Duro-Last's dedication to growth, quality and connections

By Emma Peterson.

President Darren Schulz shares why listening is such an important part of his leadership and the company’s future plans.  

In a new episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth travels to Saginaw, Michigan to speak to Duro-Last President Darren Schulz. Like many of us in the industry, Darren never expected to be where he is today. His story begins in a small, rural, dairy farming community across the globe in Australia. When he got out of school there, he entered the workforce as an accountant, which he did for ten years. While the job was a fun challenge, he realized he wanted something else. That’s when he came to the U.S. Darren shared a bit more about this part of his life, saying, “So, I came to the U.S. with a view to change careers, came over here to do an MBA. And out of business school, I joined the world of building products 23 years ago.”

His transition into the roofing world came through a company called Boral, which was Australian owned but had operations in America for 46 years (they recently have left). Darren explained, “During the time I was there, I learned and worked in projects helping improve the efficiency of production and better customer service and these kinds of things. And after a couple of years of doing that, the guy who was running the quite small roofing business that Boral had at the time, it was traded under the U.S. Tile brand, the clay roof tile business, asked me to go out to Corona, California for a brief visit.” That visit wound up with years spent at Boral Roofing and a career in the roofing industry.  

Today, Darren is the president of Duro-Last, a position he’s had for a little less than a year. In that time, he has traveled around the country visiting Duro-Last sites and listening to what the company’s people are saying. He emphasized that listening is the key part of what he’s doing right now, “Spending time out in the marketplace, talking to our contractors and our sales folks, just getting to know the people, I call this a listening tour and that’s such an important part of who Duro-Last is.”  

While the core of Duro-Last might be producing high-quality products, it's the voices of the contractors and professionals using those products that guides them. Darren explained, “We see ourselves as partners with our contractors. And so I've learned a lot about what that actually means, spending time with people. And as we think about our future and ambitions for growth, it's been a really important that we hang onto our DNA, which is built around the strength of those relationships with our contractors. Whenever we bring new products or we open up a new facility, we want our contractors to grow with us.”

Read the transcript, Listen to the episode or Watch the video to learn more about Darren and Duro-Last!