About - Wingfoot Building Group
Pictured from left to right: Jerry Pettus Sr., Alfred Simonini, J.R. Pettus
Alfred Simonini
Alfred Simonini is originally from Chicago, Illinois, where he lived for almost 50 years before moving to Lake Wylie, South Carolina. Alfred, along with his brother, owned Industrial Cork Company, which specialized in building large refrigeration facilities throughout the U.S. for companies like Sara Lee. Alfred formed Simonini Builders in 1973 and began building homes in River Hills Plantation in Lake Wylie, after moving south to the Charlotte area. Alfred's two sons, Alan and David, later joined him in the company and together they built some of Charlotte's finest homes. They built homes in Eastover, Myers Park, and in the Peninsula at Lake Norman until 1994, when Alfred sold his 50% interest in the company. Alfred has re-entered the home building business and joined forces with fellow River Hills neighbors, Jerry Pettus and his son JR Pettus, to form Wingfoot Building group.
Jerry Pettus, Sr.
Jerry Pettus is originally from Charlotte,
North Carolina having lived there until moving to Lake Wylie in 1973. In
1960 he began his career working with his father and brother in J & J Candy Company and J & J Sales. Then in the early seventies he went into the music distribution business.
In 1984, with his son Jerry Pettus, Jr. they started a new company United
American Video in Charlotte. United American Video was a distributor, manufacturer
and content producer of children’s animation to all the major chain stores
in the US. After extreme growth UAV moved to a new manufacturing /distribution
facility in Fort Mill, South Carolina in 1991. UAV was listed as one of the
fastest growing companies in South Carolina for two years in a row by the
SC Chamber of Commerce. United American Video was sold in 2002.
At this time Mr. Pettus along with his son and Alfred Simonini have formed Wingfoot Building Group, LLC.
JR Pettus
JR Pettus was co-founder of United American
Video Corp in 1984. United American Video started as a home video label specializing
in classic movies, kids and family programming on VHS video. UAV as it came
to be called grew, into a 130M annual revenue business that was one of the
top independent labels and distributors of filmed entertainment, music and
software. UAV distributed direct to retail and direct response customers
and eventually had home entertainment product in over 50,000 stores nationwide.
JR started out developing the product for the video label, then became Sales
Manager. JR started calling on Wal-Mart Stores in 1989 and landed the account
and served as the Principle Sales Manager for Wal-Mart Stores for the next
12 years. He became CEO in 1997 succeeding his father who moved into the
Chairman position. JR also created a successful film production division
which is still in business to this day. JR’s areas of responsibility in the
company were strategic planning, business line expansion, product development, marketing, sales, licensing and productions. UAV was successfully
sold in 2002.
JR along with his father are currently operating a real estate development and marketing company along with ownership in Wingfoot Building Group, LLC. Wingfoot develops land and builds residential homes in North and South Carolina.
