News
New player looks to reshape the roofing sector
Roofbuddy and Guardian Steel founder and CEO James Logan.
The New Zealand construction industry is on the cusp of longoverdue transformation — and at the centre of this shift is Guardian Steel. A new player in the construction industry is aiming to dismantle entrenched monopolies in roofing materials and inject much-needed competition, transparency, and efficiency into the supply chain. Guardian Steel, launched in July 2025 by the team behind Roofbuddy, has entered the market not just as a new supplier of rollformed steel, but as a vertically integrated solution to systemic problems facing roofers and homeowners alike. Its timing is significant. The Government recently released a new Building Product Specifications (BPS) document, designed to open New Zealand’s building materials market to more globally sourced, compliant products. This initiative is expected to increase product choice, reduce costs, and improve quality across the board. But even before the ink dried on the BPS announcement, Guardian Steel was already operational — offering an alternative to the longstanding dominance of NZ Steel (owned by ASX-listed BlueScope), which has held more than 80% of the market for decades. In its first fortnight, Guardian Steel facilitated roofing for 48 homes, with the majority of supply delivered to vetted tradespeople within the Roofbuddy network. There are currently over 100 Roofbuddy-verified roofing contractors nationwide — all tradequalified, Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs) with active insurance and a track
record monitored through a 65-point quality assurance framework. These roofers were quick to embrace Guardian Steel’s offering, citing better pricing, more predictable lead times, and stronger accountability as key reasons for switching. CEO and founder of Roofbuddy and Guardian Steel, James Logan, says Guardian Steel is not just a product — it’s a response to market dysfunction. “We created it to solve the delays, cost overruns, and lack of competition that have plagued the building sector for years. Now, tradespeople and homeowners finally have an end-to-end solution they can trust.”
The local factor Guardian Steel’s machinery is locally engineered by Angus Robertson Mechanical, a Rangiora-based leader in roll-forming equipment built specifically for New Zealand conditions. The steel coil is sourced from South Korea, a market with a long-standing history of supplying compliant steel to NZ
standards. All Guardian Steel products meet the NZ Building Code and relevant international standards outlined in the new BPS guidelines. By integrating steel supply directly into the Roofbuddy platform, Guardian Steel offers several key benefits to the construction industry. For roofers: reliable material availability, better price certainty, and scheduling confidence. For consumers: Lower prices, faster project delivery, and increased protection through secure payment mechanisms. For the market: Transparent pricing, removal of unnecessary intermediaries, and competitive tension driving innovation and service. All orders flow through a tech-enabled specification and procurement system that eliminates common supply chain pain points. Contractors using the Roofbuddy platform benefit from protected payments — funds are only released when quality assurance milestones are met — offering peace of mind to both tradespeople and homeowners.
Building products reform and why it matters The new BPS document opens the door to thousands of compliant international products, provided they meet NZ code and performance requirements. This is a crucial step towards addressing excessive costs and limited competition in the building materials sector. James Logan sees Guardian Steel as a case study for what’s possible under this more open framework. “The BPS initiative is an official signal that the market is ready, and overdue, for disruption,” he says. “We’re bringing global-quality product, backed by proven international data, to a market that’s historically relied on one dominant supplier. That lack of choice has cost Kiwis, financially and socially, for far too long.” 52 | WWW.BUILDERSANDCONTRACTORS.CO.NZ
High costs, old homes, and a national problem The impact of inflated material costs reaches far beyond project budgets. According to government data: • Over 50% of New Zealand homes were built before 1980 • Around 35% were built before 1960, predating insulation requirements • Only 20% of homes have been built since 2000. The result? Much of our housing stock is cold, damp, and inefficient and too expensive to upgrade or replace due to material costs. The Warm Up New Zealand programme (2009–2018), which retrofitted 300,000 homes, demonstrated a 43% drop in hospitalisations for respiratory illness and significant improvements in mental health and wellbeing. Yet millions of homes remain substandard. “Outdated housing isn’t just an economic issue, it’s a public health crisis,” Logan says. “When material costs are inflated by lack of competition and imported alternatives are blocked, we all pay — especially vulnerable groups and low-income renters. We can’t solve our housing crisis without solving our materials crisis.” As the construction sector faces growing pressure to build faster, more affordably, and more sustainably, players like Guardian Steel perhaps offer a glimpse of a better future — one where the best product wins, not just the best-entrenched supplier. The message is clear: the era of monopolistic control in building materials is ending, and smarter, more open supply chains are taking its place.