Roll Rite, LLC Relocates to Larger Facility

Gladwin, Michigan, September, 4th 2014 — Roll Rite, LLC relocated headquarters and manufacturing operations to a 68,000 square foot facility in Gladwin, Michigan.

Roll Rite CEO Brad Templeman, announced to distributors and OEMs, “Our decision to relocate to a larger facility aligns with Roll-Rite’s strategic direction to expand our geographic reach and application scope in designing and manufacturing state of the art automated tarp systems for the global heavy duty trucking industry serving the Construction, Governmental, Agriculture, Waste & Recycling markets.”

With increased engineering capabilities and manufacturing capacity, Roll-Rite strengthens its commitment to provide innovative systems that reliably contain and protect payloads, create a safer work environment for drivers, and maximize customer's return-on-investment through reduced cost of ownership and increased revenues.

Roll-Rite Corporation was incorporated in 1991. Prior to that date, the company was known as Custom Steel Fabrication. Custom Steel Fabrication was founded in 1978 by Timothy and Marlane Searfoss and occupied a 1,248 sq. ft. building in Alger. As the name implies, the company first specialized in the fabrication of custom metal products.

After the passage of the Michigan tarp law in 1989, many local dump truck operators came to Searfoss and asked him to build a tarping system that worked better than the systems available on the market at that time. Searfoss accepted the challenge and designed a system that overcame many of the limitations of those other systems. Features such as the direct drive gear motor and tension bow were innovative enough to earn U.S. patents.

The popularity of this new tarping system soon left no time to manufacture other products and led to the company’s specialization in tarping systems and accessories. By 1995, Roll-Rite Corporation had established itself as a leading manufacturer in the tarping industry and had begun a period of steady growth that continues today.

The desire to secure the company’s longterm future eventually led Searfoss to transform the company into a partnership. In October 2004, Roll-Rite Corporation gained several new shareholders and became Roll Rite, LLC. This progression beyond a family business enabled Roll Rite, LLC to continue developing advanced technology for transportation.

For example, the company developed the Rite-Touch™ remote control with one-touch technology. Utilizing the one-touch technology, the operator simply pushes the remote button and lets go — the side-to-side tarp system stops on its own when the tarp is snug and secure — in either direction, opening or closing. And using the remote, the operator can stand away from the trailer, affording 360° walk-around visibility when tarping to avoid system damage and reduce tarp wear and tear.