Rise in New Roofing Businesses

15 August 2023

Rise in New Roofing Businesses

THE NUMBER of businesses registered as offering ‘roofing activities’ increased in 2022 by more than 70% compared with the previous year.

A total of 2,300 businesses in the roofing industry were launched last year, according to Companies House data. This compares to just 1,341 businesses launched in 2021, equating to a 72% rise year on year analysis by Easy Offices finds.

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Rise in New Roofing Businesses

The figures show how the roofing contractor sector has grown over time in terms of newly formed companies. In 2019 and pre-pandemic, the number of companies launched was just 678 less than a third of those opening this year.

Also notable is the increase in 18-25 year-olds and those aged 50 and over who are starting their own businesses in the industry.

The figures show how both groups were at the helm of a significant portion of the new companies started last year – a trend which can be seen over time back to 2019.

In terms of year-on-year changes, older business directors (aged 50+) launched just 91 businesses in the sector in 2021, but a year later in 2022, this rose to 406 – a rise of 346%.

Meanwhile, the number of young entrepreneurs to the sector rose by 328% from 2021 to 2022 – up from 52 to 223.

Year  Total number of new companies* registered to those aged 18-25   Total number of new companies* launched  % of companies started by those aged 18-25
2022 223 2,300 10%
2021 52 1,341 4%
2020 17 880 2%
2019 16 678 2%

*Refers to companies launched in the sector ‘roofing activities’, as defined by Companies House.

Year  Total number of new companies* registered to those aged 50 and over    Total number of new companies* launched  % of companies started by those aged 50 and over
2022 406 2,300 18%
2021 91 1,341 7%
2020 97 880 11%
2019 106 678 16%

*Refers to companies launched in the sector ‘roofing activities’, as defined by Companies House.

The findings of more young people opening roofing contractor businesses are in line with wider research which suggests the pandemic was a catalyst for young people starting their own businesses.

A 2022 study spanning 2.3 million UK businesses across many industries showed the percentage of start-up owners aged under 35 had more than doubled since March 2020, rising from 16.4% to 34%.

Among this group, the proportion aged 18-24 soared from just 1.7% pre-pandemic, to 8.6% in the 2 years after the Covid-19 outbreak.

Booming Young Entrepreneurs

Last year marked a boom across UK business for young entrepreneurs in many sectors with around 60,000 start-ups registered by those aged 25 and under – a dramatic leap from around 12,000 the previous year. This was also the case for those aged 50 and over. Last year 217,622 businesses spanning all sectors were registered to those within this age group – a 271% leap from 2021 when 58,713 companies were launched.

John Williams, Chief Marketing Officer at Easy Offices, said: “This spike of new businesses following the pandemic shows how it drove a large number of people to take bold steps. There’s no age limit to starting a business and people who do this later in life bring a wealth of experience to the table.”

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