Hans Lieblich, founder and former president of H. Lieblich & Co., Inc., heating engineers and contractors, based his life on the premise that, “In America—what’s good enough for a father doesn’t have to be good enough for his son.”
In 1954 as head of a company that did a million and a half dollars worth of business a year and employed more than 60 people, Lieblich was living proof that his theory works—and pays. In the old country, his father sold dressmaker’s supplies to small shops in Vienna. Young Lieblich’s first job when he came to America in 1900 was in his uncle’s neckwear business, but by 1902 he made up his mind to learn a trade and apprenticed himself to a plumber for $3.00 a week.
The work was hard and the hours long, often more than 60 a week, but the young immigrant stuck to it, going to N. Y. Trade School at night to learn drafting and other subjects which might help him in his chosen profession. By the time he had fulfilled his apprenticeship, he was earning a man’s wages of $1.00 a day.
Looking back upon his career, Mr. Lieblich commented dryly, “For a fellow who always liked to stay clean I seemed to have a talent for picking out the grimiest business.”
In 1908, Lieblich started making the “grimy business” pay by launching into the business world on his own. With a borrowed $200 he set up a little shop on 7th Ave. and 134th St.
His plumber’s license dates from that year. He continued as a member of the National Plumbers Association, attending meetings, whenever he could fit them into his crowded schedule, well into the 1950's.
"These are the days" the stormy petrel of the heating business would remember with nostalgia it was during this period that Lieblich first learned the value of a five-cent beer and the free lunch that accompanied it. Money was very tight, but he refused to quit and work for someone else.
Among his souvenirs of “the good old days” was a yellowed newspaper clipping describing a cave-in where Lieblich was buried alive for several hours while repairing a sewer in Harlem. He kept alive by breathing through a rubber hose until the fire department was able to dig him out.
In 1910 he expanded his little shop and moved to 181st St., taking a few lickings but learning his trade thoroughly. By 1914, Victor DeBene, who later became Lieblich’s installation supervisor, was serving as his helper and carrying his tools. Their first jobs were mostly small ones, correcting heating work in new housing projects. Here Lieblich learned a lesson that became the motto for his business, “If you start right you finish right.”
It is Lieblich’s boast that he never had a lawsuit on any Lieblich installation. “I’ve never lost money on any job I ever did,” Lieblich would say, “But I never let a piece of work go out under my name that wasn’t satisfactory!”
In 1923, he branched out into the domestic oil heating busi-ness in the Bronx, obtaining the concession for the Quiet-May Oil Burner. Within the next few years his company had installed so many in streets of two-story buildings in the Bronx that they were’ known as Lieblich Lane.
Always eager to explore new fields, and appreciative of the markets that were opening as business boomed, in 1929 he took on the franchise for Petroleum Heat & Power — and dropped it in the same year. In 1930 he signed a contract with S. T. Johnson Oil Burner Co., with whom he continued to be associated with for almost 25 years.
World War II almost ruined Lieblich, Inc. With the ban on using oil, their market was cut off. The government froze materials and Lieblich took his beating, switching to the stoker business in order to stay alive. He gave up his showroom at 19 W. 44th St., consolidated his assets, and tried to stay in business.
In 1945, Lieblich took the biggest gamble in a long life of gambling—one that was to result in his becoming the biggest operator in this small but highly competitive field. When Germany surrendered, he took the chance that business must improve and signed a $50,000 contract to provide a heating system for Williamsburg Housing. At the same time, he bought the building at 36 W. 66th St.
Lieblich’s big gamble de-pended upon the Japanese sur-rendering by fall, making oil available for civilian use by that winter. However, although his timing was excellent, Lieblich could not foresee that when OPS (Office of Price Stabilization’) went off the factories would raise prices on their materials.
“We didn’t make as big a profit as we’d originally planned,” said Lieblich with his big grin, “But at least we were rolling.”
While still rolling, he managed to pick up jobs like the UN (Parkway Village), the Fisk Building, and the Electchester Cooperative Housing Project in Queens. He recently signed a $40,000 contract for West Point.
But to this ex-plumber ex--laborer turned executive, his biggest thrill in business was not connected with a big-money job.
“I knew we’d arrived as a company when we got the Lee & Perrins, Inc. job in ‘53,” Mr. Lieblich reflected. “It wasn’t big but it was interesting. Our bid was $20,000 but some other companies underbid us by as much as 20%. We got the job because they liked our work and our reputation.”
Lieblich has always insisted that in his business it is not enough to be a heating contractor; one must also be a heating engineer in order to understand and cope with the complex problems that continually arise. In keeping with this idea, H.Lieblich & Co. offers a four-way service engineering, installation, maintenance, and repair.
Today H. Lieblich & Co. has put heating systems in enough buildings to comprise a city.
