During my conversation with Jason Horton, the vice president of sales at Roadrunner Roofing Supply, a phrase entered my mind again and again: “Small but mighty.”

This doesn’t describe Horton himself — a tall, amicable Texan with a genuine smile, charming drawl and a passion for sports and deep-sea fishing. Rather, it’s the roofing distribution company in which he is a shareholder, with one location in Arlington, Texas and 16 employees.

That impression of “small but mighty” is exactly what customers of the distributor discover, so long as they’re willing to give the young company a chance.

“If they allow us to let us tell our story, then we can usually break through that, but that is a hard thing to do,” Horton said. “We have to be different, unique, we have to do things differently.”

Hitting the Ground Running

Roadrunner Roofing Supply’s origins existed long before it was formed in 2020. In 1994, Horton started at the bottom of the ladder, working for a supply company sweeping floors, loading and unloading trucks and pulling orders. He worked his way up to warehouse manager before transferring to outside sales. He even obtained a CDL to drive trucks.

At the time, he worked at Wholesale Roofing Supply, where Rick McLaughlin served as president. In 2014, Beacon Building Products acquired Wholesale. McLaughlin remained president, and Horton stayed on for another four years, though his interest had diminished.

“I grew up in a family-owned, mom-and-pop type situation and didn’t really care for the big corporate stuff, and then decided to ask Rick if there might be an opportunity for us to do something together, and he was all for it,” he said.

Among the shareholders, there is a combined 100-plus years of experience in the business. McLaughlin, the majority owner, has the most tenure with over 50 years, while Horton has about 31 years. Their colleagues, Scott Schaeffer and Jeff Loud, have 33 and 18 years, respectively.

That experience proved crucial when Roadrunner Roofing Supply opened on March 16, 2020 — a day before businesses nationwide learned they had to work remotely or close down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily for Roadrunner — and roofing in general — they were deemed an essential business and could operate.

The small distributor had agility on its side, implementing internal polices with ease and helping contractors navigate a changing landscape where they could no longer hold traditional in-person sales presentations.

“We hit the ground running. There was a real need for us to have an independent in the market,” he said. “Nothing against the big guys, but they’re always crunching the numbers and not necessarily always looking at what the contractor needs.”

That scrappiness and nimbleness continued to define Roadrunner over the years. They avoid the red tape normally associated with larger companies by making decisions quickly, facilitating smoother operations.

“I think a lot of our contractors appreciate [that] about us. They can make one phone call and get an answer versus making one phone call, then that phone call turns into four or five others, and two weeks later, you get your answer that you needed two weeks ago,” he said. “Our chain of command is just a lot smaller, a lot easier to get to.”

One way the company differentiates itself is by holding business hours 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and holding Saturday operations when needed, including material deliveries.

Being there for customers is a practice borne from the decades of experience each shareholder brings. Horton recounted a story of going deep-sea fishing with McLaughlin before the days of Roadrunner, and while in the middle of the ocean, McLaughlin’s phone rang. A contractor desperately needed supplies on a Saturday.

McLaughlin contacted their warehouse manager, who was able to head into work and help the contractor with what they needed. Weeks later, the contractor was at Roadrunner thanking them for helping out when it came out that he had interrupted their fishing trip.

“He’s like, ‘Well, why did you answer the phone?’ ‘Because if you’re calling us, you need something, and we’re here to take care of you,’” Horton said.

Running Ahead of the Curve

Fast deliveries, including on weekends, are not only on theme for a company with a famously fast bird as its namesake, it’s keeping up with the times. With retailers like Amazon and Walmart providing lightning-fast deliveries, roofing contractors are demanding similar expediency.

“We have to be overstaffed nowadays as opposed to what it used to be. We have to have more drivers, more equipment, because everyone wants it morning of,” he said. “It’s just the cost of continuing to give the customer service that our customers have come to expect from us.”

On top of adapting to changing market dynamics, Roadrunner aims to drive them as well. This includes catering to customers desiring high-end roofing materials. About eight months ago, Roadrunner chose to stock DaVinci Roofscape synthetic shake and slate products, something that is usually special-ordered.

“It's 24-week lead time on a lot of their product, so if one of my competitors ordered it today for a contractor, they're not gonna see until September, versus I have it on the floor and you'd have it tomorrow,” he said. “It’s been a huge, huge blessing for us from that perspective.”

The move has worked so well that Roadrunner is shipping DaVinci all over the country, going as far as California, Florida and Ohio.

“Once they find out who we are, then they call us, and if they’ll arrange for the freight, we’ll gladly get it ready for them,” he said.

One tactic that has become a win-win-win for Roadrunner, its manufacturing partners and its customers is stocking all of a manufacturer’s supplies needed for an entire roofing system. For example, this means carrying all the components GAF makes for a roof, which in turn means contractors can offer warranties for using a manufacturer’s system.

To incentivize contractors, Roadrunner tracks how many full roofing systems they install. The top 10 contractors who install the most systems go on a getaway provided by Roadrunner. This year’s vacation is a trip to a private island off the coast of Belize.

“We started doing that to get everybody on board with buying the system. So then they can turn around and start reducing their liability by putting the extended warranty on it,” he said.

Speaking of roofing systems, Roadrunner stocks its inventory to serve FORTIFIED-certified contractors. In the coastal states, FORTIFIED Roofs are becoming a mainstay. Created by the experts at the Insurance Institute of Business and Home Safety, FORTIFIED is a science-backed, above-code roofing installation method that prevents damage commonly caused by severe weather.

To install FORTIFIED Roofs, a contractor needs to be certified by the program. The Dallas/Fort Worth market has around 20 certified contractors, which has grown over the years from single-digit numbers. Horton proudly claims, “They’re ours.” Roadrunner specifically stocks products like 26-gauge metal that are required for building FORTIFIED Roofs.

“At some point, we’re going to turn this market into FORTIFIED Roof systems as well,” he said. “We've actually even got a couple of the insurance companies that are now stating on their insurance, ‘Have you thought about putting a FORTIFIED Roof up?’ he said. “So, yeah, it's going to become the next thing we're already prepared for.”

One trend Roadrunner doesn’t intend on following for the time being is the consolidation of the industry. With the major acquisitions of SRS Distribution to Home Depot and the tentative deal between Beacon and QXO, merger and acquisition activity isn’t slowing down. Horton said, despite fielding calls from interested parties, Roadrunner isn’t for sale.

“We have no desire; we still got a long way to go to build this where we want it,” he said.

Roadrunner isn’t without its alliances. As a member of the Independent Distributor Alliance Corporation, Horton said they gain important insights and stories from other independent distributors, big and small.

Roadrunner celebrated five years in business as of last March and, in its short time, has proven to be a disruptor that earns customers through against-the-grain strategies and, as Horton likes to remind his fellow employees, doing whatever is needed to take care of customers.

“I believe we are going to give attention to detail and help that contractor out — they’re not a number with us. I always say with everybody in the organization: ‘Just because you get that paycheck every other Friday, don't think that comes from Rick McLaughlin. He does not have that deep of pockets.

“That comes from us taking care of the customers. They are your boss. They are the ones that we have to make sure that we're protecting, that we're taking care of. As long as we keep that mentality, I think we can be successful.”