About 4 years ago Solaris began carrying Sunesta products in our shade solution portfolio. We made the move to Sunesta for 3 reasons:
1. Experience – Sunesta has been a leader in the market for decades
2. Quality – Sunesta products undergo the most stringent durability tests
3. Service – Sunesta stands by their products with a recently introduced limited lifetime warranty and by providing exceptional service.
One important way that Sunesta provides service and product support is through dealer representatives. Solaris’s rep is Mike Stone. We recently asked Mike to share a bit about himself. He was happy to do so …
Mike lives in Spanish Fork, Utah. This small city, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, has a proud Icelandic history as it was the first settlement of Icelanders in the United States.
Before owning his own awning company, Mike worked for a printing company, operating printing presses. About 15 years ago, he transitioned from owning an awning company to working for Sunesta. Mike’s work takes him all over the western states and provinces, helping local dealers to provide the best service possible to their customers. This is what he loves most about his job: traveling, meeting people and finding solutions for customers.
Once a year Mike comes to Alberta, spending time at Solaris’s Edmonton location. He shares developments in Sunesta’s product line, provides training to Solaris’s sales reps and installers, participates in business strategy conversations, and meets with our customers. Mike says one of the pleasures of visiting Solaris is experiencing our dedication to excellent customer service.
During his time in the awning industry, Mike has seen some very interesting installations. Some of the most memorable include:
• A church had some large skylights in the roof, 80 feet above the floor. Realizing the need to block the sun during services, the church turned to Sunesta. The solution was to install two Sunplus units onto the ceiling. Typically, these are exterior products that sit on structures like pergolas, or with self standing frames. They turned out to be the perfect solution for the church’s need. It was a big challenge raising the Sunplus units up to the ceiling, moving around and past all the beams. The result was worth it!
• Another Sunplus application was at a pickleball court. The need was to reduce play interruption caused by rain. The solution was installing 12 Sunplus units over the courts.
• One of Mike’s most memorable awning installations was hoisting a Sunesta awning 15 stories up the side of a building to be hung over a balcony. There were some tense moments swinging the awning into position to pull it over the balcony and fix it in place, but result was to be celebrated!
Mike is an invaluable resource to Solaris. He’s always happy to take our calls as we look for the best way to serve our customers. We enjoy his company every time he comes to Alberta, and we look forward to working with him for years to come!
