Highland Roofing buys family-owned Hanover Iron Works

An exterior view of Hanover Iron Works on Water Street as it looked in 1915. Photo courtesy of the Dr. Robert M. Fales Collection at the New Hanover County Public Library

Highland Roofing Co. said Tuesday it has acquired what is perhaps Wilmington's oldest continually operated family-owned business.

Wilmington-based Highland Roofing acquired Hanover Iron Works, 1851 Dawson St., in what it called a strategic deal designed to grow the companies' commercial roofing market share.

With the acquisition, Highland Roofing expects revenues to approach or exceed $10 million in 2015, said Iain Fergusson, the company's owner.

Highland Roofing was incorporated in October 2005 and is based at 4310 Deer Creek Lane, where it is adding to and improving its 9,000-square-foot building and yard to accommodate the growth.

Hanover Iron Works, however, was founded April 3, 1903, at the foot of Market Street and started as a sheet metal shop, said Horace T. "Tommy" King III, the last of his family to own the company.

"There are businesses older than ours, but whether they stayed in the same family over that period, I don't know," he said Tuesday.

The business was started on Water Street by Tommy King's great-grandfather.

Tommy's father, Horace T. King Sr., ran the company from 1941 until he retired in the late 1980s.

Tommy King said he came to work at the business in 1973.

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Highland Roofing buys family-owned Hanover Iron Works