been a member for 22 years! 
19. Another way we show our love is through the Lions Club! We’ve been members for years and will continue to support them in all that they do! 
20. What’s better than one Chamber membership, you ask? Well… TWO of course! In 2022 we had the privilege of joining the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce!
21. Also in 2022, we celebrated our 40th anniversary by hosting a Cheers With The Chamber event at our Lufkin location. We had a wonderful time celebrating with the members of our community.
22. For 17 consecutive years, Ferrara’s has won the Trane Top Gun Award. This honor is presented to Hunton Distribution’s top ten dealers in recognition of achieving the highest level of Trane equipment sales, both in retail and residential new construction.
23. As many of you know, the Alzheimer’s Association holds a special place in our hearts here at Ferrara’s. Each year we show our support by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in honor of a very special lady, Mrs. Shirley Ferrara—who together founded our company alongside Sammy Ferrara.
24. At Ferrara’s, we’re big believers in letting our employees and their families know just how much we appreciate them. This year, we celebrated with the wives of all of our technicians to just say “THANK YOU” for the contribution their spouses have made and continue to make to our company. Between Charcuterie board classes and other various community-focused events, we hope they know how much they are loved. We couldn’t do it without them! 
25. In February of 2023, we officially opened the doors on our Nacogdoches location! Located at 3415 NW Stallings Drive in Nacogdoches. We’re so excited to be a part of the Nacogdoches County community!
26. In December of 2022, we had the honor of being in the Lufkin Christmas Parade for the very first time! The theme was “Christmas on ice”, so in our true HVAC fashion, our Ferrara’s ladies dressed up as Mrs. Snow Mizer & Mrs. Heat Mizer—a fire and ice showdown for all to see! 
27. Thanks to our amazing in-house sheet metal fabrication team, we had a custom heating and cooling unit ON the Christmas float! Parade guests were surprised to feel a burst of warm air hit their faces on a cool winter night! 
28. Our 40th year was nothing short of a whirlwind! From kicking the year off with a brand new look, to being involved in over 20 community-wide events, the Ferrara’s Trane never stopped! (Pun intended this time)
29. We are always looking for great people to join our team! If you or someone you know is interested in beginning their career as an HVAC Technician, Dispatcher, CSR, or Office Manager, visit our Careers page and apply today! 
30. Across our entire company, our team members are very passionate about giving back to our community, becoming involved in various organizations such as Harold’s House, CASA, Angelina County Fair, Angelina County Go Texan, Crimestoppers, Angelina Beautiful Clean, Lufkin/Angelina County Diplomats, Junior Achievement, Chamber First, Leadership Nacogdoches, Phillips & Due Foundation, Shriners, and The Lufkin Education Foundation. We’re so proud of our team members who find it important to be involved! 
31. Kelly, our leading lady, is an Executive Board Member on the CASA Of The Pines board, right here in Lufkin. Kelly’s passion for children and children’s rights keep her going, and make her an excellent CASA advocate. 
32. One of the BIGGEST things that most people don’t know about Ferrara’s, is how to pronounce our name! Fer-Are-Uh’s is the correct pronunciation, but we sure get a laugh out of all of the other ways we’ve heard it said! 
33. Over the past three years, we have raised over $20,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association! An organization that is very near and dear to our hearts because of our sweet Shirley Ferrara. We miss her daily, but we are so honored to raise money for this organization in her name.
34. You may have noticed our little HVAC Technician that hangs out with our logo every day, but did you know that he has a name? Frankie Ferrara, at your service! 
35. Brannon and Kelly Ferrara have 2 daughters, Kristen and Brittany. If you know the Ferrara family, you know that Kristen, their oldest daughter, is an EXACT replica of Kelly, and Brittany looks just like Brannon. We think it’s funny, considering their initials start with the same letter. Kelly & Kristen, Brannon & Brittany: Two sets of TWINS!
36. John Marshall, our Commercial Service Manager, is often referred to as “John Ferrara” because he is so well known amongst our service customers. He has been with the company for 38 years and people just assume that he’s a part of the family! John, if you’re reading this, we’ll claim you! 
37. Sammy and Shirley Ferrara had 3 children, Brannon, Kevin, and Renae.
38. Over one third of our team members have been with us for 10+ years! We’re so thankful for all of our seasoned members and their dedication to Ferrara’s. 
39. Like father, like son! Sammy and Brannon both have an undying love for motorcycles, sparking from Brannon racing bikes when he was just a youngin’!
40. Our sweetest most cuddly team member actually found his way into our warehouse during the winter and we just couldn’t stand to let him stay out in the cold, right? Our OTHER Frankie Ferrara is a gorgeous tabby—our shop cat. Let’s just say once Kelly got involved, he’s not very much of a shop cat anymore. The royal treatment or no treatment, that’s how much we love our Frankie!
41. In honor of Ferrara’s 41st Birthday this year, our final Ferrara Fact is just a big THANK YOU to our customers, and everyone who has supported our business. From Sammy’s garage, to now 4 locations in 2 cities, we cannot say thank you enough.