Elite Roofing Services keeps growing and growing

A roof over your head: It’s one of the most basic human needs. So, when a crew at Elite Roofing Services comes out to repair or install a new roof on your home, they take what they do seriously, says Kim Sanford, Elite’s residential manager.

“A roof is a huge investment,” Sanford says. “That’s not where you want to find your deal. That’s what protects you and all of your things.”

Founded by Camille Austin, Elite Roofing is located on a lush, sprawling lot in south Hillsborough County, off E. Broadway Road. A fleet of trucks bearing the company’s black, white and red logo and signage is parked neatly on the lot, where Austin has nurtured her roofing company to the 18-person firm it is today.

The company repairs and installs new roofs for all kinds of residential, commercial and industrial properties. They also install weathertight metal roofs and “cool roofs” that help to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Their clients range from single family homeowners and apartment building management companies to Walmart and even Hillsborough County government, which hired them for a two-year firehouse gutter contract. They service everyone from homeowners in Wesley Chapel (where Austin lives) all the way south to Manatee County.

Growing up in a large family in Tampa involved in various aspects of construction, Austin had plans of going into real estate as an agent, but when she started out working for a temp agency in the 1980s, her first job was in a roofing company where she handled filing and office work. When that roofing company changed hands, she went to work for another roofer in Tampa with her future partner. She and that partner opened Westside Roofing nearly 20 years ago and ran that for eight years until a business consultant they hired pointed out that they were working toward different goals. Her then-partner moved to upstate New York, bought 100 acres and opened a bar. Austin started Elite Roofing Services.

Right after she started her company in 2004, Hurricane Andrew hit, and she found herself driving all over southwest Florida, reroofing 25 Denny’s restaurants. Then came the big economic crash that devastated the construction industry in 2007-08, but Austin held on by taking on smaller, bank-owned jobs and focusing heavily on marketing.

Today, while Austin is proud of her average $2 million in annual sales, she’s even prouder having no debt, being a member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and having retained a staff that has stayed on board in an industry in which the revolving door is a fixture.

Quality Roofs with Style

The first time Austin asked Sanford (who handled filing and telephones at Elite) to go and sell a roof, Sanford was terrified. A fellow veteran of the construction industry—she managed her family’s concrete business until six years ago when she married into an air conditioning family—she hadn’t thought of doing actual sales until Austin promoted her.

“I was so scared the first time she told me to take a packet and go sell a roof,” Sanford says.

However, Austin’s hunch that her employee would work well in a higher level position paid off. Since she promoted Sanford to sales and brought in roofing mechanic Angel Melendez inside to manage her crew at the beginning of this year, she says that her business has increased by 20 percent, with a 5-percent net increase in sales, she says. And Sanford has learned to love sales.

“I sell quality,” says Sanford. “I sell systems.”

Sanford says the major brand that she sells is called GAF, a brand that offers an entire roofing system of lifetime-guaranteed shingles (for the length of the time the original owner owns that property at which the roof is installed), attic insulation, roof deck protection, starter strip shingles, leak barriers and ridge cap shingles. And, while her customers love what the roofs do for their homes, they also love the way their roofs look, she says.

“Roofs are pretty now,” Sanford says. “It’s the first thing people see when they pull up. The color, the shape, the decorative aspects—it’s curb appeal. It’s not just protection.”

Doug Livingston, senior facility services manager at Americold Cold Storage, has hired Elite for roofing jobs on and off since the days Austin owned her previous firm. He says he’s watched as she built up her own company, and is impressed by Elite’s quality of work, integrity in the bidding and pricing process and commitment to customers.

“She’s built that company up to be pretty well-known and respected,” says Livingston. “I remember one time in the middle of the night, there was a bad storm and water pouring in [one of our buildings.]”

Livingston says he placed a call to Elite, and Austin showed up—at midnight—with two of her daughters in tow (Austin has three daughters, now in college, and three school-age stepsons). She checked out the roof, called her crew and patched it up. Any other company, Livingston is sure, would have told the client to wait until morning.

“She definitely goes beyond what any business I know would ever do,” he says.

Austin is always learning. Being part of the WBENC network since 2005 has helped teach her a huge amount of business knowledge, exposed her to more diversity and encouraged her to hire or work with other certified woman-owned companies. She has also received a Dorothy B. Brothers scholarship (awarded to deserving women in business) that she applied toward study at the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth.

Although future plans include expanding service throughout Florida and possibly opening two offices led by existing staff members, Austin’s focus remains on her customers and staff. She is enthusiastically supportive of their families and endeavors, such as Sanford’s passion for fishing and hunting, or Melendez’s son’s classical music prowess.

In fact, Sanford says one reason they get so many referrals is that people like working with a family-owned business where most likely, the same person picks up the phone each time (and that person is usually Sanford herself).

“There’s not a huge chain of command to go through,” she says. She goes out to the house of potential clients herself, examines their roof and explains their options to them. While an Elite crew works on the roof, Sanford tries to go back out and check on the project personally so she can maintain the rapport with her clients and reassure them of the process.

“I’m consumed by it,” says Sanford. “I love talking to people.”

For more information about Elite Roofing, please visit EliteRoofingServices.com or, for a free estimate, call 630-0800.