Our Company's History

Beginning in 1982 in the City of La Puente, California and known as Computech Electronic Supply at that time, our company designed, manufactured and sold electronic training kits, many of which included solar cell technology to students that attended educational institutions such as Devry Institute, California Polytechnic Institute, Mount San Antonio College, ITT Tech as well as other institutions throughout Southern California.

Upon entering the "Internet Age" in 1997 our company changed its name to Electronic Parts On Sale, registered the domain name "partsonsale.com", moved our offices to Bloomington, California and added commercially prepared renewable energy components to our product line.

In 1998 we  dropped the majority of our component level products such as diodes, capacitors, transistors and transformers from our product line and began focusing our attention exclusively on designing and selling complete renewable energy systems and related components.

In 1999 we began buying factory direct from Kyocera Solar Inc. and greatly expanded the number pre-engineered solar electric kit offerings.

In the year 2000 we became California's first and only factory authorized Trace Engineering (now Xantrex Technology) repair center offering repair service to the full line of Xantrex products. We also began purchasing factory direct from Matrix/Photowatt Solar and expanded our warehouse facility to an excess of 4,500 sq. ft. and began a concerted effort to dramatically increased our in-house inventory levels to better serve our clients.

In 2001 we incorporated under our current name of Solatron Technologies to more accurately reflect our focus on renewable energy products and began purchasing factory direct from Xantrex Technology, Unirac and Two Seas Metal Works. We stepped up our marketing efforts by becoming the first renewable energy company in Southern California to advertise on KFI, KNX and KABC radio. We also began an advertising campaign on Charter Cable TV as a sponsor of Steven Spielberg's hit science fiction thriller "Taken". Our gross revenues for 2001 grew to more than $1.6 million.

In 2002 we moved our operation from the leased facility in Bloomington, California and purchased a commercial building as well as two adjoining commercially zoned vacant lots in Victorville, California. We hosted Southern California's first and largest renewable energy expo at the Fairplex in Pomona with several thousand people in attendance. See Website An additional I-15 freeway frontage property was also purchased for the purpose of future expansion. Our gross revenues for 2002 grew to over $1.9 million.

In 2003 we began purchasing directly from Outback Power Inc. We acquired the domain name Solarhome.com which was immediately converted into an active website for the primary purpose of marketing our high performance grid intertie systems. Our gross revenue for 2002 grew to over $2.1 million.

In 2004 we employed the services of M&L Keith and Associates to initiate the design and permitting process for the construction of a new showroom and warehouse on the adjoining vacant commercial properties that we previously purchased. We held our second Renewable Energy Expo at the Fairplex in Pomona with even a greater audience in attendance than our 2002 Expo. Our gross revenues for 2004 grew to over $2.4 million.

2005 was a banner year for Solatron Technologies. We broke ground on our new Victorville warehouse and showroom. See Images We acquired a 9 acre I-15 Freeway frontage property for future expansion. We entered into an agreement to become one of only five direct dealers in the entire U.S. of Mitsubishi Electric solar modules. We became a direct distributor of PV Powered and Magnum Energy inverter products. We established Advantage Solar for the purpose of serving our ever growing wholesale dealer network. Our gross revenue for 2005 nearly doubled over 2004's revenue at over $4.35 million.

2006 topped all of our previous years with over $10 million in revenues. Our new Victorville showroom and warehouse finally reached completion. We established a direct relation with SMA America, manufacturers of the Sunny Boy line of inverters. We formed three new companies including Advantage Solar Inc. with it's own dedicated staff for serving our network of more than 100 dealers nationwide, Best Buy Solar Inc. Inc. for the sole purpose of offering residential grid tie solar electric systems to the Southern California market, and Best Buy Solar Inc. for our new Oregon facility to better service our Oregon, Northern and Central Californian customers.  Three commercially zoned properties with an existing office facility were purchased with frontage on highway 101 in Gold Beach, Oregon, and a second showroom and warehouse facility was purchased on South Pacific Highway in Talent, Oregon.

 

Future Goals

With more than $2 million dollars worth of pre-sold grid intertie systems by the middle of January 2007. This year is getting off to a unprecedented start.

We are now in negotiations with an Oregon contractor to begin the design and permitting phase for the construction of a new multi-story showroom and warehouse facility in Oregon to take the place of the existing office facility.

We are also in talks with a California contractor to begin the design and permitting phase of the construction of a new sales office with frontage along the I-15 freeway in Victorville, California.