Chelsea Oesch - TRI-BUILT and State of the Industry - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Chelsea Oesch, Marketing Director for Beacon’s exclusive brand TRI-BUILT. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and I am roadtripping east to meet with someone. Spectacular. I have to tell you, I have watched this roofing professional lady many years from branch manager now to putting one of the coolest, some of the coolest products out there in the industry, and I'm talking about Chelsea Oesch, marketing director for TRI-BUILT. Chelsea, welcome to the show.

Chelsea Oesch: Hey, Heidi. Thank you so much for having me back again. This is very exciting.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it's been so fun. This is your second podcast because we did one way back, I think 2020 or 2021, somewhere in there, when you were branching-

Chelsea Oesch: It would have been 2019.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Chelsea Oesch: I know.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think it was 2019 when you were branch manager. So we have so much to talk about today, but let's start out with an introduction. If you could introduce yourself, talk about yourself, your job, Beacon. Let's go for it.

Chelsea Oesch: All right. So before I was sitting down to this and I was trying to calculate how many years I had been in this industry. This is actually my 14th year with the Beacon family of companies. And I started in 2009, and actually thinking about it, it's kind of like a time now. In 2009, I didn't necessarily go to college and graduate to be in roofing distribution, believe it or not, but there weren't very many marketing jobs going on in 2009. And luckily enough, I found myself in roofing distribution in inside sales. And within all of those years that I was in a branch, I did every role that there really was within the branch through 2020.

And in 2020, at the end, I moved to a new opportunity within the marketing department. So over 10 years later, after I got my marketing degree, kind of coming full circle and getting to it to use it. So I joined the marketing department as the marketing director of our private label brand, TRI-BUILT. And really what was nice was having those 10 years of field and branch experience, I was able to bring a totally different and unique perspective to this role.

Heidi J. Ellsworth:That is so cool. And you're right, I remember in 2009 you kind of had to find what you could find that kind of fit, but then to be able to grow with such a great company like Beacon, that makes all the difference from where you start to where you're going.

Chelsea Oesch: Well, and I think too, that a lot of kids have this dream of these really cool, kind of techy careers, but the don't sleep on the roofing industry at the end. And I'm always talking to new people when they come into the industry about how great this industry is and how many different opportunities there are. It's really endless. So you're never stuck in one part of the roofing industry.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: No, you're not. It's kind of like Hotel California. Once you're in, very few people leave. So it's like one big family.

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah. I say once you're in for a year, you're stuck for life.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's right. It's not a bad thing. Okay. Well, tell us a little bit about the history of Beacon.

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, yeah. So Beacon's been around now for almost a hundred years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Chelsea Oesch: And we are ultimately a bunch of different companies that are owned by Beacon in the Beacon umbrella. But we've recently undergone a branding exercise where we're now Beacon, which has really helped our footprint across the United States and Canada, which we have over 400 branch locations. We do residential, commercial and waterproofing throughout those locations. And then, also, Beacon is the only publicly traded roofing distributor out there. So it's a little bit different to work for a publicly traded company, but with that it comes with a lot more unique opportunities. You get to see a different side of things from that perspective.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah. And you just recently had an earnings call, right?

Chelsea Oesch: We did. So we just released our quarter one earnings, and I would encourage everyone to go and listen to that call because it can give you such a good insight to what's really going on in the industry. And in order to do that, if you go to be becn.com, you can go to our investor relations page and listen to our earnings calls and also see all of the released financial data.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It is on my list. I am going to be listening to that later on today. Okay, let's talk about what's happening in the industry right now. What are some of the roofing trends that you're seeing out there?

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, so this is going to come from a different perspective because I think we're all starting to see this green theme going on. It's been going on across many other industries for quite some time, but the roofing industry has really popped on this in the last couple of years. And we all have this common problem that everyone is trying to figure out how to effectively recycle shingles and what are all the end uses going to be.

So I sit on our corporate Social Responsibility Council, and I lead our waste recycling subcommittee. So doing that, I've gotten exposure to what are the opportunities out there to recycle shingles. Some of those big shingle manufacturers out there have developed a process in the past couple years to start to work to incorporate recycled materials back into the shingles. But there's also a lot of other processes out there from using ground shingles into road base, spinning the oil out of shingles, and the craziest one is there's a fungi that can eat old shingles. So there's a lot of different opportunities out there, but I think this is an industry problem. And so this can't just be Beacon or a big shingle manufacturer or a single roofer looking to solve this problem, but we really all need to work together to find out how can we divert that waste out of our landfills.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I think it's one of the most important topics we have right now. We have had a lot of information, coffee conversations, podcasts, and different things on recycling. And in fact, [inaudible 00:06:27], who is the fungi with Joanne, she's on our site too, because I agree. I think that is one of the hottest trends that people need to really be aware of. It's a long-term play, right?

Chelsea Oesch: They say that our landfills only have so many years left of taking in the waste. So it is not if, it's when, so we might as well get ahead of it and really find good end uses because everything can't go back into paving. And the technology's been there to grind shingles for quite some time, but it's finding those end uses that can take the massive quantities of shingles that are takeoffs off of roofs.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So the last couple years been a bit challenging for everyone, and I'm sure for you. What are you looking at right now from product availability and on time deliveries? You have such great technology, you track all of that. What are you seeing, Chelsea?

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, so at the end of the day, most of the ancillary products, so you're accessory type products, are really back to normal lead time with no delays, no raw material issues. Of course, there's going to be certain geographies where lead times are starting to spread out more on certain products, but really it's not enough to be impactful to the business. And really what we're seeing is that availability has been more normal than now than it has been since 2020. But at the same time, I think TRI-BUILT, we really had a unique opportunity during this product availability issue because we found that TRI-BUILT was widely available to all of our contractors during these more inventory challenged times. And so it really was kind of the product that was able to save their day because we had it available and stocked at all of our branches.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. As contractors get more involved and brand loyalty to a TRI-BUILT brand, it does have the availability that they need. That's all you think about. That's all you you're doing every single day, right?

Chelsea Oesch: At the end of the day, they are at all of the branches. And in the case that it's not, Beacon is uniquely networked with our branches together. So we work in something called OTC Market, and we're able to provide our customers with deliveries that are not only on time, but they're also complete. And that's just our branches working together behind the scenes so our contractors don't have to see really what's going on. All they really care about at the end of the day is that their materials are there and on time. So that's a different advantage to Beacon.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Speaking of that, what are you seeing with roofing contractors backlogs? Are we still seeing backlogs out there?

Chelsea Oesch: So in those storm markets that we had last year, I would say there, there's still some backlogs there if you're looking in kind of like the Midwest or in Florida, but largely I would say that most of the contractors are back to normal lead times to their homeowners. We also saw a lot of commercial contractors taking in as much material as they could to their warehouses. So a lot, you'll hear about this in the earnings call, a lot of Q1, they were de-stocking their inventory that they had. So that's also something kind of unique going on in the industry. But in general, it seems like everything is very much back to normal, which is kind of nice to hear.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think it's really nice. In fact, I know we need it. We're at that point where we're all kind of a little burnt out. Speaking about being back to normal, let's talk about TRI-BUILT. Tell us about it.

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, so TRI-BUILT is Beacon's private label brand of premium roofing products, and this isn't something that we just thought up of in the last 10 years, but TRI-BUILT's actually been around since the eighties before private labels were even really a cool thing. TRI-BUILT offers products in all categories, so that makes us unique in the sense that we have residential products, commercial products, and complementary, which would be kind of everything from the roof down. Our line is focused largely on all those ancillary products. So all of your accessories that go into the roof is really where TRI-BUILT's at. So we're not going to have a shingle, but we'll have everything underneath that shingle. We really pride ourselves on the fact that we partner with the same manufacturers that our customers know and love, but we're able to give them more value. So we partner with big names. They're not little small regional manufacturer partners, and they're able to service all of our Beacon locations across the United States and Canada.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. And what are contractors, when they are using TRI-BUILT products? How are they differentiating? I would think they would use that as a differentiator with their customers and talking about the quality, what are you hearing back from contractors and how they're using it to grow their business?

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah. So they're able to grow their business because they're reducing their spend without sacrificing that quality. And at the end of the day, those TRI-BUILT products are just built to work, so hopefully they're able to make a little bit more money, the homeowner's able to get it at a more fair price as well, so everyone should be happy.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Talk to me just a little bit about your contractors, what you're hearing, some of the things you hear while you're out there from the contractors.

Chelsea Oesch: They all love it. We don't get complaints. Everyone is very happy with the product because we're not making special recipes. We want to give them that same high quality product that they know and love. We're really not trying, this isn't the old days of private label where the grocery store took the orange juice and watered it down. It is the exact same product, just at a better value. And we like to kind of consider it like Kirkland's to Costco. And this generation now is much more accepting of private labels because they've been around the good private labels where it is just as good as that branded equivalent and it isn't that watered down product. So it's a totally different game we're living in.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: How can contractors start adding TRI-BUILT products to their business? How can they get involved with Beacon to kind of make all this happen?

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah. So if contractors want to get more involved with Beacon and TRI-BUILT, and if you're not already familiar with us, they can go to becn.com and find a store near them. And as I mentioned before, TRI-BUILT products are widely available and well-stocked at all of our locations.

We also have some other ways for our contractors to get involved with Beacon/TRI-BUILT. This last year, we actually unveiled a new look to the TRI-BUILT brand, and we were able to add our new pack leader Blue, our dog. And so if you think about a dog, we want our customers to feel the protection, trust, and loyalty, and they're going to get that same feeling conveyed through those TRI-BUILT products. But by adding Blue, we've been able to create some kind of unique partnerships that our contractors can get involved with.

So one of those is we partnered with an organization called Canine for Warriors. And what makes Canine for Warriors unique is that they really pride themselves on saving two lives. So they're saving the warrior, so this is someone that has some sort of military trauma, but also the dog because they take dogs from high kill shelters and they train them into being service dogs. And so every time a contractor purchases a TRI-BUILT product, we're giving some of that money to Canine for Warriors. Last year we sponsored one dog. This year we're doing multiple dogs. So that has been a really cool addition and really seems to resonate with the contractors.

But also, we introduced our first year of TRI-BUILT Top Dogs, and we solicited our customers to submit pictures and a story about their dog to be considered for our calendar. And so we had 12 dogs selected out of, there was over, I think 2000 submissions into this. So we had 12 dogs and they were featured in our calendar and they got some prize money. And a lot of our contractors, when they got that prize money, they actually took that and gave it back to a local rescue organization in their area. So it was really nice to see that all the values were aligned.

So it's more than just underlying their ice and water shield or paint or caulking, but we're really trying to connect our contractors with some of these great organizations.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love that. I love that. And I have to say, I love Blue. Great marketing. Great marketing, I love it. But you're right, it's so much deeper than just a marketing program. You guys have really taken it and made it part of the culture and the feel of our contractors and obviously TRI-BUILT and Beacon. That is very cool. I love that. We have roofing pets going on right now on our photo contests.

Chelsea Oesch: People really love their pets.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. 2000 pictures of dogs. That would be hard to go through and choose which ones for the calendar.

Chelsea Oesch: It was very difficult to choose. And ultimately, we voted blindly within a little committee that chose those top 12, and we're really looking forward to doing again this year, so it will be an annual tradition. And all of the submissions got a calendar themselves, a dog bandana with Blue on it, so they got something just even for submitting a picture.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: If somebody wanted to get that calendar, how would they do that?

Chelsea Oesch: So at every Beacon location, we have calendars there for the contractors to pick up, and it's so fun to hear them talking about their kids getting excited to unveil the next month of who's the dog of the month. So within that calendar, you get the dog of the month and also a TRI-BUILT product of the month. So you get to see the cute dog and learn a little bit more about TRI-BUILT.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Great. So smart. I love it. I love it. Well, Chelsea, congratulations. Wow. This is just great information. Very fun. I love it. And this is what roofing's all about, right? Performance qualities, but having some fun while you're doing it.

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. And we will look forward to having you back again because I want to hear more about what's going on.

Chelsea Oesch: Yeah, absolutely.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. And thank all of you for being here today. Be sure to check out the TRI-BUILT directory on Roofers Coffee Shop. We have a full one just for TRI-BUILT so you can see everything that's going on. And then, also, of course, check out the Beacon directory. You can find so many great articles and podcasts that we've done over the years with our very special partner, Beacon Building Products. Also, check out all of the podcasts under RLW, our read list and watch navigation under podcasts and Roofing Road Trips, or on your favorite podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe and set those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We will be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com