Affordable Roofing grows back to its roots

FORT COLLINS – Troy Jennings, president of Affordable Roofing, started his career as an insurance adjuster.

“Insurance companies would subcontract with me and send me out to sites all over the country to investigate claims after catastrophes occurred,” he explained. “I was the guy on the ladder checking out hail damage and assessing siding.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

People Powered: Preparing Longmont Businesses for Economic Success

Longmont Chamber and FNBO present People Powered on April 24, 2024, aiming to inform business owners about workforce development, housing, and transportation issues.

Jennings and his wife, Amy, started their own roofing installation and repair company in 2003, changing the name to Affordable Roofing in 2005.

“The two of us did everything,” he said. “She handled all the administrative work and I ran the crews, and at the same time focused on sales and the follow up on jobs. It was a lot.”

There wasn’t a lot of money earmarked for advertising and marketing the startup. “We didn’t do a ton of roofing, but we did see steady growth,” Jennings said.

In 2008, the Jennings sold half of the business to colleague and fellow insurance adjuster Jim Simpson and his wife Gretchen.

When the economy soured, new construction starts fell to record low numbers, and people put off roofing repairs and replacements until it was an absolute necessity. To keep the doors open, Jennings went back to his adjuster roots and started engaging with insurance agents, offering inspections for pre-policy assessments. At present, approximately 60 percent of Affordable Roofing’s business comes from the insurance industry as well as property managers and real estate agents for appraisals and inspections.

“It’s been a good move for us (to pursue the insurance and real estate agents) and represents a big piece of our business,” Jennings said.

It also allowed the company to grow its revenues by 70 percent between 2009 and 2010 – from $3 million to $5.2 million – and earn the No. 11 spot on the Northern Colorado Business Report’s Mercury 100 list of fastest growing companies in the region.

Affordable Roofing uses Xactimate, the same estimating software the insurance industry uses. It ensures that their estimates are in line with what clients get from their insurers. “Our backgrounds in adjusting give us the ability to thoroughly understand processes and to speak the language,” Jennings said.

While Jennings and Simpson have seen the inspection side of their business grow, they haven’t forgotten about the installation and repair side. Since 2008, they have supplemented word-of-mouth exposure with Yellow Page ads as well as strategic mailers to neighborhoods that may have sustained storm damage.

“A lot of our clients do their research and check us out on our website first,” he said. “They pay a lot of attention to the testimonials, case studies and what we have to say about trends in the roofing industry. They will also call the Better Business Bureau to make sure we can be trusted to do an excellent job for them.”

Paying it forward is important to both Jennings and Simpson. After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, they donated a flat dollar amount of every roofing job to the Red Cross. Closer to home, Affordable Roofing’s sister company, Fort Collins Restoration, delivered a semi-truckload of plywood to victims of the Windsor tornado in May 2008.

“We just unloaded it and let people take what they needed to secure their homes,” Jennings said.

Affordable Roofing has established a partnership with ReSource, a nonprofit in north Fort Collins that sells reusable building supplies to the public. Every month, the company donates all unused materials to the store, keeping them out of landfills.

“It works out well for us and for ReSource and their customers,” Jennings said. “This is something we can do to regularly support our community, on a lot of different levels. So we do.”