Built to a Higher Standard Since 1982
For more than forty years, the same workshop has been building roll shutters in Ontario. Different names on the sign, different generations behind the work, but the same product line, the same customer base, and the same standards passed from one owner to the next.
Today the business is Sunrise Rollups and Shades.
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Before that it was DDK Security and Shade Products. Either way: 10,000 installations, 4,000 customers, and a quiet reputation across Southwestern Ontario for getting it right.
Where this began (1982)
In 1982, Heinz and Florence Lehnen introduced roll shutters to Ontario at a time when almost nobody else was making them in Canada. It was not an obvious move. Roll shutters were common in Europe, particularly in Germany, but Canadian homeowners and businesses had never been offered one. Heinz and Florence believed the product was worth bringing here, and they were right.
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An aluminium shutter mounted on the outside of a window could cut energy bills, reduce noise, deter break-ins, and protect against weather, all at the same time. It took time to explain this to customers who had never seen the product before. Heinz and Florence did that explaining for twenty-two years, one conversation and one installation at a time.
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By the time Heinz was ready to step back, they had built nearly 4,000 customer relationships and completed 10,000 installations across the region. The business they created became the benchmark for roll shutter work in Southwestern Ontario. Every ownership transition since has built on what they started.
Continuing the work (2004)
In 2004, Bob Rye began training under Heinz. Bob brought twenty-five years of manufacturing experience to the work and learned the trade directly from the person who had built the market in Ontario. When Heinz retired, Bob and Norma Marten took over operations.
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For eighteen years, Bob and Norma carried the business with a level of personal attention that is difficult to describe without meeting the people who experienced it. Bob had a gift for products. He knew every component, every failure mode, every repair scenario. Customers trusted his recommendations because he earned that trust, one honest conversation at a time. Norma kept the operation running and the relationships intact through every season.
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The customer connections Bob and Norma built across Southwestern Ontario did not stay behind when the business changed hands. Many of those customers are still Sunrise customers today. That kind of loyalty does not transfer by accident. It was built over eighteen years of showing up, doing the work correctly, and meaning it.
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His commitment to craftsmanship, and the standard he held himself to, is a legacy Sunrise continues to carry.
A new chapter (2019 to 2022)
The connection with Bob came through a different business. Sebastian Kellner had started Backyard Escape Studios in 2014, a custom outdoor structures company, and in 2019 he came to DDK looking for roll shutters for one of the studio builds.
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The conversation went somewhere unexpected. Sebastian had grown up in Germany around his uncle's workshop and remembered building roll shutters as a teenager. He had not known the product was available in Canada. By the end of the meeting he had told Bob, half-joking, that if Bob ever wanted to retire he should let him know. Sebastian came with a construction background, roll shutter repair experience from Germany, and a decade of running a product development company that took designs from concept to patents to market.
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Bob chuckled at the offer at the time. Over the following year his health turned, and the casual conversation became serious. In 2022, after Bob initiated the discussion, Sebastian and Breanne Kellner bought the business and rebranded it as Sunrise Rollups and Shades. The product line stayed. The customer base stayed. Heinz's original standards stayed. The European craftsmanship Sebastian had grown up with came with him.
What "Built to a Higher Standard" means
The tagline carries two meanings. Both matter to how the work gets done.
The first is faith-rooted. Sunrise's standard is not self-imposed. It reflects accountability to God, the Creator. Every shutter, every install, every interaction with a customer is measured against that. The work has a witness beyond the people who pay for it, which means it has to be done right whether anyone is checking or not.
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That conviction shows up in the small things. Corner trims that line up. The cleanup after the crew leaves. The honest answer when an opening is wrong for a particular product. The willingness to return years later when something needs servicing. None of those things are mandated by a contract. All of them follow from the standard.​
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The second meaning is practical and customer-centred. Good enough is the trade norm. Sunrise is not satisfied with good enough. A project is finished when the customer is satisfied with how it works, not when the install crew clocks out. That commitment shapes every step. Listening carefully before recommending. Measuring twice. Choosing the right profile for the opening rather than the easiest one to stock. Treating service on legacy systems as part of the responsibility instead of someone else's problem.
Both come to the same thing in practice. A small local team. Custom-built aluminium roll shutters and exterior motorised screens for every opening. The people who answer the phone are the same people who measure your opening, build your shutter, and install it. Drew, Tom, Breanne, Sebastian.
Where Sunrise works
Sunrise serves Southwestern Ontario directly from the workshop in Port Stanley, covering London, St. Thomas, Sarnia, Chatham, Woodstock, Stratford, the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and surrounding towns. Trade partners cover other regions across the province.
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If you have a project, a repair on any brand or system, or a question that is not answered here, send a photo of the opening and a few rough measurements. Sunrise will tell you what is possible.