Historical Copper Roofing & Custom Sheet Metal Fabricator, Greater Chicago

Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Greater Chicago sheet metal shop that does the work most competitors can't or won't touch: historical copper roofing, standing seam, custom ornamental metal, column covers, wall panels, domes, steeples and minarets. Founded in 2010, the business is roughly 95% commercial and institutional, and self-performs about 98% of its work with its own union crews. On complex architectural jobs it is frequently the only sheet metal bidder, and rivals have literally asked the company for pricing because they lacked the capability. On around $6.9M in revenue, the business throws off $2.38M in cash flow (and $2.25M adjusted EBITDA), a ~34% cash flow margin that reflects genuine pricing power rather than commodity bidding.

The operational story is unusually strong for a business this size. A chief estimator with a 35-year relationship with the owner prices and manages jobs without owner sign-off, a second estimator runs the CNC and shop drawings, the superintendent ran a $3M stadium job largely solo, and the office manager handles QuickBooks, billing and union reporting (100% on the latest union audit). The owner describes his own role as easy to step into, and the adjusted EBITDA already carries a $125,000 general manager salary, so the earnings are not propped up by hidden owner labor.

Demand visibility is real: about $5.5M of contracted backlog remained to bill across 24 jobs as of September 2026, with a multi-million-dollar stadium award expected. Bid invitations arrive daily, the company bills 40-plus general and roofing contractors a year and maintains ~70 active relationships. The constraint is capacity, not demand, as the business is actively turning away bids for lack of estimating bandwidth.