Before Katrina, Air-Nu dominated the air filter market in New Orleans. In fact, the company was the almost exclusive seller of this particular product. After 2005 however, with many businesses closed and others not returning to the area, local companies were looking to diversify their own workload to generate additional revenue. An accessible market to enter was the filtration field, and one group to seize this opportunity was the HVAC supply houses. Some of these companies were already selling occasional filters to accommodate their regular customers. But now in a slower economy they began targeting hotels, hospitals and commercial buildings–territory that was once exclusive to Air-Nu.

In response, Air-Nu, which was already supplying maintenance engineers with filters for their buildings, similarly began to sell HVAC products. It was a competitive move, but one that received an enthusiastic response. To test the market, Air-Nu began taking it one step at a time, first selling HVAC belts, and soon after quoting on HVAC parts, such as pneumatic controls, motors, fan blades, thermostats and relays. The demand for A/C replacement parts was already in place due to the damage caused by the hurricane. Therefore, it was a practical business decision, since filter sales coincided with HVAC sales, to capitalize on its experience and then provide clients with excellent savings for all their HVAC accessories.