Navigating an unpredictable market

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how roofers can overcome uncertainty by selling proactive, performance roofing solutions.  

If 2025 has proven anything, it has proven to be unpredictable. From tariffs to immigration and beyond, the one word everyone is using to describe the industry and market is unpredictable. But even through all those changing factors, one thing remains true – the future of roofing is all about high-performance solutions. To learn more about what this means, Heidi J. Ellsworth caught up with Eric Miller, the VP of sales and marketing for the roofing and stone solutions division at Westlake Royal Building Products, for an interview.  

Eric opened the conversation by talking about some the biggest topics in roofing at the moment, “I think it's a lot of moving parts, when you look at where the overall economy there's certainly issues relative to tariffs and the unknowns that come with that. In construction specifically, we have a lot of discussion of the labor shortage and what impact that will have.” Beyond the professional side, Eric pointed to two topics that have become significantly important to home and building owners – affordability and durability. He explained, “Extreme weather is a huge topic right now...We've had a lot of issues with hurricane wind uplift and fires. The result is the insurance industry is pushing for products that will handle those weather events better.”  

And the insurance industry isn’t the only driving force demanding more durable roofing solutions, a lot more homeowners are doing independent research about performance products than before. Eric shared, “Homeowners now are actively wanting to understand the options and the benefits they'd get with different products. They're doing more research relative to the value propositions of products and they're making more educated decisions.” 

What does this all mean for contractors? It’s more important than ever to highlight and communicate solution-based roofing systems. Eric explained, “Explaining how you are providing solutions is the big thing going forward. As a manufacturing partner, Westlake is really focused on educating our roofing contractors to be able to sell proactive solutions and developing products that meet the performance requirements that extreme weather has created.”  

Check out the full interview to hear more of Eric’s insights about the dynamic roofing market.