SAN DIEGO — The year 2024 is a big one for KFMB TV. Next month CBS 8 will celebrate being the first television station in San Diego and our 75th anniversary.
In this Zevely Zone, I profiled one of our advertisers; a longtime San Diego success story A.O. Reed & Co. who also happens to be KFMB's neighbor.
The year was 1914 when the Reed Brothers moved from Chicago to San Diego to open a family plumbing store.
When Steve Andrade was 14 years old, he swept the yard at the large property. "That was my job, yes, sweeping the yard, every week, all week. I got very good at it," said Steve who is now the CEO of the company.
A.O. Reed is one of the most reputable mechanical contracting companies in the country. The company cuts and lays hundreds of miles of plumbing pipe every year that is installed in laboratories, hospitals, skyscrapers and theme parks.
A.O. Reed is the only mechanical contractor based in San Diego that fabricates their own ductwork. Here is a short list of the company's thousands of completed projects:
- Salk Institute
- Rady Children's Hospital
- Sharp Memorial
- Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute
- North Torrey Pines Living & Learning Neighborhood.
- Petco Park
- Neurocrine Biosciences
Steve showed us how his company for more than a century has helped build Southern California. A.O. Reed also set up the penguin encounter at SeaWorld. "Yeah, I worked on it personally and the Shark Encounter. I worked on both of those," said Steve.
A.O. Reed's sheet metal shop fabricates millions of pounds of ductwork every year. The shop recently created the biggest duct piece in the history of the world. "That's correct," said Dan Jordison who started working at A.O. Reed when he was 18 years old. "This whole company is kind of family-based," said Dan who is now 41.
He is following in his father's footsteps who retired from A.O. Reed after a 35-year run. "This company has put food on my table ever since I was growing up," said Dan. "We are working with family."
Jay Harden in the tool shop agrees. "It's a good place to work, the people are good, and they treat us well," said Jay.
Over in plumbing and piping, Chuck Lawrence called A.O. Reed a generational job with grandfathers, their sons and now grandchildren working for the company. "All working here, yeah, I've worked with some of the family members here who I have worked for their grandfather and I have seen their kids come up and now they are foreman working here too," said Chuck.
A.O. Reed specializes in large commercial and industrial projects. This includes state-of-the-art hospitals and advanced laboratory buildings that serve the nation's biomedical industry. They also construct large private facilities which include ballparks, amusement parks, and office buildings.
Whether it's plumbing, heating, ventilation, or air conditioning, A.O. Reed is a San Diego success story. "He's making that spiral ductwork here, it goes all over Southern California," said Steve during our tour. Steve swept the floors, did deliveries, became a plumber and now he is the CEO celebrating the company's 110th Anniversary. All in his hometown of San Diego, where he plans to live forever. "I've been here my whole life. I have been all around the world, lucky enough to travel a lot and you know this is my home," said Steve.
Steve has watched CBS 8 for decades and was a big Larry Himmel fan. "I've watched Channel 8, I could not tell you how many tens of thousands of times and we are neighbors, one hundred feet away on the other side of the street," said Steve.
It's good to know your neighbors, especially quality ones like A.O. Reed.
"Happy 110th Birthday!" I said. Steve shook my hand and said, "Ha, ha, ha, thank you very much."
A.O. Reed is proud to have won the Top Workplaces USA award in 2023 issued by Energage. The Top Workplaces program has been around for sixteen years and has surveyed over 20 million employees. Over 72,000 companies were invited to participate in this year's survey. A.O. Reed & Co. headquarters includes offices, fabrication shops, and storage structures. For more information about the company, click here.