Ken Mayhew was born in South Africa, attended all-boys boarding high school where he was a head prefect. He excelled as a captain in team sports including rugby and competitive swimming. Sport has always been a driver in his character.
After leaving school and completing his military training (we hear he still makes a sharp bed & shirt iron today!) he started his career as an accountant clerk with a small group of chartered accountants and studied accounting parttime. He became a qualified accountant and finished a marketing diploma. He landed a position as an accountant with an international food manufacture and was quickly promoted to Cost Accountant.
This was the beginning of his deep need to be an entrepreneur and start his own business. When he was 26, he adventured into his first business and purchased a hotel in a South African seaside resort.
Some years later as the politics in South Africa was changing, he knew his life would be affected. At 36, he immigrated with his family to Vancouver, BC. With very little money but the drive to be an entrepreneur he worked as an accountant and looked to buy a business.
Ken found a small roofing company that was for sale and in 1990 he purchased Penfolds Roofing with no prior knowledge of roofing, he still saw the business as an excellent opportunity. The company had a good reputation and was established. At this time, its annual gross revenues were approximately $800,000. The staff included the owner, a parttime office assistant and a sub contract roofing crew located on Main Street, Vancouver. Ken quickly learned the business, with a few mistakes along the way but continued to understand that the opportunity for growth was big.
The first year of operations, he employed the first sales person. The company grew rapidly and purchased a building to relocate to Vernon Drive, East Vancouver. Ken realized that in order to grow the company successfully he would need to acquire a software package that streamlined duties and created systems that were efficient. There was no such package that could be incorporated into the business. He hired a computer programmer to help which was pivotal in the success of the company and the custom program is still used today. This enable Ken to employ sales crews and quote projects quickly and accurately and today this program is used to do instant proposals in customers’ homes.
The years that followed he created a marketing department. Part of the success of the marketing team was an advertising campaign largely focused on radio, real-estate-like signs and branded vehicle decals. Also, an important core of the company’s growth was through securing high quality custom products that were ‘exclusive’ to Penfolds for example the well-known rubber Ecoroof® (year 2000). Recognizing another significant opportunity, the company introduced solar systems, the only company offering a solar solution on a large scale. The solar & roofing combination and customized application was a significant stronghold for the growth of the company, hence the name change to Penfolds Roofing & Solar Inc. In 2018, a one-acre property was purchased and a new state-of-the-art head office was developed in Coquitlam. The revenue grew to $25million operating in 4 locations from Abbotsford to Lions Bay. In the high season it employs approximately 150 staff today.
Shaun Mayhew (Ken’s son) completed his post-secondary degree and began working for the company in 2004. Today, Shaun continues to run the company after Ken sold to him and then announced his retirement 2021. He is happy in his retirement life. Recently, he became a certified scuba diver.