GUARANTEEING A SONNY EXPERIENCE

General Manager Kegahn Hopwood underscores the legacy of Sunco founder in the rebranding on the family-owned business.

The Sunco family lost the cornerstone of its business in January. Sonny Perry, Sunco founder and father, and grandfather to his business partners,  came to work at the Mooresville-based construction business every day until the week-and-a-half before he passed at the age of 94.

Since that time, the family has been working to redesign its mission statements and marketing in a way that honors his memory and displays the strengths of the company they built together, said Kegahn Hopwood, grandson to Perry and general manager at Sunco,

“We’re in a transition period of losing his leadership and trying to establish ourselves as a team to honor his legacy the best we can,” Kegahn said. “There are lots of directions we could be going. Right now, we want to capture his legacy the best we can and see where that propels us forward.”

Included is Sunco’s commitment to offering “A Sonny Experience,” stating “When you choose Sunco, you’re not just getting a construction partner, you’re getting an experience that’s built on trust, integrity, and a commitment to exceeding your expectations at every turn. It’s a promise of unwavering quality, relentless dedication to excellence, and the genuine warmth of a trusted friend, just like Sonny himself.”

IT TAKES A TEAM

Kegahn is the third generation in the family business. He initially went to Purdue University to major in physics but changed his major to construction engineering after realizing he’d rather be involved in the practical world. Graduating in 2009 was a tough time entering the construction industry, in the midst of an economic recession. That’s when he joined the family business with his parents and grandparents at Sunco.

Before 2009, Sunco was considered more of a hobby business. His grandfather, Sonny Perry, ran Perry Acoustics, offering acoustic ceilings, and his parents, Joni and Bryant Hopwood, ran KDH Construction, a custom home building business. If they had a client who needed work that didn’t fit in with those two businesses, they did it through Sunco. In 2009, they merged the construction businesses together and began to grow Sunco, offering
new builds and remodeling work for both commercial and residential clients. At that time, it was the four of them doing all the work: the bidding, managing and completing the projects. They hired their first official full-time employee in 2014, an estimator who recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary with Sunco.

Sunco remains a family-owned business, now owned and operated by Bryant, Joni, Kegahn, Denton Hopwood and Cris Mynatt. They have done everything from a residential bathroom remodel on up to large new commercial buildings. They have grown to 30 employees and still offer the same services today, just on a larger scale.

“I love operating a business and watching it be successful,” Kegahn said. “It is none of my doing. I have a wonderful team here. I have great family members in the ownership team. We are on a great path of working together and agreeing on a direction. It takes all 30 of us that are here to make it happen.”