Thomas Roth: A focus on the customer spans generations

Debbie Waltzer//July 13, 2001//

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Thomas Roth, president of Leo J. Roth Corp., is willing to shut his office door for a private meeting, but do not expect him to hold his telephone calls.
Constant communication with customers and prospects is critical to Roth, the third-generation leader of the mechanical and roofing contracting firm founded by his late grandfather Leo in 1948.
The 48-year-old West Irondequoit native and current resident is a gregarious, hands-on executive. He is as enthusiastic about landing and servicing a multimillion dollar heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing account as he is about installing a roof for free atop an area group home for developmentally disabled adults.
Roth has known that this line of work was his calling since age 5, when he could not wait to jump out of bed on Saturday mornings to join his father, Robert, at the firm’s former office on Clifford Avenue. He loved to pull down the noisy lever on his dad’s adding machine.
His grandfather and father-his mentors-have passed away, but Roth is committed to building upon his predecessors’ legacies.
“My grandfather started this business, and my father-an innovator and driver who was both my boss and best friend-made it take flight,” he says. “My goal every day is to incorporate my grandfather’s great ideas with my dad’s hard work, and nurture this company to the next level.”
The plan-to expand the company’s customer base, offer new services and employ more skilled workers-appears on track. The firm’s lobby is so packed with framed letters from past and present satisfied customers that the arrival of any more accolades might necessitate a building expansion.
Roth is overseeing steady growth at the firm.
Company revenues have expanded from $10 million in 1994 to $19.5 million last year. The company ranked among Rochester’s fastest-growing privately held firms the past two years.
Roth expects sales for 2001 to jump by an additional 10 percent to 15 percent. Much of the firm’s growth is expected to come from its new residential division, launched in January.
The company provides HVAC, plumbing, mechanical piping and roofing services to commercial and residential properties throughout the Greater Rochester area.
His management team includes his first cousin, Donald Fella, senior vice president of sheet metal, and John VanBuren, executive vice president.
In addition to offering these traditional services, the firm sells turnkey computerized maintenance management systems to clients as far away as Maine, Rhode Island and Maryland. The company also manufactures its own customized ductwork, as a way to avoid dependence on other contractors when materials are needed quickly.
Roth, who in 1974 earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Gannon University in Erie, Pa., credits his predecessors’ concern for customer needs and his current staff’s attention to detail for the company’s success.
Some 150 skilled trades personnel, including sheet metal journeymen, service technicians, software engineers and roofing installers, work in the field, Roth explains. That number rises during the busy summer season.
Roughly 30 administrative staff members work in the firm’s 70,000-square-foot complex on Holt Road in Webster. The company moved to the former home of Webster Plastics Inc. in May 1999.
Although he claims to be working on his delegation skills, one would be hard-pressed to keep Roth away from his firm’s jobs. On a recent morning, he made three site visits to chat with customers before 8:30 a.m., and he has racked up 51,000 miles on his car since buying it 18 months ago.
Roth insists the visits are not to check up on his crews. He trusts them implicitly. Rather, he describes himself as a “sales president rather than an administrative president.” He simply wants to kibitz with his customers.
Roth’s friendliness with clients comes as no surprise to long-time buddies Gary Caiola and Steve Labuzetta.
“Tommy and I talk on the phone or in person every day,” says Caiola, a 25-year law enforcement veteran with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and a detective sergeant since 1988.
The pair met at the Rochester Yacht Club-one of Roth’s favorite haunts. He served as commodore for the club in 1995. Caiola and his wife, Debra, and Roth and his wife, Erin, frequently go to dinner together.
“Tommy is one of the most sincere people I have ever met and a true friend,” says Caiola. “I’ve also spoken with several people in his industry who hold him in the highest regard because of his integrity and warm personality. He is a true gem.”
Labuzetta echoes this sentiment. He is a self-employed commercial photographer whose clients include Corning Inc., Eastman Kodak Co. and Wegmans Food Markets Inc.
“I’ll call up Tom, tell him the coffee’s on and he’ll just stop in,” Labuzetta says. “And his high energy level is no act. He keeps a lot of balls in the air at once, and I have yet to see him drop one.
“My only complaint is that we don’t get to see one another enough, but you know you share a true friendship when you can sit inside a fishing boat at dawn in northern Canada and not feel compelled to utter a word. That’s how close we are,” Labuzetta adds.
Keeping a lot of balls in the air is important to Roth. He lists family, work, community involvement and recreation as his primary passions.
His an avid sailor, golfer and skier. He also enjoys reading fictional thrillers by Michael Crichton and Robin Cook.
He speaks glowingly of his wife of nearly 20 years. They met while both were sailing at the yacht club. They have one child, 12-year-old Kaitlin, whom Roth describes as “gregarious, polite, engaging and caring.”
Physically active like her parents, the eighth-grade student at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Brighton proved to be fearless during a recent family scuba-diving excursion in Hawaii.
On her maiden dive, Kaitlin joined her parents-already experienced divers-at depths of 50 feet below the surface. She recently blew her parents away by hopping on stage during a school talent show to sing a solo, a capella rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
“Erin and Kaitlin are the joys of my life,” says Roth, tearing up a bit. “I couldn’t ask for more.”
It would be perfectly understandable for Roth-a business owner, spouse and parent-to become one with a lounge chair and a remote control come evening time. Instead, he devotes numerous hours to two organizations: the Mary Cariola Children’s Center Inc. and Our Lady of Mercy High School.
“Tom has been on our board for several years, and I don’t know what we’d do without him,” says Paul Scott, president of Mary Cariola.
The agency serves more than 600 children and young adults with multiple disabilities, including the son of one of Roth’s friends.
“Tom chairs our building and facilities committee, and leads a group that is constantly visiting our residences to be certain of their safety. If he notices the need for a minor repair or upgrade, Tom won’t hesitate to send over a crew to fix it at no cost to us.
“He is acutely aware of our need for more funds and gets out there and fights tigers to make things happen for our kids,” Scott continues. “Tom is someone who leads by example and is a true advocate for our center.”
Roth, who graduated from Bishop Kearney High School and is an adviser to the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at the University of Rochester, has chosen to plunge in to help raise funds for Mercy, his wife’s alma mater as well as Kaitlin’s school.
In addition to chairing the facilities committee at the Catholic school, which educates nearly 600 girls in grades 7 through 12, Roth is co-chairperson of the school’s capital campaign fund.
Donations, which currently total $4.3 million of the $6.2 million goal, will be used to build a new gymnasium and wellness center, as well as a media center and technology and science laboratories.
Thanks in part to Roth’s ability to reach out to his network of new supporters for Mercy, Sister Carol Wulforst, president of the school, is confident that the goal will be reached by the end of this year.
“Tom’s got it all-warmth, tenacity and meticulous attention to detail,” she says, adding that Erin Roth also plays an active role in organizing fund-raising events.
“He also is a strong supporter of women’s issues, full of energy and enthusiasm, and he truly embodies the spirit of Mercy High School,” she says. “What more could we ask for?”
Helping his community is important to Roth, although it bothers him to have to occasionally miss one of Kaitlin’s soccer games due to a conflicting meeting.
“I wouldn’t mind a little more soak time,” he admits.
The third-generation steward of his grandfather and father’s dream is quite content with his life. He would be a college marketing professor or a travel agent if not a corporate executive.
“I’m having a blast,” he says. “Is it all peaches and cream? Of course not. Is it as good as it gets? I think so. I feel truly blessed.”
(Debbie Waltzer is a Rochester-area free-lance writer.)