From the CEO: First Quarter Recap

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Join three industry leaders as they share their financial insights and predictions for the foreseeable future. 

On season 2, episode 15 of Coffee Conversations, RCS Partner, Heidi J. Ellsworth is joined by Adam Oaks, Deryl Kratzer and Will Lorenz to take an honest look at the current standing of the roofing industry as the first quarter of 2021 comes to a close. Each guest brings a distinct point of view into the conversation, from contracting, to manufacturing and the technology perspective. 

Deryl Kratzer is currently with National Roofing Partners (NRP) and has been in the roofing industry for over 35 years. He previously worked at Tremco for 30 years, learning the ins and outs of the manufacturing side of roofing, and now is experiencing the contractor side of the trade.  

“National Roofing Partners is an organization of tier one contractors; we have an excess of 200 right now, and that's what we're doing is providing unparalleled service nationwide,” said Deryl. "We've been very successful in the first quarter, so we're pretty excited about the path that we developed and in the journey that we're on.” 

Adam Oaks is the CEO of Estimating Edge and has a lot of experience working with technology in the roofing industry. Adam began his career at a young age, “back when our customers would walk into the plan room and do an actual takeoff on a real blueprint,” Adam joked.  

Will Lorenz works at General Coatings, a manufacturer of spray foam and roof coatings. The company is particularly involved in the roof recovery business, which has been picking up speed within residential markets. Will is also the president of Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association (RCMA), which represents about 55 manufacturers of roof coatings across the U.S. 

“We represent [companies doing] maintenance and repair coatings all the way up to fully adhered systems that are done with coatings and additional materials. So, we represent acrylic, silicones, urethanes, bituminous coatings [and more],” said Will.  

Adam kicked off the conversation by pulling up some useful analytics for roofing bids from 2019, 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. His data shows promising results for the roofing industry overall, predicting strong growth throughout 2021. 

"The bidding is pretty remarkable,” said Adam. “I think you're going to start to see, or already are, probably more competitive bids, maybe more people bidding on the same project. That's the kind of trend that we're seeing.” 

Deryl agreed, sharing experiences he had while talking with some NRP partners on the West Coast, Midwest and East Coast.  

“Without exception, all of their backlogs are bigger than ever,” said Deryl. “So, the confidence is just really roaring right now. There's lots of activity going on, or as you're starting to see some of the big box [stores] actually come out with more opportunities.” 

Importantly, Will brought in what could affect industry growth and hamper roofing businesses from taking advantages of these market upswings. Specifically, the unavailability of labor and materials being the strongest deterrent for future growth.  

"[Those are] the challenges that the roofing industry has been working through,” said Will. “I think we're all optimistic that it's going to continue to improve, and as we get to the third quarter it's going to normalize and hopefully the market itself will find an equilibrium that can support better growth for the construction trade.”  

Read, Listen or Watch the entire Coffee Conversations to learn more about this exciting first quarter and what it means for the rest of the year.