Swift change comes from building around existing success

By Robert Williams

Editor

Summers Construction and Design Center is now Refine Homes, as the company has recently rebranded. The former Summers sign was removed two weeks ago and the new art will be on full display during Looney Days.

“We just wanted to relay that we’re off to the races and business is booming and we’re really excited for the future,” said Vice President of Development and Realty Mike Carlson.

The change came sooner than expected for the group as they were able to move in and hit the ground running after purchasing Summers in April.

“It went really well,” said President and Contractor Stephen Erb. “They had a pretty good system here already and so it was just compiling on an already awesome thing. Mike (Summers) was able to stick around for a little while but everything was going super well. We were able to get him out on the boat sooner than he anticipated.” 

Summers had noted when discussing the sale in April his desire to spend more time fishing. Summers had planned to work with the new group until August but he was able to depart a few weeks into the change.

“They were extremely thorough in the due diligence process to help us understand the business,” said Vice President and Treasurer Zachary Wilson. “When we came on board, Stephen had already run a construction company before so he understood the different trades and then we added more enhancements with different softwares that made life easier.”

Currently, Refine Homes is very similar to what Summers Construction and Design was in regards to offering similar services.

“Ultimately, our goal is to specialize a bit more, while still taking care of the people of Vergas,” said Erb. “Right now we’re doing work very similar, but like Zach said, implementing a lot of different software and processes to make business easier, more efficient and a more streamlined relationship with the customer.”

Refine is using communication software to help customers make decisions and schedule in real-time and on their time rather than playing phone tag or having to leave multiple messages.

The new Refine Homes name and logo choice was one that had been kicked around previously.

Vice President and Interior Design Specialist Savannah and husband Stephen Erb had chosen it during exploration of a construction venture with other people and one of the names thrown out was Refine Properties.

“When we were thinking what we were going to do for this business we were still stuck on that and we felt initially when we were dreaming up our future that Refine was something that we really liked,” Stephen said. “When it came down to renaming this business we kept coming back to that.”

Refine is also a word the group uses to describe what they’ve done to the business in the first three months, along with the industry, in general, according to Erb. 

“I think that construction, in general, has had a kind of stigma,” he said. “I believe that the way we want to do business and the way that we carry ourselves, the way our employees carry themselves where we’re people-oriented and also trying to be a successful construction company.”

While the company has seen a majority of local business in the first three months, construction jobs have expanded throughout the region as Refine Homes makes its own footprint in the market. Starting that out under the successful Summers Construction and Design line Joy and Mike Summers created has worked out just fine for the new company.