Forging ahead: Exploring the benefits of investing in sheet metal

By Anna Lockhart.  

Learn what the metal experts have to say about the growth opportunities in sheet metal and metal roofing industries and how to expand your business! 

In a recent episode of Coffee Conversations®, host Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Ken McLauchlan of MetalForming, Anthony Velez of Coryell Roofing and Randy Begger of Datus to discuss the ins and outs of starting your own sheet metal shop and getting into the metal roofing business. This conversation also dived into valuable tips and tricks seasoned contractors can use to diversify their existing service selections.  

As the vice president of architectural sales at MetalForming, Ken had several valuable insights to share about getting started with sheet metal equipment. MetalForming specializes in helping contractors, fabrication shops, roofing shops and any sheet metal professionals find the best equipment and machinery to meet their customer demands with efficiency. Ken emphasized that in recent years, the market’s interest in metal has only increased, “People are looking for opportunities, people are trying to figure out better ways to be more efficient... We're seeing major moves in the industry that I think just solidify that the U.S. market is very strong, it's moving forward and there's lots of opportunity in metal.” 

Randy explained that, in his area of work, they’re seeing a very strong market, one where growth is certainly possible when it comes to investing in quality metal equipment. He shared, “I'm hearing that it's a very strong market right now. Everybody seems to be very busy. People are looking for ways to organize their business a little better. They're trying to bring in things like software and better machinery to get better throughput just because they have so much work to do. So, it's good to see that the businesses are doing well in this environment.” 

Anthony emphasized the value of seeking out metal opportunities as a contractor. While his business primarily works in edge-to-edge roofing, the growth of interest in metal among their target audience led to him investigating the benefits of including metal services. “Over the past year, because of our growth and the amounts of clients that we have personally [wanting metal], the request for right now in managing the client expectation triggered us to start going down this path. At the end of the day, it was just a matter of meeting client expectations, the needs of the industry right now and not in two weeks or a month.” 

Getting ahead of the curve and finding metal equipment and machinery that will serve your client base now, rather than later when competitors have already beat you to the punch, can mean a great deal of success when it comes to delivering quality metal work to those on the market looking for it! Anthony and his team worked closely with Ken to get on the right track and prepare their metal shop with the machinery they would need, and it ended up being exactly what they were looking for. “Ken and his team came in and started proposing different options for us and going through design phases of where we should put it in our warehouse. We followed his guidance and the support of his staff. And honestly, I'm so glad that we did because everything flows perfectly now inside of our new metal shop.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode to learn more about metal machinery and how to expand your business today!