It's People like Marianne Sumter of Wil-Mar Products That Make Products Great!

Marianne Sumter is the success behind your favorite pipe collar.

By Heidi J. Ellsworth, partner RoofersCoffeeShop.com

I have been lucky enough to work with Marianne Sumter, president of Wil-Mar Products over the last three years. Vickie has enjoyed working with her for much longer. We decided to call a few of her distributors and ask them about Wil-Mar Pipe Collars. I visited with Heather Malone from ABC Supply in San Jose, CA and asked about her experience with pipe collars and how it is to work with Marianne.

Heather, tell us why you stock Wil-Mar Pipe Collars at your branch?

All we sell are Wil-Mar pipe collars, but you need to understand that they are not branded.  No one really knows they are buying a Wil-Mar pipe collar, but we do. There is nothing that really competes with the quality of Wil-Mar pipe collars and their customer service is amazing.  Every ABC is different and gets to pick their vendors. In California we really like Wil-Mar pipe collars, in fact most of the California stores stock Wilmar, 17 stores in total.

Do the contractors ask for Wil-Mar Pipe Collars?

Not really, because they just know to ask for pipe collars when filling their orders.  Contractors don’t know it is Wil-Mar, but they know it is good. So yes, they should ask for Wil-Mar pipe collars because we never have complaints or problems. They love them and keep adding them to their orders.

What about other pipe collars?

There are other pipe collars out there, but we have seen and heard that a lot of pipe collars do not hold up. Other brands can crack and deteriorate but we have had no problems with Wil-Mar.

How is working with Marianne?

Marianne is great, very helpful. She gets right back to us with great customer service. We really like to work with her. It is amazing how many vendors do not respond but Marianne always takes care of us. We love working with her.

Here is a little about Marianne Sumter and Wil-Mar Products, Inc.

Wil-Mar Products, Inc. was founded by W. R. “Bill” Merrin in 1990. Bill was a roofing contractor who realized a need in the industry to seal the vent pipe to a roof flashing and eliminate mastic and taping. The Pipe Collar was invented and patented. It continues to provide a permanent weather tight vent pipe counter flashing that is warranted to last the life of the roofing system being installed.

Sadly, Bill passed away in 1995 when Wil-Mar had just started to take off. Marianne, Bill’s wife, left a great job at General Electric and took over the business. She had to learn everything about the roofing company and Wil-Mar rubber pipe collar. For the last 23 years, Marianne has grown Wil-Mar into a highly respected roofing product manufacturing business that offers collars for pipes and solar installations.

So, my question to all of you is, “Do you know who is making what you are buying when you walk in your roofing distributor?” 

If you are looking for pipe collars, I would recommend asking for Wil-Mar. You may think a pipe collar is just a generic, commodity product that you can grab while picking up your materials but there is a commitment to quality when that pipe collar is Wil-Mar.