That’s just one factor that sets the Kansas City, Kansas-based manufacturer apart from its competitors who work with wooden shake or asphalt shingles.
The company’s products are generally sold in all 50 states and Canada, but it has also ventured overseas—a custom roofing job for a resort in Bali is one recent example—with its line of polymer-based products. Working around the clock every day of the week at its Wyandotte County facility, DaVinci’s 50 full-time employees and 20 part-time workers crank out enough of these lightweight shingles to cover up to 5,000 roofs a year, many of them in the multi-family and condo segment.
There’s a premium to be paid for the longevity that goes with DaVinci products, but the company believes that it nonetheless has a competitive pricing advantage over the long term with a product that is impervious to freeze/thaw cycles, is impact resistant and maintenance free, carries the highest impact-resistance rating recognized by insurers, and resists winds up to 110 mph.
Ray Rosewall, president and CEO, has been with the company since 2006. He signed on after DaVinci founder John Humphreys joined forces with TGP Investments, where Rosewall had been an executive in residence. Humphreys’ had developed the formula that turns polyethylene into polyurethane, the base component for these long-lasting roofing materials. The first product was installed in 2001.
Rosewall said that after he came on board, “the key at that point was to expand the distribution channels and the product family to broaden our market appeal and make us competitive in the lower segments of the premium market, which we’ve done over the last several years.
While DaVinci products top off some new construction, many builders or developers aren’t concerned with long-term outcomes elect to go with the cheaper products and shorter life cycles involved. “In many cases, developers are looking to keep costs as low as possible, get their buildings done, then sell and refinance and get out,” Rosewall said. “They’re not concerned about five or 10 years down the road. But we do very well with replacement roofs in condo and multi-family development, homeowners associations and things like that, because they understand the long-term life cycle cost and are sensitive to it. Nobody wants to re-roof every 10 or 15 years if they don’t have to.”
The innovation that made it all possible came from Humphreys’ mastery of material science, which led to a product that can be custom colored, shaped into varying widths to nearly eliminate the need for cutting pieces to fit, and in some cases is price-competitive with natural or petroleum-based products. And material science still plays a key role at the company, which is constantly researching new ways to apply the technology.
With polyethylene as its base material, DaVinci is assured of a reliable supply as long as the internal-combustion is around: It’s a byproduct from production of gasoline or diesel fuel. “We buy virgin polymers, combine two different types of polyethylene with fire retardants and ultraviolet inhibitors to create the engineered polymer we mold into shingles,” Rosewall said. “It’s readily available; there’s nothing unique about it. We take advantage of market fluctuations and will buy ahead when the price is right and try not to when it’s not.”
Among the other advantages the company enjoys are the quality of the work force and the central location of its facility, which provides ease of shipping to most areas of the nation, Rosewall said. “In terms of cost to the homeowner, especially in the Chicago-to-Dallas corridor, the cost to move product gives us an advantage compared to number of synthetic competitors. To get product into the northeast, that makes it a bit harder to compete solely on price.”
Despite an overall downturn in the construction sector in recent years, the fundamentals that have allowed DaVinci to prosper remain in place: “We’ve grown double-digits the past two years,” Rosewall said, “and we expect that to be 15 to 20 percent this year.” 