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Our Story
When Life Gave Us Lemons We Decided To Plant Lemon Trees!
Learn Where Simmitri Comes From; Where We’re Going
You’ve likely heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” What a great one, connected to a famous obituary written in 1915, which includes this line, “He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade stand.” For us here at Simmitri, lemon-talk possesses a special meaning because we like to call the tale of our brand’s origin the “Lemonade Story.” When life gave our founders lemons, they decided to plant a lemon tree farm! You’ll find it rather insightful if you’re curious about where we come from and the deeper values we cherish as a company.
When Simmitri Was Born
It was 1994. Our founders thought the economic recession of that time was finally winding down. Pamela was running her own business, a vocational school, and her husband Richard was a roofer. They were hard-working people building a wonderful life when suddenly, everything collapsed. Pam likes to say that for Valentine’s Day that year, “I got lemons instead of roses.”
First, Richard fell off a roof and, in one fell swoop, ended a 20+-year career. Roofing was all he knew…and thanks to the recession, Pam was forced to sell her business and barely break even. Their life was on hold. Both sources of household income were gone, and they had to abruptly change occupations while raising kids, paying the mortgage, and keeping up on bills.
What a bunch of (seemingly) sour lemons!
The Squeezing Begins
As Richard recuperated, he decided to study for and get his contractor’s license while Pamela worked contract jobs. Bills were paid, but they barely had money for food and living expenses. It got so bad that the day came when all their family of four had to prepare dinner with was one single package of Top Ramen. Things looked bleak. But instead of getting desperate, they grabbed onto their faith, found a place beside the front door, and prayed.
And that’s when the squeezing of their lemons began. A few hours later, there was a knock at the door. Miraculously, when they opened it, they found a week’s worth of food in nicely-packaged bags! Then, somehow, day by day, month by month, they stayed afloat without going hungry.
This provided breathing room to assemble a business plan for a roofing company, which was also the last project Pam needed to get her BS Degree in Business Admin from La Salle University. A year later, in 1995, the business plan showed promise that a roofing company could be a success if run responsibly. So, after Richard got his license, they founded Affordable Roofing – our original company – which was first rebranded in 2010 to Affordable Roofing & Solar after we saw great success with our initial solar installs deployed with roofing customers.
21+ Years Later…
In 2015, after decades of evolving our holistic approach to roofing, solar, and clean energy, we rebranded the company to Simmitri. From our humble ‘rock bottom’ beginnings to a family-owned roofer, into a multi-million-dollar roofing+clean energy company serving thousands of customers while helping our environment…we’ve been given bushels of lemons over the years, and we’re making sweet lemonade! Please see what we’ve added to the Our History page if you’d like to discover more about Simmitri’s timeline. You can also learn more about the professionals who make Simmitri work on our Meet The Team page.
A Company Built On Faith
Faith and belief are spun into the fabric of Simmitri. We believe in lifetime-guaranteed roofing, clean energy, and the blooming technology that drives it. We believe in empowering consumers. We believe in responsible stewardship of the earth. And we believe in miracles!
How else could we go from a single bag of Top Ramen to building a company with comprehensive energy solutions for customers of all shapes, sizes, and needs? Today Simmitri is leading the charge in full-spectrum energy and smart management systems, restoring the balance of power to people everywhere while empowering the communities they serve with true Energy Equity.
Thanks for your time today, and feel free to Contact Us with any questions or if you’re curious about what we can do to transform your home or business.
