Supporting the big picture and the day-to-day

By Emma Peterson.

Learn about how Duro-Last is moving forward with solutions and innovations that help both individual contractors and the larger roofing industry.  

Duro-Last is the world’s largest manufacturer of custom-fabricated roofing systems. They are known for best-in-class warranties that set the quality standards in the industry and a customer service team that goes above and beyond to help contractors find success on the job. One of the big news items for Duro-Last this year has been the installment of a new president – Darren Schulz. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Darren spoke to Heidi J. Ellsworth about how he and his team are looking at and planning for the foreseeable future of the company.  

John R. Burt originally founded Duro-Last in 1978, making it over 45 years old now. Darren shared a bit about the different ways they are carrying that legacy forward with innovation and growth, saying, “We are looking at products, expanding our product offering. We will also expand our geographic footprint, we'll be opening a couple of facilities next year, which will be a record for us, two in one year!” The goal of both of these operations is to be able to serve Duro-Last contractors better. Darren elaborated, “We are focused on the service that comes with being physically closer to our contractors and offering that standard of service that's important for them, supporting them for faster delivery, but also being available to get things on short term, when you got caught short, they need something to finish their job.”

And Duro-Last is not only helping with the day-to-day experience of contractors and installers, but they are also thinking about the industry and world as a whole as they plan their operations. One example that displays this is their sustainability initiatives. Darren explained, “Duro-Last has been on the forefront with our roof recycling program, bringing PVC off older roofs when re-roof's happening. And we have a program to turn that material back into new products.”

Additionally, Duro-Last is continuing to push forward in the prefabrication sector. Darren shared, “Access to labor and trained labor to install building products and construction is a critical challenge for the industry. And we've been in the game of trying to support labor efficiency since the beginning of Duro-Last. One of the ways we do this in the innovation space is with our custom roof systems offerings.” An example of this is their DLX custom cut-length rolled goods, which are designed to help contractors get more efficient results. Darren summed it up, saying, “As we think about what we do in innovation going forward, a fundamental cornerstone of that is with the view that there's more to do to help contractors make the most of the labor pool that they can access.”

Read the transcript, Listen to the episode or Watch the recording to learn more about Duro-Last and their industry leadership.