Expert Interview with Allison Heaney, Owner & CEO of Skaggs-Walsh

What It Really Means to Be Family-Owned in New York City: A Conversation with Allison Heaney of Skaggs-Walsh 

New York City runs on relationships that outlast trends, ownership changes, and even generations. Few companies understand that better than Skaggs-Walsh, a top-rated family of heating oil, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies that has over 90 years of service to New York homeowners. As a fellow family-owned company, we sat down with Allison Heaney, Owner and CEO, to talk about what she thinks it takes to keep a family business thriving across generations and how that same philosophy shows up in an entirely different industry as Milano Jewelry. 

Rahul Kheskwani: Skaggs-Walsh has been in business for over 90 years and in your family for over 70. What does "family-owned" actually mean to you day to day, beyond the name on the truck? 

Allison Heaney: It means every decision gets filtered through one question: would this still make sense if my grandfather were the one answering the phone? We're a family of companies now, having added Victory Skaggs, Nulite, Scheblein, and Strong Island Electric to our family of brands in recent years, but that expansion never happened at the expense of the personal touch. When a technician shows up at someone's home in the Bronx or Nassau County, they're representing a name that's been answering the same phone number, in the same neighborhoods, for nine decades. 

Rahul: Why does that matter more in a service business than it might elsewhere? 

Allison: Because trust is the entire product. When someone lets us into their home to work on their gas line or their boiler, that's an act of faith. You don't earn that kind of faith with a single good visit. You earn it when a customer's parents used your company, and now they use it, and someday their kids will too. That's not a marketing line for us; multi-generational customers are a real, everyday part of our business.

Rahul: That's an interesting parallel to Milano Jewelry, a fine jewelry brand also built around trust and craftsmanship. Do you see similarities between what they do and what you do? 

Allison: Absolutely, even though we're in completely different industries. Milano is a vertically integrated jewelry manufacturer; you control the process from design to finished piece, the same way we control our service from the first phone call to the technician leaving your house. But what really connects us is what the product represents. Someone buys an engagement ring from Milano expecting it to last a lifetime and to mean something for generations. Someone hires us expecting their heat and hot water to continue working, year after year. In both cases, the customer is buying certainty. They're trusting a name to be there and stand behind its work, decades down the road. 

Rahul: What do family businesses get right that larger, non-family companies sometimes struggle with? 

Allison: Accountability that has a face attached to it. When you carry a family name, mistakes are personal. That pushes you toward consistency in a way that's hard to fake. It's also why referrals matter so much to businesses like ours and businesses like Milano. A referral is a customer literally putting their reputation behind yours. You don't get that unless the last two, three, four interactions actually earned it. 

Rahul: Any advice for other family businesses trying to build that kind of generational trust in a city as fast-moving as New York? 

Allison: Don't let growth dilute the reason people trusted you in the first place. We've grown into multiple brands and service areas, but the mission hasn't changed: create a community of comfortable, satisfied customers who know their tradespeople have their back. Be the name people still trust to call, generation after generation. 

To learn more about Skaggs-Walsh, its family of brands, and the services they provide to New York City and Long Island residents, including heating oil, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services, visit skaggswalsh.com.