Permaroof moves into commercial sector during record year for sales

Permaroof, which is headquartered in Alfreton, has dominated the domestic EPDM rubber flat roofing market for the past two decades.

The company is thriving during a record year in its 20-year history. Sales in May rose by 26% compared to 2019 and 86% in June compared to the same month last year.

As the UK’s leading importer and distributor of Firestone RubberCover, the company is now offering design, specification and installation on commercial projects.

Adrian Buttress, managing director of Permaroof and the wider PermaGroup, said: “During our time specialising in domestic flat roofing projects, we’ve proven ourselves in the residential sector and gained unrivalled expertise of the industry.

“After hitting our 20-year-old company milestone and with a record year in 2020, we were ready to expand our offering. The next logical step was to use our knowledge and move into the commercial sector – further increasing our portfolio of providing permanent solutions to age-old problems. Our vision is to become a leading commercial flat roofing supplier within just two years.”

Adrian said: “While we’re not new to EPDM, having specialised in Firestone membranes for the past 17 years, residential rubber roofing and commercial flat roofing are two very different animals. Because of this, we’ve recruited an experienced national commercial sales manager, who will lead our new commercial flat roofing division and work with the Firestone technical team to ensure its global reputation is maintained.

“Permaroof will be following Firestone’s proven business model, which has led to some very prestigious jobs around the world, totalling millions of square metres.”

The new national commercial manager Sunny Lotay started his career at SIG Roofing where he spent almost seven years as a business development manager, followed by one year as a specification manager at SIG Design & Technology. He then moved to Saint-Gobain/Jewson as head of flat roofing. A five-year stint was followed by almost two years as a regional specification manager at Flex-R.

He said: “The launch of the commercial flat roofing division in partnership with Firestone is part of Permaroof’s continued success story, which is steeped in providing waterproofing systems and solutions to its customers.

“Because of the number of waterproofing solutions available for commercial flat roofing, building owners and project managers need to think in the long term and research the economics of their decisions.

“Our industry knowledge and experience combine to make us perfectly placed to support customers in finding the best commercial roofing system for their premises.”

Commercial customers will be advised on the benefits of the synthetic flat roof rubber membrane Firestone RubberGard EPDM which has an expected lifespan of more than 50 years.