American Residential Services (ARS) is a United States network of plumbing, and home and commercial heating and air conditioning (

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

) businesses, operating under the trade name ARS/Rescue Rooter. The trade name came from the acquisition and merging of ARS and Rescue Rooter by their then-parent company

ServiceMaster ServiceMaster Brands is an American privately held company owned by Roark Capital Group that provides residential and commercial services. Its headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia, after moving there in 2020 from Memphis, Tennessee. Br ...

. They have locations in 24 states. The company is based in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

. The ARS mascots are Dandy and his sidekick Pronto.

History

ARS was established in 1975. The name "Rescue Rooter" was trademarked in 1976 by the California-based Rescue Industries Inc. It was a family-owned West Coast plumbing and drain cleaning company. In 1996, ARS was founded to consolidate local and regional HVAC service companies. Shortly after, The Servicemaster Company, based in

Downers Grove, Illinois Downers Grove is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1832 by Pierce Downer, whose surname serves as the eponym for the village. It is a south-west suburb of Chicago. The village is located between I-88 and I- ...

, acquired both Rescue Rooter and ARS, in 1998 and 1999 respectively, and brought them together under the "ARS/Service Express" brand. The company eventually dropped the "Service Express brand and the parent brand was known primarily as “ARS/Rescue Rooter.” In 1998 the company had around 5,000 employees. In October 2006, ARS/Rescue Rooter was then acquired from ServiceMaster by two private equity firms,

Caxton-Iseman Capital CI Capital Partners (formerly Caxton-Iseman Capital) is a private equity firm founded in 1993 by Frederick Iseman and based in New York City that specializes in middle market leveraged buyouts. It is estimated that CI Capital Partners manages a ...

and Royal Palm Capital Partners, for $100 million. In May 2014, ARS was acquired by Charlesbank Capital Partners from Caxton-Iseman Capital and Royal Palm Capital Partners.

References

External links

Official website

Rescue Rooter website
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee Plumbing Service companies of the United States Privately held companies based in Tennessee

History

References

Further reading

External links