About Us

A Professional Engineer himself, “Ernie” Price made Engineering Sales a fundamental part of the equation very early. From the beginning, Ernie understood the importance of working closely with the engineering and contracting community to provide air distribution solutions. By maintaining the trust and respect of both, E.H. Price Limited soon gained a reputation for honesty, integrity and standing behind its products. These decisions were fueled by Ernie’s previous experience with sales reps who would drop off catalogs and suggest that Ernie would probably understand the products better than they did, seeing as how he was an engineer. To this day, every E.H. Price sales office across Canada has a dedicated engineering sales representative so customers will always feel supported with E.H. Price.

Ernie Price started to build the organization in Winnipeg, which included a new office and warehouse, as well as hiring the core of a team that would serve the company for many years.

With this foundation in place, the company began to expand across Western Canada, adding offices in Edmonton (1950), Vancouver (1952), Calgary (1953), and Regina (1957). By 1960, the company was well established in Western Canada.

To aid the growth of the Sales Division, in 1961 a distinct, independent Manufacturing Division was created to produce certain air distribution products under license.The decision to manufacture arose from the belief that E.H. Price could supply superior products and services at a reasonable price. It also allowed us to gain tighter control over quality and delivery, and thus serve our customers better.

Products are sold from our Manufacturing Division on an arm’s length basis. To this day, the E.H. Price Sales Division operates as a separate and distinct business unit and profit center, free to develop its line card and offering in a manner that best serves the customers in each market.

With our presence well established in Western Canada, it was time to look to the East. New sales offices were opened in Toronto (1961), Montreal (1962), Ottawa (1964), and London (1966). We also made a concerted effort to expand into ceiling systems and architectural products, establishing a foundation for growth in these product categories for future years. We moved into the “big leagues” in this regard by securing the ceiling system order for the new James Richardson and Sons, Limited head office building in Winnipeg (1967).

The launch of our laboratory in St. Jerome, Quebec in 1970 was a major step forward for the company. It was felt that we needed a facility to provide sales engineering support and product development. In the early years of our lab, someone once said “I don’t think we’ve ever had a demonstration that failed to satisfy our customer.” The lab quickly became one of the greatest tools at our salesmen’s disposal.Eventually, our product lab was moved to head office in Winnipeg, and became known as Price Research Center North (PRCN). It encompasses 28,500 sq. ft., and is home to 18 unique test chambers, including our spring-isolated Noise Control Lab, built in 2008. It remains one of our greatest assets from a sales perspective.

In 1974, we began our representation with the Greenheck Fan Corporation, a relationship that has stood the test of time and worked well for all parties. Don Leitch, Vice President of Sales at the time, leveraged an outstanding relationship with Bernie and Bob Greenheck and Bill McLay (V.P. of Sales), leaders of what was then the number two fan company in the market.As time passed, Price registers, grilles, diffusers and terminals, in tandem with the Greenheck product array, fashioned a formidable combination. Initially, Greenheck fans were produced under license by the E.H. Price Manufacturing Division.

Over the years, our focus on developing relationships with engineers and contractors and building a reputation for reliability has created an ideal scenario for adding more product lines from other leading manufacturers, which has allowed our line cards to continue to grow every year.

Manufacturers of related products love working with E.H. Price because we take on product lines as though we own them and we only represent leading, reliable and credible manufacturers. We have the best product lineup in the game.

With a highly trained, experienced and powerful sales team spanning the entire country, we are able to provide a complete systems solution for commercial and industrial HVAC requirements. We invest in training our team to effectively market and sell the products we represent, and have the relationships required with the engineering and contracting community to advance these products. Our customers trust us and know we will come through for them no matter who manufactures the product we sell. We have gained a reputation for integrity and for growing the sales and market presence of the manufacturers we represent.

After completing his education, including a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, Ernie’s son Gerry started his career outside E.H. Price as a research scientist. Despite some work projects with the company, he did not envision a career in business. With Ernie long retired (but still Chairman of the Board), company President Gerry Law recruited Gerry to join the E.H. Price team in 1977.

His early years with the company were all in sales – and he loved it. Serving the customer seemed to be second nature, and the idea of “simply serving” took shape as a fundamental business principle that would profoundly impact the company and everything it does. In 1986, Gerry Price became President and Chief Executive Officer of E.H. Price Limited. Working with other key members of the E.H. Price Limited team, he developed a business model based on three fundamental ideas:

• Rapid, reliable, drum-beat delivery that our customers can count on.
• Relentless product development and product line expansion so that our sales organization would have more to offer our customers.
• Making it easy to do business with Price.

Gerry and the leadership team also developed the company’s long term Vision, and documented and widely communicated the Values that continue to shape and define the company to this day.

Central to everything is service – taking care of our customers, and the people in the business. We were, and remain a sales company. It’s our heritage, because we treat our customers as part of the E.H. Price family.