Allied Roofing Systems LLC was a 2010 honoree at Springfield Business Journal's 2010 Dynamic Dozen awards. Information was accurate at the time of the honor. Click here for information about this year's event.It pays to show up with the right idea at the right time.
In 2000, Clint Tackitt brought his environmentally conscious ideas about roofing to the Ozarks from his previous home in Washington State.
When he opened Allied Roofing Systems, “the mood of the public wasn’t really fixed on the environment. But our building practices remained the same,” he said. “When you learn this is right and this is wrong, you don’t change that just because you live in a different house.”
In the last decade, though, attitudes about sustainable building practices shifted and Tackitt’s business reaped the rewards.
“We kind of had an instant niche,” he said. “In business, people pay thousands and thousands of dollars to create a separation between your business and someone else’s. We stood out like a sore thumb.”
The company posted $5.6 million in 2009 revenues, with a three-year growth rate of 19 percent.
Tackitt said Allied Roofing is commited to environmentally friendly roofing materials.
“Everything we’re putting in today has a 100 percent recyclable factor,” he said. “If we can do that and save the customer money, you almost have a moral obligation to do that.”
That focus stands to bring some long-term benefits to the community.
“When you see some of the other products that (the community uses) on our schools, on our government buildings, when those products come off, they’re being pitched into a landfill, they’re going into our water table,” he said of traditional roofing materials. “There’s not a good way to dispose of this stuff.”
Matt O’Reilly turned to Tackitt for advice when he was drawing up plans for the Green Circle shopping center on Republic Road. Plans for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Platinum certified strip mall called for a complicated roof structure, O’Reilly said.
Green Circle’s roof performs three functions. In addition to keeping water out of the structure, it features a vegetative area, which helps with insulation, restores habitat and slows water runoff. The roof also functions as a rainwater collection system emptying into a 15,000-gallon cistern made with a recycled underground gas tank. That water is used to flush toilets and irrigate the roof.
“We had some pretty important questions we needed answered,” O’Reilly said.
Tackitt and his crew helped O’Reilly answer those questions and pinpoint the issues that needed to be addressed by any roofing company bidding on the project.
“They wound up being competitive on the bid as well,” O’Reilly said. “Any time you get a company that can offer innovative solutions and have the winning bid, that’s the company to go with.”
Tackitt said educating potential clients is a big function of his company.
“Typically, when people say we’re going to build something green, the price just went up 25 (percent) to 30 percent,” Tackitt said, noting that his roofing company has found ways to use environmentally safe products that don’t emit volatile organic compounds and keep the bid low.
As an example, he cites the Christian County Courthouse, the plans for which called for conventional roofing.
“We submitted a green option in the spec and came in $12,000 under,” Tackitt said.
The approach is proving popular.
“We’ve got more bids out right now than we ever had,” Tackitt said. “Everyone is bidding work. Assuming that half of the people we’re bidding (will) pull the trigger and start the project, we’re going to grow even more this year.”
By the middle of the first quarter of this year, the company already had more than $2 million in work lined up.
“If we can continue that all the way through, we’re at $8 million a year,” Tackitt said.
The key to his company’s continued growth is being fair with customers and staying on top of green options, he said.
“At the end of the day, all I’m doing is outsmarting water. It’s not that difficult,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]
