Navy Vet and His Son Sign On to Bring Service Experts to Katy and Sugar Land

Service Experts signed its second Texas franchise agreement in two months, with a father-son team taking on the Greater Houston territory.

Service Experts, the Richardson, Texas-based residential HVAC franchise network, announced a new franchise agreement on June 18 covering the Katy and Sugar Land communities in Greater Houston. It's the company's second Texas franchise signing in two months, part of a broader push to grow through franchisees rather than corporate-owned locations.

The new territory will be run by Steve and Logan Marullo, a father-son pair with no prior HVAC industry background. Steve spent nine years in the U.S. Navy followed by more than two decades in chemical sales; Logan came from a career in software and tech sales before joining his father on this venture. It's their first joint business. The location is expected to open before the end of 2026.

Service Experts VP of Franchise Development Nick Ridgway pointed to the pair's sales and leadership backgrounds, not trades experience, as the qualifying factor. Steve Marullo said it was "the strength of the platform and the people behind it" that sold him on the opportunity, not the HVAC category itself.

Why it matters to operators

The Marullos fit a pattern showing up across home-services franchising: owners increasingly come from sales, military, or corporate management backgrounds rather than from the trade itself, leaning on the franchisor's systems, training, and brand to cover the technical gap. For established independent shops, that means new competitors entering local markets with institutional backing and standardized operations rather than a solo operator building slowly from a truck. It's also a signal of where national brands see room to grow: Greater Houston's population growth is drawing repeat franchise investment in the same metro within a single quarter.

Source: PR Newswire (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/service-experts-expands-texas-footprint-with-new-greater-houston-franchise-agreement-302803799.html)