Company signs 'huge' deal

Southwest Florida executive Keegan Hodges had a keen interest in how the Carrier Corp. melodrama with President-elect Donald Trump played out.

Hodges says the firm he co-owns, Naples-based Best Home Services, has installed Carrier air conditioners exclusively for the last seven years. But that relationship took a beating over the summer, says Hodges, when competitors urged customers to dump Best Home Services because Carrier was going to move hundreds of jobs to Mexico. “We really started to feel it,” Hodges tells Coffee Talk.

Trump, in a way only he could, brought media publicity to the issue both before and after the election. “Trump's comments about Carrier during his campaign significantly raised awareness about Carrier's decision to move jobs to Mexico and several of our customers responded by not wanting Carrier equipment installed at their homes,” Hodges adds in a statement.