The Leonardis family runs Ember Industries, a Texas circuit board manufacturer. When the 2015 Blanco River flood dumped 32 inches of water into their factory, an SBA disaster loan let them rebuild and keep 65 employees.
Questions this video answers
May 2015
About 30–32 inches
About 65 employees
May 4, 2017
Chapters
Since 1998, the SBA has presented the Phoenix Award to business owners and individuals who displayed courage, resourcefulness, and tenacity in the aftermath of a disaster while contributing to the rebuilding of their community.
My name is Rob Leonardis, and our company is Ember Industries. I took over as president in 2008.
I'm Frank Leonardis. I'm the vice president of finance and administration at Ember Industries.
My name is Greg Leonardis. My job is engineering manager.
We build custom printed circuit boards, wire harness and cable harnesses, and then custom mechanical assemblies. We make products for the drone, aircraft industry, medical companies for security, perimeter fencing, access control products, things of that nature. Our company is a family business.
It's been very rewarding being able to grow a company with your family.
When you go to trust someone with the finances of the company and stuff, yes, there's nothing like trusting your brothers. Trust is unbreakable.
My hope that we can continue to grow as a company and our children would be interested in joining and taking over the business as we did with our father.
Things were going great. I mean, honestly, the factory was going wonderfully, and June, we're on pace for a record. It would have been our highest June we've ever had. And instead, the Blanco river decided to come and, you know, come over its banks.
In May of 2015, the Blanco river here in San Marcos overflowed its banks to record levels that hadn't been seen since around 1929, I believe.
We had 30, 32 inches of water in the entire.
Basically ruined all of our manufacturing equipment and shut us down. It was pretty devastating.
To be honest. It was sick to my stomach for a long time.
About a week into it, our dad came to us and said, should we be doing this? Should we be trying to even rebuild this?
The Office of Disaster Assistance at SBA looks at businesses that have suffered through a disaster, recovered, put their employees back to work. And Rob's story about how SBA's disaster loan helped the business recover was one of preserving the American dream. The media likes to ask me, how big is this disaster compared to the others you've seen? Bill? And I always say, if I just lost my business, it's the biggest disaster there is.
My family at home means a lot to me. I have a wife and two kids, and the family here at work is just as important.
Without the SBA loan, not only would we not have been able to survive the company, but all of our employees and their families.
I think it's remarkable that Ember Industries has come back. I think it's remarkable they've been as successful in the wake of this as they have been. They haven't just rebuilt. They've grown bigger. They've grown better. Every person here can say that they have a piece of that and they own that.
Seeing the Lenardists go through what they've worked so hard to accomplish and taking care of all of the employees they knew, not only their families, but. But taking care of all of our families as well.
I lost my home. I was scared about the flood. The water. Every time heavy rain come in, I just so worried. Yeah. Ember still pay me.
During the time of the flood, Ember continued our paychecks for or pay for all of the employees. Those that were working came in every day, even though we were not. Ember was not bringing in product. They continue to pay all of us. Yes.
Yeah. Amber, treat me good. So good. Yeah, I do love Rob, Greg, and Frank.
We probably have about 65 employees. Then you have all their families. And the number of people that the company impacts is. Plus all of our customers that are counting on us is a really large number of people. I honestly believe we wouldn't have been able to rebuild without the SBA loan. It helped us continue on living the American dream. Thank you, bill. We appreciate you. Thank you for the sba's help.
