There’s good news and bad news for Orange County when it comes to one of its fastest-growing private companies.
The bad news is that Verengo Solar Plus is in the process of moving its executive offices to Torrance, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.
The good news: Most of the 222 jobs the company has created here will stay here.
The better news is that they’re jobs “that can’t be shipped offshore,” said Ken Button, president and cofounder of the solar panal installation company that has seen business boom with the help of government rebates.
Verengo had $36.2 million in sales for the 12 months through June, a 298% jump from two years earlier that landed it the No. 13 spot on the Business Journal’s list of fastest-growing companies based here (see related stories, pages 1 and 3; Special Report, page 31; list starting on page 41).
Verengo has added jobs steadily since it started in 2008. About 80 positions are expected to shift to Torrance in November, mostly in administration, finance, human resources and marketing.
Construction workers, roofers and electricians make up most of the rest of the payroll.
Verengo now employs about 600 people companywide, a total that’s more than doubled this year. It now includes groups of about 40 spread over new markets in Northern California, the Central Valley and New Jersey. Another 100 work in a call center in Phoenix.
New Jersey is a growing market for solar energy, considered by many to offer the best subsidies besides California for consumers and businesses.
The company’s growth has outstripped its Orange headquarters, leading to the executive team’s move to Torrance, where Verengo has leased a 16,000-square-foot office.
• Headquarters: Orange
• Business: solor panel installation
• Founded: 2008
• Annual revenue: $36.2 million
• Two-year increase: 298%
• Notable: No. 13 on this week’s Fastest-Growing Companies list
“We just ran out of desks and places to put chairs,” Button said.
The expansion into the Central Valley and Northern California followed a $9.7 million investment from Angeleno Group LLC, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that targets alternative energy companies.
Verengo now is installing about 200 systems a month for homeowners, from affluent environmentalists to older folks on fixed incomes. That’s up from 70 to 80 earlier this year.
About half of the systems, which convert sunlight to electricity, are in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Late last year, Verengo partnered with San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank NA on a financing program for homeowners. The pilot program broadened home equity loans and lines of credit to cover solar installations.
Smaller solar-power systems can cost a few thousand dollars. Bigger ones easily can top six figures.
A typical system is roughly $40,000.
The solar industry is a fast-growing sector, spurred by government rebates and incentives, but it faces long-term challenges on financing and affordability.
Button said those hurdles are becoming less daunting to overcome as new financing options become available and the market evolves.
“We’ve started to move beyond early adopters and the green crowd,” he said, adding that most new installations are for middle-income homeowners looking to save money.
Solar panel makers such as Seal Beach-based Amonix Inc. are aiming for economies of scale on the production side, Button said.
That holds the potential to bring down the costs and ease the need for subsidies.
“There is going to be a point where technology and the scale is all there but we’re not there yet,” he said.
