Crowther Roofing & Cooling, a large roofing and mechanical outfit based on Florida’s southern Gulf coast—celebrating its 50th anniversary this year—has joined Roofing Corp of America’s portfolio of contracting firms.
The multi-generational, family-owned concern, founded in 1974 and based in Fort Myers, has since evolved its services, expanding into HVAC and mechanical contracting, lightweight insulating concrete installation, and light-gauge metal truss fabrication and installation. Crowther also has offices in Sarasota and Jupiter on the state’s East coast.
Skyway Capital Markets, a Tampa investment bank representing Crowther in negotiations with RCA, described the deal as a “recapitalization” in a news release last Thursday
announcing the acquisition; Crowther’s leadership team will remain intact and “operate as a standalone entity” within RCA.
“Crowther was founded 50 years ago by my father, Lee J. Crowther, on a shared vision of creating an organization based on quality and hard work to deliver the best possible roofing contractor services to commercial and residential clients in Southwest Florida,” Lee Scott Crowther, co-founder and CEO, said. “This vision continues to be the cornerstone of our entire organization, and partnering with Roofing Corp of America will enable Crowther [continue expanding] its capabilities and geographic presence to deliver its full suite of best-in-class roofing and HVAC services throughout Florida,” he added.
Crowther rounded out the 80th percentile in Roofing Contractor magazine’s Top 100 Roofing Contractors list in 2021, coming in at No. 20 with nearly $83 million in revenue. The company offers both residential and commercial services.
“Over the past 50 years, Crowther has carefully developed and built the leading commercial roofing and mechanical contracting business in the state of Florida,” Keith Hodgdon, senior managing director at Skyway Capital, said.
“In partnership with a leading national platform [like] Roofing Corp of America and the financial strength of its parent, FirstService Corporation, [Crowther] is poised to capitalize on the numerous growth opportunities ahead,” he continued.
Atlanta-based RCA, founded in 2003 by CEO Randy Korach, exploded onto the scene in 2022 after appearing on RC’s Top 100 list at No. 14. Korach partnered with Soundcore Capital Partners in late 2020 and began an aggressive growth strategy. That December, the company announced its first acquisition: Original Roofing Co. of Las Vegas.
Several acquisitions between that first and the end of the following year positioned RCA to become an attractive buy; on Dec. 15, 2023, Soundcore announced RCA had been sold to FirstService Corp., a Toronto-based company with a $6.7B market cap trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker FSV. FirstService Corp. closed down 2.26 points on Monday in light trading at $148.65.
“We have great respect for Crowther’s culture and operational excellence and look forward to partnering with them to meaningfully expand our presence in Florida … and realize our shared goal of becoming the preeminent roofing contractor group in the nation,” Korach said.”
In a 2004 RC piece looking back at that summer’s storm season, then-Associate Editor Shawn Holiday interviewed Crowther’s father, Lee Sr., who had admitted to the author he was thinking of retiring that year after four successive storms hit the state.
"My resources are all used up," Lee Sr. said then. "Our schedule says right now we need 250 people, and I know I won't get them."
Twenty years later, those exact words will likely cross many contractors’ lips.
For more information, visit roofingcorp.com.
*This article was updated on June 11, 2024, at 9:40 a.m. to reflect the correction that RCA's first purchase was The Original Roof Co. of Las Vegas. A previous version cited Deer Park Roofing of Ohio.
