National Roofing

NAT IONAL ROOF ING “They picked the name on the auspices that it would be a name that a housewife flipping through the phonebook would trust. These are all direct quotes because I’ve heard this story a million times.” In the mid-1980s, at about the time Jackson Johns was born, his father decided it was time to move into commercial roofing. His partner wanted to keep shingling houses, so Tom Johns bought him out. Shortly thereafter, a Las Vegas, Nevada company called Universal Roofers approached Tom Johns about acquiring his company. Universal Roofers was buying up similar companies as part of its growth strategy. National Roofing was part of that consortium for a few years, but then Universal ran into issues with cash flow and solvency. So, Tom Johns decided to buy his company back and essentially start over from scratch. For a short time the company was nothing more than Tom Johns and an estimator. National Roofing offered only one type of roofing system, something Tom could do on his own. Jackson relates, “And then they started to get really big quite rapidly and actually hit their peak in terms of size. But they realized that the quality had started to suffer, that it had become just too big and too unwieldy. That was in the early 1990s, and so it was time to draw back and focus on being good at it, not just being big at it. That’s when we really started to earn our reputation. We won several Firestone Master Contractor awards and became known for providing very high quality but not necessarily the low bid.” At this time, Jackson Johns graduated from high school and went on to study experimental psychology at Beloit College in Wisconsin. It seemed as if he’d set out on a path that would lead him away from his father’s business, but the Great Recession forced him to change his plans. Graduating college in 2009, jobs were tough to come by. The only position Jackson could get was driving a forklift for his father. He eventually worked his way up to safety inspector, when an opportunity presented itself after a hail storm came through, damaging the roof of a school. There was no one immediately available to manage that project, so Jackson took on those duties. He admits, “I started doing some project management, and then, while talking with a girl who told me she was going to get her master’s degree, I decided I would also get a master’s degree to impress her.” Jackson laughs, “Unlike many things I’ve said after one too many beers, I actually did it. I got my MBA from the University of New Mexico here in town, while working.” Following through on that promise was one of the best decisions Jackson Johns ever made. It obviously impressed the girl because she and Johns were married and the couple just had their first child in December. The degree also put Johns in a position to take the reins of the company. He notes, “After I got my MBA, we wound up losing terribly on a project at a ski valley and a bit of our confidence was shaken.