David Sparling started working for his father’s plumbing company in 1979. By the time Sparling took over the small family business, known as Sparling Plumbing, he decided he needed to start fresh. So he folded Sparling Plumbing and founded Safari Plumbing in 2006.
“There was no point in keeping Sparling Plumbing because there were no Sparlings in the next generation to pass it down to,” Sparling says. “I had a daughter and my brother had daughters, so that was the end of the line for us. I thought if there was an opportunity for me to perhaps sell the business later on down the road, we had to change because you can’t sell your own name — you can’t sell Joe’s Plumbing, Rick’s Plumbing or Sparling Plumbing. You just can’t sell that.”