Many operators inherit multiple brands through acquisition. It works early because you avoid customer confusion and skip the pain of rewrapping trucks.
But as the portfolio grows, the cracks start showing. Marketing gets diluted. Culture fragments. Vendor negotiations get messy. The leadership team spreads its attention across too many identities.
That is where Rich Jordan found himself. After taking Sanford Temperature Control from $700K to $30M across three markets, running three different brands stopped working. What felt manageable at two became unwieldy at three.
The Real Downsides of Multiple Brands
Running multiple brands creates hidden friction:
- Brand neglect. Creative, media buys, and leadership attention always lean toward one brand. The others fade.
- Vendor challenges. Even with a shared EIN, some vendors treat each brand as separate, which weakens pricing power.
- Cultural fragmentation. Different colors, uniforms, and taglines create subtle divides inside the team.
- Marketing inefficiency. You split focus, reduce repetition, and lose the compounding effect of one strong name.
- Leadership overload. It becomes impossible to think deeply about growth when your brain is divided across identities.
Eventually, you trade optionality for chaos.
Why Rich Rebranded Everything
The original plan was to consolidate all brands under Sanford. It was the biggest name, the most established, and the easiest story. But switching two founder names to a third founder name felt wrong. The team could not rally behind it, and customers would feel like they were being acquired, not served.
So Rich made a bigger move. He changed all three brands, including Sanford.
The new name came from one of the team’s most important core behaviors: Seize the high ground. Do the right thing even when it is not easy or profitable.
The new identity became High Ground Service Pros.
One story. One standard. One brand everyone could believe in.
How They Are Reducing Customer Risk
The transition plan follows what worked in a prior acquisition:
- Keep old websites and GBPs live so customers still find the brand they expect.
- Answer incoming calls under the old brand for several months.
- Book the customer normally, then explain the partnership and the new name.
- Maintain separate AI bots and scripting for each brand during the transition.
- Shift mass media to High Ground while digital footprints run in parallel.
It is a controlled handoff instead of a cold switch.
The SEO Surprise
Rich bought highground.com for $10K. It turned out to carry a domain authority of 48 with a strong backlink profile. That created an unexpected upside and an SEO puzzle.
The plan is to redirect high-value legacy pages, protect the old landing pages during the handoff, and gradually shift organic traffic toward the new brand without losing trust signals.
The Investment
The total rebrand cost is roughly $500K:
- About $300K in truck wraps
- Around $50K in uniforms
- The rest in website work, signage, radio, billboards, and brand collateral
It is a real cash hit, yet a long-term add-back. The cost disappears in valuation, but the operational lift remains.
Why This Matters for Operators
A house of brands works early. It breaks later. Splitting attention across multiple identities makes breakthrough moments harder. You stop seeing the obvious opportunities because you are juggling too much.
- A single brand creates focus.
- Focus creates momentum.
- Momentum scales.
The question is simple: Would your business move faster if every market, every trade, and every truck carried the same name?
For Rich, the answer was yes. High Ground launches this month across all markets. Three brands become one. The team gets one flag, one voice, and one identity built around the values they already live.
And now the business finally has room to grow.
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