How a $39M Roofing Company Got Sold the Right Way

If you are thinking about how to sell your roofing company, this episode is the closest thing to a real-world playbook you will find. Greg Nolan built Nolan’s Roofing into a $39 million operation over three decades in Central Florida. Then he sold it. Host Art Eisner sits down with Greg and Claudio Vilas to walk through exactly what that process looked like, why Greg could not have done it without a sell-side advisor, and what every roofing owner netting a million dollars or more needs to hear right now.

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  Those hundreds of emails saying “I want to buy your company” are not real buyers. Ninety-nine percent of unsolicited outreach is automated. Nobody on the other side is serious. Responding without a process in place hands your information to people who have no intention of closing. Greg still gets those calls every day and tells them all the same thing: call Claudio.
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  Price is only one part of the deal. The wrong buyer can undo everything you built. Greg’s company received multiple offers at different valuations. The goal was not the highest number. It was finding the buyer whose values matched what Greg built. A buyer who does not share those values will dismantle it. That outcome cannot be undone after closing.
• 1
  If your company is netting a million dollars or more, you need to be having conversations now. PE money is flowing into roofing at an unusual rate. Supply and demand is working in sellers’ favor. That window does not stay open forever.
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  Selling is not the end. It can be the beginning of something bigger. Greg stayed on to help the acquiring company grow. By end of year one post-sale, they were projecting $90M in revenue. He is also positioned for a second payout when the company eventually resells.
• 3
  EBITDA is not intuitive for most roofing owners. Greg admitted there were days he told Claudio he could not go on with the process. Understanding the numbers, what counts, what gets added back, and what buyers actually look at takes time and a guide who has done it before.
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  You need a team, not just a broker. A successful sale requires lawyers, accountants, and M&A advisors working together. One person cannot cover everything. What you need is someone who knows who to bring in and when.
• 5
  The advisory relationship does not end at closing. Claudio helped Greg connect with attorneys to invest the proceeds correctly and structure the money into tax shelters. The commitment goes beyond the transaction.

Your legacy, my commitment. I try to live up to it.

Claudio Vilas, CMSBB, CBI, CMAP

Greg Nolan did not start with a plan. He started with a friend who promised him a million-dollar credit line, a roofing license, and a chance. The credit line never came through. But the business did. Over three decades, Greg built Nolan’s Roofing into a $39 million operation in Central Florida, serving about 3,500 homeowners a year with 80 employees and a network of subcontractors.

The road was not straight. In 2008, Greg was doing mostly labor-only work for builders. When the economy collapsed and those builders filed bankruptcy, Greg was left holding millions in unpaid receivables. He filed bankruptcy too. Then he started over with one rule: never let one customer have the power to put you out of business. He shifted entirely to homeowners. That decision changed everything.

By the time Greg started thinking about how to sell his roofing company, he had built something real. Strong branding, TV spots, billboards across Central Florida, a son selling $3M a year on his own, and another son balancing roofing sales with a NASCAR career. But running a company that size is a different kind of pressure. Greg described it plainly: it is a monster. And after a while, he was ready to hand it off the right way.

That is when he called Claudio. The process took nearly a year. Not because it was broken, but because selling a multi-million dollar company requires getting everything right. Buyers ask questions that most business owners are not prepared to answer. Claudio’s job was to make sure Greg was ready, that the financials were clean, that the story was clear, and that the right buyers were in the room.

There were many offers. Different prices, different structures, different intentions. Claudio and Greg did not take the highest number. They took the best deal, which meant the buyer whose values aligned with what Greg had spent thirty years building. His employees needed to know they had a future. His reputation in Central Florida needed to be protected. Those things mattered as much as the multiple.

Claudio spoke directly to roofing owners watching from the outside. If you are ready to sell your roofing company and you are netting a million dollars or more, you need to be thinking about this now. Private equity is pouring money into the roofing industry. Buyers are paying more than they would in a normal market. That is a supply and demand reality, and it will not last indefinitely. The owners who act while the window is open come out ahead. The ones who wait for the perfect moment often miss it.

Greg’s story did not end at closing. He stayed on to help the acquiring company scale. Within the first year post-sale, the combined operation was projecting $90M in revenue. He is also positioned for a second payout when the company eventually resells. And with part of the proceeds, he bought a racetrack for his son. Claudio helped him connect with attorneys to invest the rest correctly and structure it into tax shelters.

Many roofing owners who want to sell their roofing company do not know where to start. This episode answers that. It is not theory. It is a real transaction, a real seller, and a real outcome walked through in plain language by the people who were in the room when it happened.

This episode is not a sales pitch. It is a case study. A $39M roofing company, a seller who almost walked away from the process multiple times, and an outcome that took care of the owner, the employees, and the legacy. That is what a real exit looks like when it is done right.

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