Two Tamaqua natives knew one another for many years. And now, they’re business partners.

Hollenbach Home Comfort Services was founded in 2019, but Jay Hollenbach Jr. and Eric Zizelmann have been well-acquainted since their childhoods.

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know him,” said Jay Hollenbach. “Our dads had a working relationship since the 1970s, and our families went to church together. Eric and I didn’t really connect, though, until after high school when we got involved with the American Hose Company. Now, we both have families and are very involved in our community, so we relate well.”

Hollenbach and Zizelmann are well-known in the Tamaqua Area, having separate family-owned businesses.

Hollenbach owns Jay Hollenbach Jr. Plumbing & Heating, while Zizelmann is at the helm of Zizelmann-Gulla Funeral Home and Cremation Services.

“The new oil business dovetails well with the existing plumbing business,” said Hollenbach. “Most of our customers understand the benefits of having both burner service and oil delivery done by the same team, something that we’ve already had the occasion to prove to a few people.

“They like the idea that if they lose heat in the middle of a winter night or during Thanksgiving dinner, they only need to make one call.”

Zizelmann said the duo’s new company is in the process of hiring their first two employees.

“The experience of running two companies is probably a bit more diverse for me than it is for Jay, since his plumbing business is such a natural fit with the new oil business,” Zizelmann said.

“What it means for me, though, is that I interact with people in a different capacity than I do through the funeral home. Of all the ways that this business venture has changed my daily routine, that one in particular is the most rewarding.”

Not only does Hollenbach Home Comfort Services deliver oil, it also services and repairs heating and furnace systems.

“We offer incentives to promote the sister-company relationship,” Hollenbach noted.

“For example, auto-delivery customers of the oil business get a discount on their annual burner maintenance from the plumbing side. We also offer an account credit to customers who make referrals for new automatic delivery customers.”

Fifty years ago, their fathers, Jon Zizelmann and Jay Hollenbach Sr., operated their own respective businesses. One being a plumber and the other a funeral director.

Now, their sons - a plumber and a funeral director - have teamed up to offer the Tamaqua area yet another quality family-owned local business.

“We launched the business in October 2019, but before we got much traction, COVID was throwing curve balls at us,” said Eric Zizelmann. “The projections and timetables in the business plan suddenly became meaningless, but the act of creating the plan proved to be invaluable.

“All the thought and research that had gone into that document meant that we were able to roll with the punches pretty well. The strangest part is that the grand opening of Hollenbach Home Comfort Services will now have to be held almost two years after our first delivery.”

For more information, visit Hollenbachoil.com, or call 570-900-1053.