Inflexion is committed to making businesses better for everyone by investing responsibly and is pleased to see the commitment made by its portfolio company Marley in this area. Marley has a track record of establishing strong ESG credentials, with the specialist roof tile maker a trailblazer many times over since its foundation nearly 100 years ago.

Marley’s story is one of pioneering innovation, initially to supply roof tiles in the wake of the Great War when they were in short supply. The company became the first to introduce an automated machine in the industry in 1961, launched the UK's first dry fix roof systems back in 1975, became the first UK construction materials provider to achieve ISO 14001 environmental compliance in 2001, launched the ground-breaking EcoLogic tile to absorb harmful NOx pollutants, and introduced a fully integrated solar roof system in 2019, offering the most comprehensive roof system on market.

Today the Staffordshire-based business employs over 500 people across five manufacturing sites and three distribution centres making and selling complete roofing solutions – comprising concrete and clay roof tiles, timber battens, solar panels and roofing accessories. The modern sites belie the company’s roots as a cowshed start-up in 1924 in a very traditional industry.  Inflexion led the buyout of Marley in August 2019 to support and accelerate its already impressive growth.

Marley’s sustainability focus is centred around its commitment to people, planet and process, clearly laid out on their website.

Our ESG and particularly sustainability credentials stretch back 20-30 years.

Paul Reed,

COO,

Marley

The achievements to date make this evident: all its production waste is recycled, and all its waste water reused.

Firm foundation

Marley’s values may stem from a family culture in the first few decades of the company’s journey – the founder’s son was eventually knighted for his contribution to the roofing industry, and the company achieved the Duke of Edinburgh Innovation Award in the 1980s for developing the first dry fix roof.

This enterprising spirit is clearly entrenched in today’s culture, with business drivers still firmly focused on sustainability. For example the firm invested in a digital platform with Inflexion’s support and processing automation. Both have enhanced the customer experience and help to stabilise the peaks and troughs – key for saving resources. This has the added benefit of empowering staff to take on more value-adding and rewarding roles where the value of a personal customer interaction can be leveraged, further improving customer experience – and staff happiness. In fact the company boasts an average 10 year retention for staff and just 2.1% absence rate.

“People that come to Marley stay at Marley and grow at Marley, and we want that to continue,” enthuses CFO Dominic Heaton.

In addition to its various accolades, in 2016 Marley introduced limestone as a low-carbon alternative to cement. And in 2021 the firm acquired Viridian Solar and announced it was sourcing 100% renewable electricity. It’s not done: the firm is continuing to enhance its Marley Smart Energy product portfolio for 2022 and beyond.

Such developments ultimately help not just the planet but also Marley’s end-users. “We talk to a lot of social housing providers and they’re very interested in solar and PV. They want to overcome problems of fuel poverty in social housing, batteries or boiler systems that attach to the solar panels can help overcome that,” explains Paul. “We offer the most complete roofing system in the market and now we have added solar so we can deliver energy from our roofs. It’s the future of roofing. We’re very proud of the company and what it brings to society.”