Tremco is going global

By Emma Peterson.

Learn about how Tremco has established itself as a waterproofing and coating leader not only nationally, but internationally.

You’ve probably heard of Tremco Roofing, who has been delivering high quality, comprehensive roofing and weatherproofing solutions since 1928, but have you heard of Tremco Construction Products Group which operates on a global stage? In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth spoke to Mardee Billingsley, the executive vice president of Tremco Construction Products Group about what they do and where they operate.  

Mardee has been working with Tremco for over 28 years now. She has worked in all parts of the company, from running a WTI service department to rooftop construction management, but in the past four or five years her focus has been on Tremco’s international expansion through the Construction Products Group (CPG. Mardee shared a bit of the background on this branch of Tremco, sharing, “Tremco Roofing is a division of Tremco Construction Products, which is our overall platform that provides sealants, waterproofing, roofing, concrete masonry products. And WTI would be the service division under that as well. Tremco Construction Products operates in North America as well as Europe. Then Tremco CPG is an operating group for RPM International, which is a $7 billion global company that specializes in specialty coating, sealants, building materials and related services in other continents.”  

This expansion has been a great opportunity for Tremco to continue to grow their expertise and innovate new weatherproofing solutions. On the administrative side, going global brings a fair number of cultural and linguistic challenges. Mardee explained, “It’s not always the roofing that's different, it's the cultures and the environments. So we meet with our regional teams weekly or monthly and it's really not about roofing. Of course languages are the biggest barrier. And then financial and regulatory distinctions are all things that play into it.”

And when it comes to the products, these new environments have fueled the team at Tremco CPG to innovate and problem-solve in new ways. Mardee gave an example, saying, “If you get into areas like South Africa where it's on the coast and it's very salt water heavy, you get that corrosion in the air. In that situation, a typical acrylic metal coating, it just won't endure. So those roofs require a much more corrosive resistant coating, which we are able to connect clients there to through one of our other RPM partners.”

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode for more about Tremco’s operations on the global stage.