SPECIAL REPORT
25
Years of Success
For Sunburst Shutters, Polywood has become the perfect product.
In 1974
Ron Swapp couldn’t find a high-quality interior shutter that
he liked for his family’s Las Vegas, NV, home. Instead of settling
for another product, he used his garage as a makeshift workshop;
and what originally started as an ambitious home improvement project
eventually led to the creation of one of the largest shutter companies
in North America: Sunburst Shutters®.
Incorporated in 1979, Sunburst Shutters this year is celebrating
its 25th anniversary, having gone from one shutter to more than
six million sold. With 28 stores nationwide and products in national
home improvement chains, the company is growing at a rate of 20
percent or more each year.
Swapp attributes the company’s success to the beauty and value
that these shutters add to a home. “It’s amazing when
you think about it,” said Swapp. “America’s love
of plantation shutters has grown tremendously over the past 25 years
and Sunburst Shutters has grown right along with it.”
As part of the company’s 25th anniversary celebration, Sunburst
Shutters is giving away free shutters to customers across the nation
every week through the end of the year, holding an essay contest
in which three winning homeowners will receive 200 square feet of
free shutters, and giving away a Winter Getaway Vacation in January.
Information on these promotions is available at the company’s
Web site (www.sunburstshutters.com) or in any of its retail store
locations.
THE RIGHT COMBINATION
“With 25 years of experience, Sunburst Shutters is a major
player in the plantation shutter industry,” Swapp said. “We
accomplished that by always focusing on having the best people,
great service and the perfect product.”
Sunburst’s “perfect” product—and the one responsible
for the majority of its success—has been the Polywood®
shutter.
“Polywood has been to Sunburst Shutters what the Model T was
to Ford,” said Dix Jarman, CEO of Sunburst Shutters. “The
company now has 10 times as many stores after introducing Polywood
to the window coverings market, and more than 75 percent of our
historical revenue is from Polywood shutters, even though we’ve
only offered Polywood for 13 years.”
Available exclusively through Sunburst Shutters or its authorized
dealers, the Polywood shutter was developed and introduced in 1993
by co-owners Swapp and Jarman. These shutters are made from an engineered
wood substitute that has the appearance of real wood, without the
problems often associated with wood such as fading, cracking or
warping. They also insulate better than wood. The line put Sunburst
Shutters on the radar screen for homebuilders, interior designers
and homeowners.
“In Polywood, we found the right combination of functionality
and aesthetics for homeowners looking for a long-lasting, beautiful
way to invest in their home’s atmosphere,” Jarman said.
“With the introduction of Polywood 13 years ago, homeowners
now had a choice when it came to their shutters—wood wasn’t
their only option,” states Jarman.
As could be expected, with every great invention come dozens, or
hundreds, of imitations. “After we introduced Polywood, other
window treatment companies started to sell shutters made from synthetic
materials,” said Jarman. “But for the homeowner, saving
a few dollars isn’t worth the lack of quality, service and
a life-time guarantee. The continued success of Polywood proves
that people want a product and a company that is going to last.
I think the past 25 years have demonstrated that Sunburst Shutters
is here to stay.”
COAST-TO-COAST AND THEN SOME
Sunburst Shutters has stores located in 17 states from Arizona (Phoenix)
to Virginia (Gaithersburg) and many states in between including
Nevada, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio. It also has locations in Hawaii
and British Columbia, Canada. In addition, the shutters are sold
through 100 independent dealers across the country as part of their
product lines.
To say Sunburst’s Polywood Shutters are well received by consumers
might be a bit of an understatement. The company enjoys a 98.8 percent
customer satisfaction rating. The company’s 95 salespeople
are kept busy each making about 20 home appointments a week. To
keep up with the demand, Sunburst Shutters produces 2,000 shutter
panels a day and, historically, has sold some 600 million linear
feet of shutter components. That’s a long way from a makeshift
garage workroom in only 25 years.
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