Pictured left to right: daughter Sicilia, Mark Sunneberg Jr., son Lukas, Mark’s wife Brittany, and daughter Sophia.
Local engineer and alumni has returned to his roots, bringing his family and his business with him to Pawnee City. Mark Sunneberg Jr., initial start to his business was while living hundreds of miles away.
While living in Arizona in 2005, Sunneberg was working for a company that had him designing and selling products. He would attend sales meetings to talk about the products he designed. Soon the buyers started reaching out to him directly, which then had the owner of the company asking him to take over the sales department.
In 2011, after his daughter was born, Sunneberg decided he wanted to raise his family in Nebraska. He had great memories from his hometown, and decided he wanted to raise his kids with the same virtues and values he was taught. In July 2013, he moved his family home to Pawnee City. Sunneberg stated, “this was the best decision I’ve truly ever made in my life.”
After moving back to Pawnee City, he started out designing products in his garage. First, he made a health and beauty organizer. He started selling these products through e-commerce outlets like Wayfair, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Rite-Aid. As he continued to grow, he started looking for warehouse space. He found a repair shop on the north side of town, where on one side there was space to rent so he moved his business. There, he started designing more products.
His company which started with one product, now offers more than 100 different items with around 60 SKU’s. Sunneberg’s top product is a retractable garden hose with a braking and multi-locking system.
He attended trade shows to help promote his product. The first big box store to purchase his product was Costco and now between Mexico, Canada and USA, Costco orders 55 ocean containers of the retractable hose. That product is now sold worldwide at stores including, Costco, Menards, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, Sam’s Club, Amazon and many other retail and online stores.
As Sunneberg has grown, the need for a larger facility grew also, so in 2023 he built a new warehouse. The new facility houses both the distribution center and the corporate offices. Items ordered from any online retail store are shipped directly to the customer from this Nebraska location. The facility is 100 x 150, with 22’ sidewalls stacked tall. There are two stories of offices.
Currently Sunneday employes five employees and once the offices are complete, they will be looking to add six to eight new employees as the company continues to grow.
Sunneday, not only a family name, but also a hint to where he plans to go with the designing of future outdoor products, such as lawn and garden.
He said the goal for 2024 is to design 10 more products, with the 5-year plan to expand to a second larger facility that will be 10 times the size of the current facility.
Sunneberg shared a piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, “If you have an idea, and you are passionate about it, go with it. The idea you started with may not be the product you finish with, but taking that initial step is key to progress and growth.”
Pawnee City is a retail customer of Nebraska Public Power District.
Source: The Pawnee Republican, Courtney Kosiski