How Roofing Professionals are Managing Ongoing Supply Chain Issues

By Gary Thill, International Roofing Expo (IRE). 

Roofers prove their resiliency in face of “ongoing and relentless” shortages. 

The most recent data from the National Roofing Contractors Assocation (NRCA) combined with an IRE Business Update Flash Poll proves what we all know: roofing contractors can weather most anything. Roofers seem to be able to pull through even the worst of economic circumstances. Despite unprecedented supply chain bottlenecks and shortages following a worldwide pandemic that caused costs to spike and made essential materials hard to acquire, roofers remain optimistic for the future of the industry. 

The IRE Business Update Flash Poll revealed that 94% of roofers are currently experiencing supply chain issues. For now though, such volatility isn’t wholly dampening demand, at least based on the most recent Re-Roofing Market Survey from NRCA. According to the association: 

Nearly 300 respondents completed the eight-question survey during a two-week period in April; nearly two-thirds of responses came from contractors, and the balance came from roof consultants. The results indicate market conditions generally are improving for the roofing industry in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

Some topline excerpts of the survey: 

• 42% of all respondents indicated their customer inquiries increased during the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same quarter in 2020. 21% of respondents reported a decrease in customer inquiries during the same period, and 37% indicated no change in activity. 

• The survey revealed a similar trend for project contracts with 41% of respondents reporting an increase during the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same quarter in 2020 and 24% reporting a decrease in project contracts during the same period. 

• 18% of roofing contractors reported no project backlogs, 38% reported project backlogs of one to two months and 24% reported project backlogs of three to four months. 

Reports from roofers themselves back up those somewhat encouraging figures, along with some of the red flags they raise around shrinking project backlogs.  

Derric Stull, president/owner of Ridge Valley Exteriors, Inc. in Kennesaw, Georgia, had the following to report: 

Though it is not daily, it surely feels like daily we are battling shortage notices, price increase announcements, etc.  
Among the biggest challenges we are facing is product/color availability.  This is causing some real challenges in scheduling and coordinating installs.   

We are combating the challenges of supply chain shortages in a couple of ways:  

• We are working extremely close with our distribution partners. We are communicating daily with them on what we see coming down the pipeline for new business, to get ahead of ordering schedules and lead times.   

• We have moved our installs out farther. Historically we try to run two to three week lead times. In today's environment we are moving full re-roof installs out three to six weeks in order to ensure we have product on the ground for our crew team members.   

• We started bulk buying products in Q4 of 2020 in order to combat what we thought would continue with supply chain shortages.    

Rod Petrick, president of Ridgeworth Roofing Co. Inc., Frankfort, Illinois, and NRCA’s board chairman echoed these strategies. He added: “We have also started to take factory directs to our shop if the project is not ready. This allows us to start as soon as possible once notified that the project is ready.” 

He shared the following anecdote of how his business is being affected. “We are now placing orders as soon as contracts hit our office. We had placed an order yesterday for a project and were told possibly late August or early September for the insulation. This will not be acceptable to our client so we now are forced to look at other options.” 

Despite these significant challenges, Petrick, like many roofers, remains optimistic. “These issues make it an interesting year and will test the patience of all involved,” he said. “Hopefully, we will all be able to look back at this and talk about how we survived the great material availability crisis of 2021.” 

Learn more about IRE in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.theroofingexpo.com. 

Original article source: IRE