About Us
RSD is the largest independently owned wholesaler of refrigeration parts and HVAC equipment in the western United States.
We have been serving contractors across the West since 1907, recently celebrating 119 years in business. With 80 locations spanning 10 states including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, we continue to grow while staying true to the values that built this company.
This is the story of how it happened…
Back in 1907
The Starr Piano Co. (parent company to Gennett Records) opened a Pacific Division in California. Its purpose: to retail anything manufactured by its factories in Indiana. It was a daring decision by Henry Gennett to go clear across the United States at a time when travel 
was both long and dangerous. Located in Richmond, Indiana; the company had sold pianos since 1872. In the early 1910's the phonograph began to "displace the parlor piano as the primary entertainment in the home…[so] Starr took advantage of its mechanical and woodworking facilities to add phonographs and phonograph records to its product line." (Starrgennett.org) They even had their own recording studio in which up-and-coming jazz musicians could record their music. Things were looking up for the Gennett family. Then The Great War hit — sales dropped and the company almost went out of business. The whole of America was chipping in for the war effort, and Starr Piano was among them. In a time of crisis, it used what little resources it had to manufacture propellers as well as barrage balloon valves for the country. When it was all over and the dust settled, business resumed and Starr focused on its recording label. Most notably, Louis Armstrong laid down a few sides with Gennett Records when he was just starting out. When the Second World War came around, the factories were made useful again by producing caskets and shell casings.
On the other side of the country, Henry and his sons saw the tides of business changing and jumped right in. Piano sales were declining and "to compensate, the company diversified again, but this time away from music. It used its mechanical facilities to produce refrigeration equipment. That sideline made sense despite the hard times. City-dwellers, who had home electrical service by then, were rapidly replacing their old-fashioned ice boxes 
with refrigerators." (Starrgennett.org) By the time the company officially closed the chapter on pianos, 350,000 Starr Pianos had been crafted. Starr eventually ceased the manufacture of refrigeration products in the early 1940's, but the Pacific Division's refrigeration wholesale business continued by becoming a distributor of parts and supplies made by other manufacturers. On January 26, 1978, the directors of the company voted to officially change the corporation name from The Starr Piano Company, Pacific Division, to 'Refrigeration Supplies Distributor'. A lone piano still stands today at the corporate office in California, as an account of just how far RSD has come.
As for The Starr Piano Co. and Gennett Records in Indiana, "by 1990, all but one of the vacant factory buildings had been razed. The survivor was stabilized, re-purposed, and renamed. Now called the 'Starr-Gennett Pavilion', it lives again in Richmond's Whitewater Gorge Park. […] Here they celebrate the legacy of Starr and Gennett through concerts and annual music festivals as well as new and reissued recordings." (Starrgennett.org) The song may have ended for Starr Piano, but the melody will linger on for generations to come. 
And so, the melody continued to evolve. Over the decades that followed, RSD expanded steadily by maintaining a consistent inventory of the parts contractors required most. The company grew into a network of eighty locations across the western United States, ensuring timely access to essential equipment and supplies. Technicians came to rely on RSD not only for product availability, but for knowledgeable staff who understood the systems they serviced. Leading manufacturers partnered with RSD because they trusted the company to fulfill orders accurately and deliver them reliably. That reputation for dependability, built quietly over more than a century, continues to bring contractors through our doors today.
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Works Cited
Dahan, Charlie B., and Linda Gennett Irmscher. Gennett Records and Starr Piano. Arcadia Publishing, 2016. Book.
Starrgennett.org, Starr Piano and Gennett Records. n.d. www.starrgennett.org/starr-piano-and-gennett-records.