Expanding beyond bitumen

By Emma Peterson. 

Joel Shealy discusses how market challenges and customer needs have shaped BITEC's modern offerings. 

In a new Roofing Road Trips®, we had the opportunity to chat with Joel Shealy about how BITEC has differentiated themselves from the crowd and built a 40-year-long legacy of quality and care. Joel is the current president of BITEC, having taken over the role from his father, who founded the company back in 1986. 

And from that first year, the BITEC team has always prioritized what their contractors need. A great example of this is how BITEC grew beyond their modified bitumen roots to include a variety of commercial roof coatings. BITEC’s first venture into the world of coatings was an acrylic offering in the early 2000s. But the big moment for their coatings development came in 2020 when the roofing industry began to feel the pressure of COVID-19-related material shortages. Joel shared: 

We stuck with just the acrylic for a while, but what really pushed us to dive further into the restoration/preservation market was COVID and the supply challenges that emerged around then. We took it as an opportunity to expand our offerings to include silicone and SEBS coatings. And then we acquired Viking Products Group at the end of 2023, which brought the urethane offering to our portfolio. 

Today, BITEC’s coatings line, Storm Breaker™, is known for its “durability, weather resistance and long-term value.” And the development of this line was exactly what BITEC’s customers wanted and needed. As Joel put it, “In recent years, we’ve seen a lot of our contractors find their way to coatings because they’re such a great way to preserve relationships with end users and don’t have a big barrier to entry. And we’re proud to be filling that need for our customers.”  

Learn more about the development of BITEC’s Storm Breaker ™ coatings by Listening to the whole episode or Watching the recording!