Coffee with an Entrepreneur - Peter Thomas

Description

Please join us as we hear stories from one of the nation's most ingenious entrepreneurs. 

Each month we sit with the country's best to learn from their experiences, be inspired and have the opportunity to ask questions.  Round Table format gives everyone the opportunity to have a front row seat!.

In coordination with the City of Corona, the Chamber is proud to host this event.  Invite a friend and be ready to have your socks blown off . . . You will NOT want to miss it!

This month we will hear from Peter Thomas, President of Refrigeration Control Company. Click here to view a brief video about this event!

Peter Thomas was born into a poor working-class family of 6 children in a small village in central Scotland. He grew up as a child hunting rabbits and fishing in the local streams with his Dad to help feed the family. After graduating high school with no money and no employment prospects, he left his home village at the age of 17 and headed to Aberdeen Scotland in search of an opportunity in the then-booming oil business. By aged 18, Peter became one of the youngest commercial saturation divers in the North Sea. At 20, after attending the Welding Institute in Cambridge England to study weld inspection, he joined a hyperbaric underwater welding team and specialized in the ultrasonic and x-ray inspection of welds on pipelines and oil equipment several hundreds of feet under the North Sea.

Peter visited California in 1986 and fell in love with America (and his future wife Kirsten) and made California his permanent home.

After several successful years diving and founding and selling 3 companies, 2 of which were in the materials testing business, in 2001 he started a property development company which grew until the SoCal property market tanked in 2007.

In 2007, Peter acquired Refrigeration Control Company (RCC), a leading Commercial Industrial Refrigeration and HVAC contractor headquartered in Corona. Since purchasing RCC several years ago, the company has more than doubled in size with no sales or marketing effort and they completed over 8,000 jobs last year. All the company’s growth has been directly from existing client referrals which according to Peter is because of the quality of his employees and their commitment to a culture of integrity and honesty.

Not content with just growing one company, in 2017, Peter, together with his wife Kirsten founded a skin care product manufacturing and e-commerce sales business called “Ayr Skin Care”. Born out of his wife’s lifelong hobby and passion for creating her own personal nontoxic gluten-free anti-aging skin care products, Peter realized that the complex formulations his wife had created were highly innovative and his wife had a rapidly growing following who passionately wanted her to make her products available for purchase. Ayr Skin Care has also created a proprietary process incorporating a blend of plant-based ingredients that replicate the silky smooth feeling and texture of silicones which are found in many high-end products. The company sees a significant opportunity to advance how future skin care products are manufactured with its new process in what is a huge industry.

From humble beginnings, Peter’s journey is one of drive and determination to make a better life for himself and his family.

”I’ve always had the people who know me well say I should write a book about my life’s journey. I guess that’s flattering in a way but I’ve only ever seen my main goal as to be a good Husband and father and be the best I can be at it. Everything I’ve ever done so far has been driven by the desire to provide the best environment for my family. I’ve always prioritized on being present and engaged for my family. I consider my biggest accomplishment to be how my wife and I managed to raise amazing well-balanced children. Being entrepreneurial alone without the ability to balance it with what is truly important is a fool’s errand. If I have any real value to impart to anybody it is in those areas”.