Revolution Roofing and Nexsteel fall in South Australia's biggest insolvency in 2022 since York Civil case in 2018

John Easling (inset) had ambitions for Adelaide company Nexteel with the giants in the Australian in the pre-painted steel market.

The collapse of Revolution Roofing and sister company Nexteel in 2022 was the largest corporate insolvency in South Australia since the collapse of York Civil in 2018

Liquidation administrators confirmed in 2023 that Victorian sheet metal conglomerate Design Group would pay $14.67 million to take over the business and assets of Revolution Roofing following its $88 million collapse. This all but ended hopes of a dividend to unsecured creditors. Design Group also wanted to take over the Nexteel brand but that business’s operations had already been shut down.

Steel roll-forming company Revolution Roofing was set up by industry veteran John Easling in 2009. Easling steered the takeover of painted steel company ColorGuard in 2019 before revamping its products and relaunching them under the Nexteel brand. His ambition was to compete head on with industry giants such as BlueScope.

John Easling led Adelaide firm Nexteel from 2019 to being a serious challenger in the pre-painted steel market for roofs, fencing, sheds and architectural facades.By 2021, Nexteel had won 25-30% of the South Australian coated steel market and more than 10% in West Australia and shook up the industry by injecting its first choice of 27 extra new colours for steel roofing since 2013. Looking to growing with Revolution Roofing, Nexteel gained confidence of its success with a high-grade paint finish called PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) for its basic product NextSTAR.

Nexteel would supply about 20,000 tonnes of coated steel in 2021 with major projects including the Kwinana Waste to Energy plant south of Perth and school upgrades across South Australia. It was also supplying to Booth Transport’s new 13,800 square metre transport hub at Burton, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, and the Ahrens family’s $10 million luxury expansion of Kingsford Homestead – in its Kingsford Grey colour – at the historic Barossa Valley estate.

Nexteel was looking to a 2021 relaunch of patterned steel for commercial facades, with aluminium composite cladding out of favour due to flammability and new regulations. After refurbishing its main paint line in Newcastle, Nexteel was considering additional lines in Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne.