Rimol Greenhouses Grows Sales

While summer may be a fading memory, business for Rimol Greenhouses continues to bloom. The Hooksett company sells hundreds of greenhouses annually and is adding 8,000 square feet to its manufacturing facility to keep up with demand.

Business has grown 10 percent annually during the last five years and the company now has eight employees, with another to be added soon, says founder Bob Rimol, who owns the company with Mike Marett, manager of operations. While horticulture operations (garden centers) used to make up a large part of business, vegetable growers have become the company's cash crop, spurring its recent growth. It goes back to the green movement and more people wanted to eat locally, Rimol says. Mike and I, from a management perspective, saw certain things coming and stayed ahead of the curve. Farms, which are severely affected by weather variations, make up 75 percent of Rimol's business. 

Greenhouses range from 1,000 square feet to as large as 10,000 square feet, though most are about 2,500. The simplest and cheapest greenhouse, a high tunnel, costs a few dollars a square foot and is mostly unheated. Hydroponic (where vegetables are grown in a solution, not in soil) and horticulture models cost $7 to $10 per square foot, while the most expensive models cost $25 per square foot and often include heating systems so they can be used year round.

You can get a July climate in there for six months out of the year instead of one month, Rimol says of the unheated greenhouses. Rimol Greenhouses are made of galvanized steel tubing and plastic covering, which needs replacing about every five years. Rimol describes the greenhouses as giant erector sets consisting of hundreds of screws, bolts and other various materials.

While only 5 percent of sales are in NH-greenhouses are sold throughout the United States and Canada-customers include Achille Agway in Keene and Chakarian Farms in Derry. The company is also growing sales to schools, including Southmeadow School in Peterborough, which uses them as an educational tool.

For more information, visit www.rimolgreenhouses.com.