Home construction companies merge to launch new venture

A pair of home construction companies with a combined 30-plus years in the industry have teamed up to open a local franchise of a Canada-based home building and renovation company.

Aaron Wyssmann and Travis Miller are franchisees of Alair Springfield, which opened for business in December. It’s the first Missouri franchise for Alair Homes, which specializes in custom homes and remodels. It was founded in 2007 in British Columbia, Canada, and has since opened over 100 affiliated offices, including ones in 14 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces, according to its website.

Alair Springfield is the result of a merger for undisclosed terms of Wyssmann’s Ozarks Remodeling & Design business and Travis Miller Homes LLC, which Miller started around 20 years ago. While the franchise’s signage at this month’s annual HBA Home & Outdoor Living Show, organized by the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, noted Alair Springfield and Travis Miller Homes, Wyssmann said his company’s name has been folded into the new venture. Miller said his company name will likely be used for a couple years before fully transitioning to the Alair Springfield branding.

“Travis’s brand is a whole lot stronger than mine, so it just made a whole lot more sense to keep his brand and come in. So, we’re cobranded as those two companies,” Wyssmann said of Alair Springfield and Travis Miller Homes, noting he and Miller own the franchise via TA Custom Homes LLC.

At 4126 W. Third St. in Battlefield, Alair Springfield is housed in the former office of Ozarks Remodeling & Design.

“Alair Springfield is not just an expansion; it’s a statement of our commitment to excellence and innovation,” Rob Cecil, president of Alair Homes, said in a news release. “With Travis and Aaron leading the way, we’re set to redefine what homeowners in Missouri can expect from their living spaces.”

Natalie Harper, director of communications with Alair Homes, said the partnership of Wyssmann and Miller marks the first time two separate legacy companies have merged to become Alair franchisees.

Finding value
Alair Homes seeks to bring on local building companies as franchisees that then build and remodel homes while giving clients as much control as possible. The company seeks established contractors wanting to focus on construction, while leaving back-end operations like billing to corporate offices. That allows franchisees the opportunity to scale up their business without putting in as many hours, according to Alair’s website.

Miller said the new venture, which tackles new home construction and renovation projects, allows him and Wyssmann to leverage Alair’s resources and networks to bring even greater value to its clients. Travis Miller Homes ranked fifth on Springfield Business Journal’s list of the area’s largest single-family homebuilders, which was published in January. The company built 13 custom homes with a combined estimated value of nearly $11.4 million in 2023, up from roughly $5.7 million in 2022.

Over his 10 years of owning Ozarks Remodeling & Design, Wyssmann said he completed between 30-50 projects annually with remodel project costs ranging $20,000-$200,000. He said company revenue was around $2 million in 2023. Miller declined to disclose last year’s revenue, but said it was up roughly 10% from 2022.

“Our plans are to scale up in both employees and the number of projects that we can do,” Wyssmann said, adding Alair Springfield employs nine. “That was really the thing. The attractiveness is just the training that’s involved for our team around our project managers and coordinators. We can now have some more team members on that will be following the same systems and processes so that we can give the best results.”

Alair’s company website doesn’t list franchise costs, and Miller and Wyssmann declined to disclose their investment. Franchise directory TheFranchiseMall.com said the investment required to open an Alair Homes franchise is between $78,030-$91,905, which includes a franchise fee of $53,500-$72,650.

In the process
Alair has a robust client portal for construction project management, Wyssmann said, adding it utilizes a multistep sales process.

“You actually have a contract for the planning process, which is the design, the building of the budget, getting all the details figured out. Then there’s a second step of actually doing the construction,” he said. “The clients will be able to build their budget, see literally every cost down to the penny. We upload all invoices; they see that. It’s all there for them to see so they can truly control their budget and the overall process.”

With design services, clients choose elements like trim, flooring and fixtures. Alair gets bids for each aspect of the process, and then clients select which ones to accept. To aid Wyssmann and himself in the projects, Miller said there’s a huge network of Alair franchise builders across the country and Canada at their disposal.

“It’s very educational and interesting to see that we’ve all got the same business issues or the same client issues, and just sharing that information, it’s been really valuable to us,” he said. “There’s definitely a learning curve, and every day there’s something we’ve come across that’s new, but it has not affected our day-to-day performance and being able to execute on projects.”

Individually in their own companies, Wyssmann said it would have been cost prohibitive to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in software to offer such services to their clients.

Since launching Alair Springfield, he said six projects are in the planning process with two more in the construction phase.

Wyssmann, who is friends with Miller and has served with him for several years on the local HBA Board of Directors, said he learned of Alair last year through The Builder Nuggets, a podcast that focuses on builders and remodelers. That led him to eventually reach out to the podcast hosts, one of which was a regional partner with Alair, to learn more about the company.

“The more I learned about it, the more that I liked,” he said, adding he soon after approached Miller. “You get a lot of great builders like Travis and myself that are the best in certain markets, and you got them sharing resources and ideas and the trouble spots and all of that. That’s essentially what made it attractive.”

Miller said Missouri is Alair Springfield’s franchise territory, and adding locations is in the plans.

“There’s a lot to learn now, but yeah, I’d say within the five-year plan is to look at what other markets we could possibly open in,” Wyssmann said.