Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
CEO Warren Stock is eyeing retirement as Central Roofing begins transitioning toward its next generation of leaders
When Upsize caught up with Warren Stock in 2011, he and his wife, Gerry Stock, had recently purchased Central Roofing Co. from its parent company, Tecta America, in an effort to get back to their entrepreneurial roots.
He worked at Tecta for eight years after he and his wife sold their previous company, Stock Roofing, to the commercial roofing giant in 2003. While he learned a lot during his tenure with a larger corporate entity, the pace and decision-making process eventually drove him back to small business.
So, when the opportunity arose, the Stocks purchased Central Roofing
(where Warren’s career actually started in 1974) from Tecta and, in the years since, the company has increased revenues from around $14 million in 2011 to just over $40 million each of the last couple years. The employee count has gone from about 70 to about 250.
And he’s helped restructure the company’s sales strategy. Instead of bidding primarily on public projects where low bid wins, the company now focuses primarily on marketing itself not only as a builder but as a service provider that can extend the lifespan of roofs by servicing them throughout the entire period of time.
“That’s probably our biggest change,” he says, adding that Central Roofing’s service department has gone from two trucks to 18 with plans to buy a handful more this year.
It hasn’t all been easy street. The company started a mechanical division a few years ago that serviced HVAC and boilers through existing leads. That was operational for about nine months before the Stocks pulled the plug because it couldn’t stay on budget.
But by and large, he says, things have gone well. And now, after 45 years in the industry, he’s preparing for retirement.
“I’m working my way out the door,” Stock says. “Which is surprisingly a whole new set of challenges. Most people go ‘I’m going to retire and this is the date.’ It doesn’t work that way as a business owner. There are all sorts of things you don’t think about that you have to start thinking about.”
Among those things was making sure people accepted the decision and didn’t, in a panic, leave immediately for another job. He’s been working through the transition for going on two years.
His wife, Gerry Stock, remains CEO and she’s not quite as ready to retire. Son, Jason Stock, has taken on an increased role with the company. He’s now chief financial officer and he handles banking relationships and other financial responsibilities.
Specifics of how the transfer will take place are still under discussion, but his son and daughter, Jessica Tesdall, eventually will run the company, and Stock says he’s hopeful his grandchildren will too someday. There will be oversight involved, however. Central Roofing, Stock says, has a strong management team in place that meets every other week to discuss important issues.
The company also has put in place a separate advisory team, made up of representatives from the company’s bank, insurance company, bonding company and accounting firm, all of whom will have input in major decisions going forward.
Stock himself, however, has begun the process of letting go. He plans to be done by January 1, 2020. He’ll be available by request for special projects, but he’s grown comfortable with the new management structure and is happy letting them make most of the day-to-day decisions.
“At first it was very difficult to let people make decisions without jumping in and telling them they had to do it this way,” he says. “I’m getting better.”
While Stock clearly is an entrepreneur, he says he was a better business owner the second time around for having spent time with Tecta.
“I was surprised how many things I did take from the corporate world,” he says.
There, Stock says, he learned the importance of budgeting, planning ahead and thinking big with less fear. He adds that when it comes to accounts receivable, accounts payable, human resources and other systems-related activities, the corporate world typically runs circles around small businesses.
“I didn’t appreciate the corporate world until I came back into the entrepreneurial world again,” he says. “There are a lot of things the corporate world does right. The corporate world has the plan. It’s very hard. The entrepreneur just doesn’t grasp or understand how important those things can be. The most important thing is budgeting. If you are not really doing honest budgeting and projections, you don’t know where you’re going.”
As he prepares to move on, Stock says he’s learned to trust his instincts and trust his people.
“In 2011, everyone was saying ‘ask Warren,’” he says. “In 2019, I don’t hear my name that often.”
He’s been thoroughly impressed by the work his son has done managing cash flow and negotiating banking relationships. And he believes Central Roofing is in good hands.
“This is Central’s 90th anniversary and my perspective is to see it get to 180,” he says. “That’s what I’ve been trying to set up in this transition.”
Contact: Warren Stock is chief operating officer and senior vice president at Central Roofing Co.: 763.572.0660; ws****@************ng.com
