The Story of Steve Stock & Associates

The story of Steve Stock & Associates began when Steve Stock moved from New Jersey to Denver, Colorado on June 1st of 1978. Having previously worked for Greitzer (a conveyor systems manufacturer) as their National Sales Manager, and for a commercial kitchen designer as a salesman, Steve Stock decided to join Bob Leach, a food service representative in Denver, as a salesman. After about 6 months or so, Leach was unfortunately hospitalized and could no longer work. Facing joblessness, Steve called all of the manufacturers that Bob had represented, explained the situation, and offered to be the new food service representative for each manufacturer. None took him up on his offer except for Bally Refrigerated Boxes, who took him on as a temporary sales representative for Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. 

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At first, as a one-man-show, Steve worked out of his apartment and sold walk-in Bally refrigerated boxes. At one point, Steve Stock even had an assembled 6' x 6' x 6' Bally insulated box on his 13th floor balcony. After about 2 months, a man named Ed Karr joined him, and their company was named Stock-Karr. After a few months, Stock-Karr bought a house together for $30,000 and ran the business out of the house. Eventually, Steve and Ed got fed-up with receiving calls from clients who couldn't figure out how to assemble their Bally walk-in according to the directions. Several clients had even accidentally installed their walk-ins upside-down. So Stock-Karr decided to start offering installation services.

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In 1979, the company got their first Qwip machine. No longer did drawings have to be mailed, taking several days, across the country to get design approval from the customer, and to submit to the Bally factory for panel manufacture. All documents could be sent now in 5 minutes to anyone. It was very smelly, but boy were they excited about the state-of-the-art Qwip machine.

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In 1979, Stock-Karr sold their first refrigerated warehouse to J&H Distributing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was a 20' wide x 20' long x 20' tall refrigerated box for beer. A little bit later, while Stock-Karr were at a trade show, a man named Rich Steiner approached them and became interested in the company. So Rich Steiner joined the company, which became Stock-Karr-Steiner. After about 6 months to a year, Ed Karr left and the company became Stock-Steiner. At this point, the company found an office on Colfax Avenue, and hired two office employees and two installers. At the start of 1981, Steiner left and the company finally became Steve Stock & Associates, and they moved to an office in Westminster, Colorado, where they would remain until 1995.

 

In the early 1980's, Stock, for the first time, general contracted the construction of a Bally refrigerated warehouse. It was for Save-On Foods in Denver. Steve Stock & Associates installed and turn-keyed the whole project, which was a rack-supported 40' wide x 127' long x 17' tall cooler-freezer.

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In 1989, Steve Stock & Associates for the first time sold $1,000,000 worth of Bally insulated panels in one year. Around 1990, Steve Stock invented what is known as the J-hook, which aids in suspended ceiling installs of insulated panels. In 1994, Bally Refrigerated Boxes declared bankruptcy. That time was a tough time for Steve Stock & Associates. The jobs they had orders on at that time went to other people because Bally panels could not be supplied. SSA had to find other panels to use instead of Bally, none of which were as good as Bally panels. All panels they tried turned out to be a nightmare to install. Luckily, Bally was restarted 9 months later by the Reilly Group, and Steve Stock & Associates was still available to be the "temporary" Bally sales representative. Steve Stock was one of the few sales representatives to return to the Bally line after their bankruptcy. In 1995, Steve Stock & Associates moved their office to Pecos Street and I-70 (4920 Fox St.) in Denver.

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The first glycol floor heat system that SSA ever designed and installed was in 2003. Prior to this, electric floor heat and vent tube systems were used. Glycol had the advantage of being more reliable than both. In 2005, Steve Stock & Associates moved to their own building just one minute down the road from their office at Pecos Street and I-70. In 2006, SSA went to the northernmost town in the United States to install a freezer warehouse for ice cores:  Barrow (Utqiagvik) Alaska. Not only did they have to take a bush plane to get there, but they also had to watch out for natural dangers like  polar bear crossings. In 2008, SSA did their first $1,000,000 refrigerated warehouse project, which was a bread manufacturing plant in Colorado.

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In 2020, Bally transferred responsibility of walk-in sales away from Steve Stock, realizing his focus was now mainly warehousing. A year later, SSA exceeded 10 employees for the first time. That same year, the company doubled their business in one year. Also that year, Steve Stock & Associates moved to 1860 West Evans Avenue, Englewood, Colorado. What a busy year! Now, Steve Stock & Associates is poised for further growth with the influx of new talent.

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And amazingly, after so many years, Steve Stock is still officially the "temporary sales representative" for Bally Refrigerated Boxes. So much for temporary!