Young Contractors Finding the Right Manufacturer Part 1

By Heidi J. Ellsworth. 

Understand how the next generation of contractors is impacting the roofing industry and what they’re doing differently. 

The next generation of roofing contractors is making a big impact on the roofing industry, and they are doing things a little differently.  A great example of this is James & Whitney Inc. in Maine, a general contracting and roofing company that is young but powerful as they change the way business is done. 

“My business partner and I both had separate construction companies, and his originally was owned by his father,” stated Steve Whitney, co-founder of James & Whitney.  “He is a second-generation owner and he actually purchased it from his father in his mid-twenties, and I started my construction company when I was 19.” 

Having worked in construction since he was 15, Whitney cut his teeth working for a local builder and then worked with a company called the Shelter Institute in Woolwich, Maine.   

“They teach people to build timber frames,” said Whitney. “They've been around since the ‘70s and are a really wonderful company owned by an amazing family. If anyone wants to build a timber frame building or just learn how, they should absolutely look up the Shelter Institute. They are the best at it in the world.” 

It was that training and experience that set a high standard of performance for Whitney when it came to construction.   

From timber frames Whitney moved quickly into fine carpentry.   

“I did a lot of trim carpentry along with overall carpentry,” he said. “I then started getting into some exterior work and with the economy doing what it did in 2009, I ended up going out on my own. It offered me an opportunity to start my own company while still being a subcontractor.” 

Whitney met Eric James in 2016 and started James & Whitney in the beginning of 2017.  

“At first, we both had a passion for real estate investing. We had these separate construction companies, and it really began as a joint venture.  We started the conversation of merging, and the rest is history. We started doing just the same thing that we were doing, high-end renovations, remodeling projects, a couple new construction builds a year, and then working on the real estate together. And as we continued to build, we realized there's a huge opportunity for us to scale the business in the exteriors area, and we wanted to start with roofing.” 

Whitney continued, “We both knew construction so well that roofing seemed like a pretty natural place to start. We felt like we had the customer service experience needed for success. We had the knowledge from the building side that there wouldn't be anything we would come in contact with that we did not know how to solve.  So, we worked really hard to build the right processes before we ever even launched the roofing division.” 

Starting the roofing division in January 2021, the business scaled quickly.  

“In the first year that we started the exteriors division, we did $2.8 million in sales, all residential. And then 2022, this past year we did $9.8 million in the second year – still all residential,” noted Whitney.  “TAMKO has been a big part of our growth.” 

TAMKO Building Products LLC, a leading independent manufacturer of residential roofing shingles, has been innovating the manufacturing of premium asphalt shingles for more than 75 years.  Whitney and James connected with TAMKO at a Journal of Light Construction (JLC) trade show.  “Every year we go to the JLC show in Providence, Rhode Island and in 2021 we showed up with one goal, which was to find a better option for our roofing materials,” stated Whitney.  “We were looking for a more flexible manufacturer to work with who could help us grow our business but not tie our hands with system requirements. We were intent on finding a high-performing shingle that we could parlay with different accessories.” 

They met several key TAMKO sales representatives and knew that it was going to be a great fit.   

“We told them, ‘Hey, we're nothing special right now, but we intend to get bigger and bigger in the exterior side. We're looking for someone that will partner with us and that will support us,’” Whitney said. 

At the show, Whitney witnessed the now legendary “Titan Tough” test highlighting the strength of Titan XT’s reinforced nail line with water jugs.  

“We could not believe that they could tie a couple of water jugs to a shingle and pick it up off the ground without the shingle tearing.  As we watched, we were amazed and knew this shingle would work on the coastline of Maine,” explained Whitney.  “We knew this was a great selling point and this shingle could be an amazing opportunity for our business. The performance of the shingle and the flexibility with the overall system warranty was an excellent combination for our sales and production teams.” 

What the James & Whitney team saw was the newest innovations from TAMKO, featured in the Titan XT® shingle.  The shingles feature some of the most advanced innovative technology in the industry. With powerful engineering, Titan XT® shingles are designed to offer an advantage for both homeowners and contractors, combining in-demand product features into one Extreme Technology shingle designed to help weather extreme conditions.  They knew it was the right fit for the extreme weather of Maine. 

It was the end of March, and the season was just getting started. Whitney and James were ready to buy but there wasn’t a distribution channel in Maine, so they worked with TAMKO to get a distributor stocking in their areas.   

“We cannot really talk about TAMKO without talking about Lansing Building Products and the Portland, Maine branch.  They jumped behind TAMKO products in such a big way and worked so hard to make the Portland branch a distributor for TAMKO. We connected our TAMKO sales representatives with Lansing at the end of March, and we had TAMKO shingles going on our customers' roofs before the end of June. We finished the year at a little over 3,000 squares of TAMKO sold and installed on homes in Maine,” said Whitney. 

“We love the TAMKO guys and everyone at Lansing. Without them believing in us, it wouldn't have happened because no one knew us. They looked at us, looked at our history, and knew we could renovate a home, but had to be asking if we were really the best exterior company. They all believed in us, and we are now one of the top three if not second largest exterior companies in the state of Maine. We are pushing pretty hard, and we're pretty intent on going to number one,” concluded Whitney. 

Follow the James & Whitney story in the second part of their journey as they talk about the performance aspects of their business using Titan XT® shingles to weather Maine storms.