Business was really beginning to boom in the mid-’90s when we (three majority owners) paid the final check to our previous owner and took possession of our 200-employee company. It was 1995 and our company was growing in the dot-com boom, as well as Chairman Greenspan fueling the economy going into Y2K.
In 1997, the great economy was fostering many initial public offerings and the roofing contractor sector was moving into several “consolidations” with roll-ups hoping to go public. Eventually, we received two offers from consolidators, two offers from boutique private equity groups that wanted to invest in our company, explored an Employee Stock Ownership Program and, in 2003, began transferring our stock to key managers via a management buy-out.