AES Roofing Family Business

Tell me about AES Roofing.

It was set up in 1971 by my father, Steve. He actually started out as an electrical engineer and TV aerial fitter, and the AES stood for Aerial Electrical Services.

He then met a guy who was driving a brand new Jaguar at a harbor. Dad likes water sports and had a little speed boat, and he met this guy with a brand new Jag back in the 70s. He was like, "What do you do to afford that? That is my dream car." And the guy said, "I'm a roofer."

So very quickly, Dad got into the roofing industry. He kept the name because he'd already got his Ford Cortina estate car sign-written with AES on it, and he just put "roofing" on the end. So that's where that comes from.

He sort of taught himself - bought books, briefly joined with another local roofer, and they partnered up together and carried on. Then they went their separate ways. And that's how AES was born, before I was even thought about.

When did you join the business?

I joined the business after doing an engineering apprenticeship at 19.  I decided I didn't like working in factories anymore and wanted to do something different. I'd always done summer holiday work and stuff with Dad on the roofs, so I had a bit of an introduction to it. I went in as a laborer, worked from the ground up, then ran my own crew. Eventually, I started to take over some of the estimating, and over a period of years, got into running the business.

Dad's now retired. Since I took over, I've doubled it in size. Whereas Dad always had about six or seven guys, we've now got 16 of us in total. So it's a bit of a beast. And we've just entered into our third generation - my youngest lad left school a year ago and started with us on a formal apprenticeship scheme. He'll actually be the first formally qualified roofer among all of us. He has block release up to Walsall College where he's doing his roof tiling and slating. So we're heading into generation three.

What was it like working with your Dad?

We've always managed to maintain quite a good working relationship. Even though you hear lots of family businesses where the family members bicker and don't get on, we've managed to keep business and private relationships very separate. So nine to five, we're employee and employer, and then after hours we're back to being father and son.

We operate the business at the back of his house. Even though he said "I'm retired, it's over to you" so many years ago, he can always be found on the forklift truck, always be found digging around in a skip, always doing things.

Tell me a bit about your relationship with the Competent Person Scheme and NFRC, and how long you've been part of it.

NFRC, we've been part of for many years. I mean, we were never part of them when Dad first set the business up, but I would have thought we got involved probably 15 years ago, something like that, maybe.

It was a brilliant move. We'd not done it up until then. I think my dad had a very pessimistic view on trade bodies. There are certain  bodies out there where you literally pay your membership, put the sticker on the van, and you're a member. There's no qualification, no verification or anything like that.

We found that not to be the case with the NFRC. It's unique and specific to our industry. In recent years, more and more customers will look for those trade body accreditations than they've ever done before.

What's worked particularly well for us is the heritage certification we've got through the NFRC. We do lots of work on listed buildings and historic buildings, and we get a lot of enquiries come through because we're on that register. 

And what about the Competent Person Scheme?

I'm very aware that the roofing industry lags behind the electrical and plumbing industries, which are heavily certified. You cannot go into a house and fit a plug without having some sort of qualification or registration or scheme. That's not the case with the roofing industry. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry can buy a ladder, get a van, and call himself a roofer, and that's what you're competing against.

The Competent Person Scheme helps us to demonstrate our professionalism to clients. It also helps the clients who don’t really understand building regulation. They avoid having to involve building control, they come to us, trust us and hand the whole project over until they receive the BRCC at the end.

So if I could see the Competent Person Scheme becoming the roofing equivalent of the NICEIC or Gas Safe, and I think if the industry goes that way, it'll make a big difference. So I was very keen to get involved with that as soon as I could, and really set us apart from those fly-by-night one-man bands that give us all a bad name.

Rogue traders have such a bad impact on the roofing industry. Driving down prices and delivering shoddy work to unsuspecting customers.

Absolutely. We also don't compete on price - never have, never will, never want to. The moment you start to compete on price, it's just a race to the bottom. So we compete on quality of service, standard of delivery, just the whole experience from the customer's viewpoint. I'd like to think we set ourselves apart with that.

What do you think of organisations who allow roofers to become members, and allow consumers to book ‘trusted’ contractors when their inspection rate isn't quite as rigorous as the NFRC and the Competent Person Scheme?

I'm going to say this conservatively - between me and Dale, who helps me run the business and also does the estimating, we will have no less than a couple of customers a month say that they've had somebody from the online referral platforms and they've been ripped off. So yes, those sort of non-specific bodies, I think, do more harm than they do good.

Do you think homeowners know how important Building Regulation Compliance Certificates are?

No, not until they come to sell their house, and then they realise just how important it is. That's the thing - we've had to work quite hard at finding a way to impartially explain to a customer who knows nothing about the importance of it, without it coming across like we're just trying to fleece them for more money and get this thing that's not really essential.

Final question, what would your advice be to those roofing professionals who are coming up against rogue traders? 

Definitely become a member of the NFRC because it will help with your professional presence. Not only that, you get all the support that you have with the NFRC if there's anything you're unsure of. Likewise with the Competent Person Scheme - the more people that are actively involved in it, the faster the word will spread, and you will get rid of the rogue traders because it'll be more difficult for them to trade.

So let's not compete against them directly. Let's make sure they either get on board or they're pushed to one side so they're no longer the concern. We need to try and create as level a playing field as possible. So anybody thinking of doing it from that respect, that's what they need to do. It's not fighting with the rogue traders on price, which is very difficult to actually do. It's so easy to think, "I'm desperate for this job, I'll slash the price to meet it," and then the only way you're going to do it is cut corners, and by default, you become the same rogue trader as the guy you're trying to get out of the industry.