Hard work, service excellence, and family legacy are all of the elements that set Runyon & Son’s Roofing apart from the rest of similar businesses.
Clyde Runyon Sr. founded C & R Roofing in 1962. With one employee and one truck, he began a residential roofing business that has grown rapidly over the past 50+ years. By the late ’60s, the business employed a six man crew, three of whom were his eldest sons, working out of a two-car garage with two trucks. In July 1973, Clyde Runyon Sr. decided to change the company name to more closely reflect its organization, thus Runyon & Sons Roofing evolved.
By the early ’90s, the company grew to 30 full time employees. As the business became more substantial, so did the complexities. The roofing industry as a whole became exceedingly more challenging as the result of three specific issues: (1) New government regulations, specifically the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), (2) Rapidly changing technology affecting material composition, material fastening systems, manufacturer’s warranties, etc., (3) Economy inflation heavily influenced by the cost of petroleum and petroleum based products. It was during these years that only the strongest of companies survived.
Todd Runyon, a third generation employee talked about Runyon & Son’s passion. “This year more than ever we’ve had the ability and are blessed as a family to give back to quite a few local charities that are awesome organizations,” he said. “By doing so, we were able to raise a lot of money by donating our time and knowledge to each project. This includes us as a company and all of our company and all of our guys. They shift in and donate time and manufacturers donate products.”
One of the organizations they have been able to help is Being a Kid Again. This particular organization helps improve the lives of families that have terminal ill children. They also help raise money for the Jimmy Malone Scholarship, Project Hope, and more.
“Lots of those things are new and very exciting for us,” he said.
The Runyon family has always been in the roofing industry. Runyon said, “We’ve always been in the Lake County/Mentor area. When the company was starting out they were located in Euclid. Then in the 1980s they moved to Willoughby. Then in the ’90s we moved to Mentor and that’s where we’ve been ever since.”
They are helping add jobs to the local economy. During “peak season” they have 54 employees. “Peak season normally is between April 1 and November 1.” He said, “It’s an extremely busy time of year right now. We still keep a large portion of our core guys on and busy to handle repairs, snow removal.”
Their biggest marketing challenge is not being business savvy. “We are a roofing contractor that tries to go out and do a good job every day and that’s where we believe we see our most benefit.” They’ve struggled a little bit with technology/social media. However, “We’re learning, we always try to get better at those,” he said. They have found success with advertising on the radio, especially more heavily over the past six years. “That has been really positive for us.”
Runyon & Son’s are proud of being able to help improve the job market in the local community. “Realizing that we’re employing over 50 people and are helping their families realize their dreams. That’s the most important thing for us, that we continue to do a good job. We provide a really safe, really stable work environment in an industry that is hard to keep good people,” Runyon said.
They invest back into their company with state of the art technology to help families in need of roof repairs. “A couple of years ago we invested in a steam based ice removal system. It’s like a portable boiler essentially,” he said. “This machine is much safer for homes and roofs, as unlike the old methods of picking, sawing ice dams in gutters on the edge of the roof, this will basically melt it off and has NO damage to the roof.”
Runyon & Son’s offers a number of residential, commercial, and industrial services. In addition, their website talks about the products they use for each job so customers can learn more about what is being used for their particular project. They also feature a photo gallery so prospective customers can take a look at their past work and see what they would like done for their project.
For more on Runyon & Son’s, check out their webpage HERE.
