ROANOKE, Va. – June 20, 2025 – Southern Trust Home Services is celebrating 30 years of business — overcoming numerous challenges and landing big wins — on the path to success. Owner Ted Puzio says the road to Southern Trust’s current iteration was bumpy at times, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“To say we started off small would be an understatement,” Puzio said. “When I first opened shop, I was a single dad with two boys, and I was running the business out of our home. We lived on one floor, and the business was on the other. It was challenging, and it was tough keeping that balance between family life and the shop, but we made it work.”
Southern Trust Home Services has gone through a few changes since the days of working out of the Puzio home on its path to becoming the southern Virginia powerhouse it is today:
- Initially called TP Electric and focused on new construction, it wasn’t long before Puzio realized the business needed to go a different route and focus on residential work, becoming Southern State Electric in 1997.
- In 2011, Puzio added plumbing services, and just three years later, he added an HVAC division. The new divisions made the company the first in its market to offer service across multiple trades.
- In 2015, the company rebranded as Southern Trust Home Services and moved to a large, commercial location in Roanoke.
- Southern Trust began to receive national acclaim when Puzio was named Contractor of the Year by Contractor Magazine in 2017. Additional recognitions include becoming a 2021 Contractor of Excellence by Contracting Business, multiple other honors such as “Truck of the Month” spotlights and placement on the Inc. 5000, a list of fastest-growing private companies in America.
Puzio says the company faced hard times as well, but the challenges helped him learn, fortify his processes and services, and remain determined to become the best home service company in the area.
“I’ve got multiple employees who have been with me for more than a decade, and in this industry, that kind of loyalty and dedication is hard to come by so we must be doing something right,” Puzio said. “My team has put their faith in me through thick and thin, and together we’ve built a name and a place in this community that’s welcomed us into their homes for more than 30 years. It wasn’t always easy, but I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished.”