An old adage states that necessity is the mother of all invention. In the case of Altech Refrigeration, necessity is the reason it built its new building.

Located at 2250 W. Highway 70 across the street from Sparks Home Store and Bashas', the building encompasses the business' offices, sheet metal shop, a yard, a conference/training room and a kitchen.

Altech's previous business was separated into two locations, one for its offices and one for its shop. Owners Tyler and Jaime Myers told the Courier they spent years searching for a building that could house its offices, shop and yard, but after not being able to find one, they decided to build one. Tyler and Jaime are Thatcher natives who met in high school. Jaime followed Tyler to Phoenix for his training and then to Tucson, where he worked in industrial refrigeration and heating and cooling. The couple decided they wanted to return to their roots in the Gila Valley to raise their family and opened up Altech in 2001. They have been in their new building since July.

Altech offers a variety of services throughout Graham, Greenlee and Cochise counties, including heating, cooling and refrigeration for new and existing construction. It also offers building automation systems and sells and installs ice machines and walk-in coolers and freezers. Altech also offers service agreements for residential and commercial customers for regular prevention maintenance.

"We have a really big product offering that we give to people because we have to be diverse," Tyler said. "I've been fortunate in the places I've worked to be able to do a lot of this stuff."

Tyler said his company's main goal is customer satisfaction and the new building is helping accomplish that. The addition of a training room provides the space for weekly in-house training as well as the ability to have outside experts put on training seminars.

"We thrive on technical excellence," Tyler said. "We do that for the customers."

According to Tyler, Altech is the only company in Graham and Greenlee counties to have three North American Technician Excellence certified technicians.

NATE Inc. is the leading nonprofit certification program for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration industry and offers the only test supported by the entire industry, according to its Web site.

Altech is also a Trane Comfort Specialist dealer for Trane air conditioners. Businesses become TCS dealers through surveys from customers and continued technical training through Trane and other manufacturers. Trane requires a customer satisfaction referral score of more than 90 percent for a survey to count toward the program.

"It's a great program," Tyler said. "It makes the customers happy, and that's what we like doing."

Tyler and Jaime invite those in the community to stop by their new building and see what Altech can do for their heating and cooling needs.