Lou Hobaica Joins Long List of Esteemed HVAC Pros in Contracting Business HVAC Hall of Fame

Early Foundations in HVACR

Hobaica’s family has long-standing roots in refrigeration and air conditioning. His grandparents immigrated from Syria and Lebanon in the 1920s, settling in Phoenix, Arizona. Years later, his father, Paul Hobaica, put aside career plans to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. After returning home, he attended Phoenix College through the GI Bill.

Though Paul Hobaica originally hoped to study electrical work, the program was full. Instead, a counselor steered him toward refrigeration — a new and growing field at the time. That decision set the stage for a multi-generational business legacy.

Building a Family Business

“After graduating, my father worked for a few refrigeration companies to cut his teeth and gain some experience,” Lou Hobaica recalls. “Then, in 1952, he opened Hobaica’s Refrigeration out of his garage. This was before air conditioning was even a thing. His work focused on dairy farms, restaurants, bars, and grocery stores. Once Phoenix began to grow, the desert heat created a huge demand for air conditioning. The business started to grow very quickly.”

Even back then, Paul Hobaica had trouble finding honest, ethical, and skilled employees. His solution? Start his own apprenticeship program with his wife by producing a bunch of kids.

“There were seven of us kids,” Hobaica says. “If we weren’t in school or playing sports, we were working. Weekends, nights, holidays, summers — we were working. At 18 years old, I was qualified enough to run my own service truck handling residential, commercial, and industrial air conditioning and refrigeration work.”

Hobaica remembers problem-solving on the job without today’s conveniences. “There were no cell phones back then. I didn’t even have a pager until the late 1980s. If I needed help, I’d find a payphone and call the office in hopes someone would be there to help. I always kept a few dollars’ worth of change on hand.”

Although he enjoyed working with his hands, Hobaica wasn’t certain he wanted to make HVAC his career. He briefly contemplated studying law in college to become an attorney — this lasted until he was called for jury duty during his junior year. He got frustrated during a jury deliberation on a trial, and decided it wasn’t so glamorous after all. Instead, he pivoted, deciding on a business management degree with a focus on finance and accounting.  

“In 1989, my brother Paul and I convinced our father to retire and let us buy him out,” Hobaica says. “We were two ambitious young men with bigger hopes and dreams beyond the eight-employee small company that did $800,000 top-line revenue a year. We really wanted to grow the business. We rebranded as Hobaica Services, and began expanding into plumbing, drain, sewer, electrical, security, and wine cellar services. We added a memorable tagline and jingle, ‘You’ll lika…Hobaica.’ By 2021, we had grown into a very profitable midsize multi-trade company of just under 50 employees.”

The Next Chapter in HVAC Leadership

In May 2021, Hobaica sold the company to The Champions Group, a private equity firm. He fulfilled a two-and-a-half-year employment agreement and “retired” on Dec. 31 2023. Even so, retirement didn’t mean slowing down. Hobaica kept his professional licenses active through the business, and he continues supporting the trades through coaching and consulting — a stipulation he built into his non-compete agreement.

“I was already coaching around 20 HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies,” Hobaica explains. “I helped them improve operations, scale their business, and do it profitably. At the time, I didn’t charge for it — I just liked helping people. It was important for me to keep doing that.”

After leaving the business in 2023, Hobaica launched Profit Max Consultants, LLC, a coaching and consulting firm with a focus on maximizing the profitability of residential trade service businesses.

“I work with about 30 trade service clients today,” he says. “I specialize in operations and growth — but most importantly, profitable growth. Growth alone is just vanity unless you’re making the money that makes it worth your while.”

Hobaica credits much of his success to creating relationships and building trust with people.

“I built my company on relationships — I like people,” he says. “People buy from those they like and trust, and that’s what made us different.”

He still enjoys problem-solving, whether mechanical, operational, or financial. “I like looking at challenges from every angle and finding a solution,” he explains.

Unlike some contractors who guard their business strategies, Hobaica shares them all openly.

“I’d rather have strong competitors who run profitable, successful businesses,” he says. “Poorly run companies hurt everyone. The best competition is an educated owner who knows how to run a profitable business and succeed — that raises the bar for the entire industry.”

Career Highs

Looking back, Hobaica is most proud of the culture he and his brothers, Mike and Paul Hobaica, built at Hobaica Services.

“We were more than a place to work. We provided our team members with careers they had control over, not just jobs,” he says. “We implemented life planning with employees, helping them set and reach personal goals by empowering them with the opportunity to earn as much as they wanted by working smarter, not harder. Watching people grow both professionally and personally was extremely rewarding.”

For Hobaica, success has always been about more than just profit.

“Yes, the company needed to do well, but I wanted everyone else to do well, too,” he explains. “I’ve always tried to do right by others and look out for their best interests.”

Hobaica hopes to be remembered as someone who openly gave back to other contractors in the trades, made a positive impact in their company, their life, and their employees’ lives.

“In our business, all decisions were made on our foundation of the three ‘C’s,’” he says. “It had to be in the best interest of the company representative first, the customer second, and the company third. If everybody doesn’t benefit from the situation, then it’s not the right thing to do.

“In business, it’s essential to give back by helping others to succeed and improve,” Hobaica continues. “God has blessed us with these talents for a purpose — not only to improve our businesses and personal lives, but also our employees and their families. Then, it’s important you pass on your successes, and pay it forward.”

Outside of work, Hobaica enjoys spending family time with his wife, Jane, and their three adult children and grandkids. In addition, he finds time to restore vintage 1960s to early 1970s muscle cars, sports, hunting, camping, traveling, and gardening. He’s also become a professional jam maker using fruits he grows in his personal garden. He makes 400 jars a year, branded as “Lou’s Badass Jam,” and gives it away to friends.

Built from the ground up, Hobaica’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to hard work, learning from his failures, and leadership by believing in others. “I give all the credit to my father for instilling in me my strong work ethic, morally based foundational principles, and faith in God,” Hobaica says.

From technician to business owner to industry mentor, Hobaica has shown that success in the trades requires more than skill — it requires a belief in something bigger than yourself, always doing right by others, and the perseverance to never give up by continually pushing forward, even when you fail time after time.

Congratulations to Lou Hobaica on his well-deserved induction into the Contracting Business HVAC Hall of Fame.