LIVE From IRE 2023 With Bitec!

Heidi J. Ellsworth speaks with David Allen and Joel Shealey from Bitec about their new innovative roofing products.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with David Allen and Joel Shealey from Bitec, Inc.™. You can read the interview below or watch the video. 

Heidi Ellsworth: Hello, we are back. This is Heidi Ellsworth, and we are on the live stage at the IRE International Roofing Expo. This is Coffee Conversations Live. You just saw it with all the contractors. Well, we have more guests who are coming in, and I am so excited to welcome David and Joel back to the sound stage. They are recurring guests, one of our favorites. So can you both introduce yourselves? We'll start with you, David. Let everybody know who you are.

David Allen: All right. Well, I'm David Allen. I'm President of the Bitec Incorporated, and this happens to be my 36th international roofing show, so I'm one of the old people. You can tell.

Heidi Ellsworth: 36?

David Allen: Yeah.

Heidi Ellsworth: I was telling somebody this is my 29th, and I was feeling rather old, but now I feel rather young.

David Allen: Well, I did too. Yeah. We ran into each other. I mean, we've said this before. Yeah, we set up booths, and doing all kinds of good stuff now. Thank goodness we don't have to set our booth up and tear it down anymore, or deal with it. It's great.

Heidi Ellsworth: It looks beautiful.

David Allen: It does. I mean, it's fantastic.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's an amazing booth. I walked by. I just checked it out. Okay, so Joel, we're going to talk more about that. Introduce yourself, and we'll talk about your booth.

Joel Shealey: Sure. Joel Shealey. I'm the VP of Bitec. I've been... This is my third.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay, there you go. Third?

Joel Shealey: Yes, and I've been in this industry for about three years right now.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. You know, you never leave once you get in.

Joel Shealey: I know.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's how it is.

Joel Shealey: I came from an asphalt world and they said once you got into the asphalt world, you don't get to leave. So, I just switched from roads to roofs.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's the types of asphalt. There you go.

David Allen: You went to a better level.

Joel Shealey: Higher level, yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes, high. Okay, so we're talking about this booth, and I did. I walked by, and I was like, "Holy, holy. This is beautiful." Tell us, what was your inspiration about getting this new booth, and tell us some of the items and innovations, new stuff that you're talking about to the contractors.

Joel Shealey: So for the booth, it was... We needed a new look. We needed Bitec 2.0, which we talked about. We wanted to do that. It's like going shopping for a new car. You get to pick out different components and decide what you want where, and then give them a lot of money.

Heidi Ellsworth: But then they come and set it up.

Joel Shealey: But they come and set it up.

Heidi Ellsworth: So it makes it almost worth it.

Joel Shealey: It does.

David Allen: Oh, it does. Absolutely, it does. Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: So, new booth, but same great products.

David Allen: Absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth: So what are you talking about in the booth?

David Allen: Well, basically we're talking about our full line of APP SBSs, our full line of liquid applieds, our sealants, our fasteners. I'm not trying to steal your thunder on this thing.

Joel Shealey: No, no.

David Allen: You can talk about product development. I'll let you talk about the newer stuff.

Heidi Ellsworth: There we go.

David Allen: But no, we're the same folks at Bitec. We love doing business with everybody. Please stop by, talk to us, talk to us about our products, our new offerings. Joel will probably ascribe a little bit about some of our future new offerings as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay, so the new offerings right now...

Joel Shealey: So the newest thing for us is we have added fasteners to our line.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay.

Joel Shealey: So, plates and fasteners. We've got a wide inventory of that.

Heidi Ellsworth: Oh, great.

Joel Shealey: Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: Awesome. And then where are we going? Always. You always are kind of coy, and I'm always like, "Come on.

David Allen: It's a good description.

Heidi Ellsworth: Tell us. Tell us.

Joel Shealey: I think the next steps will take us much more into the full system world.

Heidi Ellsworth: Ooh, okay. Are you going to keep all the cool designs that I like so much?

Joel Shealey: We are.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay. I want to look out those hotel rooms and see my Bitec cool designs.

Joel Shealey: We've got a couple things in the works that are really cool that could really make that product take off.

David Allen: That's no marketing puff, either. That is the gospel truth.

Heidi Ellsworth: Hallelujah. I am so excited about that because David knows this, but that's my favorite product that you have.

David Allen: Yeah, I know that.

Heidi Ellsworth: I love all the designs. I love looking... Seriously, when I look out a hotel room and I see a flat roof down there, I'm like, "Why isn't there Bitec on that?" I like to look at the patterns.

David Allen: You told me in the past you were going to give me an order for it for your home and I haven't gotten it yet.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's true.

David Allen: When are we going to get the order?

Heidi Ellsworth: That's our home. It's not like this. It's like this.

David Allen: You don't have a flat area?

Heidi Ellsworth: No.

David Allen: You can put it on a slope. That's why the design's on there.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's cool. We could put it on the wood shed.

David Allen: It's fine.

Heidi Ellsworth: And I look out at the wood shed.

David Allen: Okay, I'll accept that.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay. I don't know. My husband, I have to ask him.

David Allen: Well, I know it has to be a joint agreement, but since you love it so much.

Heidi Ellsworth: I do love it. I'll wait for my roll to come in the mail.

David Allen: There you go.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay. Or, I'll just get a whole bunch of samples.

David Allen: That's too time consuming. That's like putting up a booth.

Heidi Ellsworth: Oh, Tim would do it.

David Allen: Okay. Well I'm not going there either on that one.

Heidi Ellsworth: Oh, my.

David Allen: I stay out of domestic things.

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay. So what else? So we've got all this great stuff coming up, and then what other shows are you going to be doing this year because you guys are... We're always at the same shows. What things are coming up?

Joel Shealey: We will be at FRSA.

Heidi Ellsworth: Oh, yeah. Good.

Joel Shealey: We'll be at MRCA.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yep. Western States?

David Allen: Western

Joel Shealey: We're not doing Western States.

Heidi Ellsworth: Not doing Western States. You can't do them all. That's what I'm learning.

Joel Shealey: No, you really can't.

Heidi Ellsworth: You can't. It's too much.

Joel Shealey: But we are going to do... We did METALCON last year. We're going to give that another shot this year.

Heidi Ellsworth: We are going to have a live stage at METALCON. So there we go. Now we get, do this again.

David Allen: How nice.

Heidi Ellsworth: I know.

David Allen: It's so pleasant.

Heidi Ellsworth: Because it's for the MetalCoffeeShop, our newest, newest site.

David Allen: Nice.

Joel Shealey: That's right.

David Allen: So that will be at METALCON, so we'll have talk about your high tin products. And our sealants. And adhesives and nice little things that the... Yeah, other things, too.

Joel Shealey: We love to coat metal roofs.

David Allen: Yeah, we can do that. We have liquid applied.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. You guys are on MetalCoffeeShop. I think you are.

Joel Shealey: Okay.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's two days before I read, so I don't remember everything, so I'll make sure you are.

David Allen: I don't remember this morning.

Heidi Ellsworth: I don't either. It's kind of crazy. Okay. What I'll do is I'll give you both my MetalCoffeeShop things because I made them.

Joel Shealey: Okay, thank you.

David Allen: Perfect.

Heidi Ellsworth: Well, we won't forget. So, okay. Anything else to share with everybody out there?

Joel Shealey: Again, I think we've done a lot of really good things with Bitec 2.0. We're continuing to evolve. Our beavers, back in the lab, are very busy.

Heidi Ellsworth: I love it.

Joel Shealey: Yes. We're working on a number of different things. Like I said, our offering line from what it was three years ago to today is triple or quadruple, probably. We're going to keep adding products, keep adding things, and keep trying to innovate and make something new for this industry.

Heidi Ellsworth: I love it.

David Allen: Absolutely. Yeah, and that's exciting. I wish I were 20 years younger. They don't, because it's...

Heidi Ellsworth: We just had that conversation in the last one.

David Allen: Really?

Heidi Ellsworth: There was someone else here. I'm all like, this is such an exciting time.

David Allen: Exactly.

Heidi Ellsworth: We all want to... whatever.

David Allen: I mean, there's a level of excitement. I even feel it here at the show.

Heidi Ellsworth: I do too.

David Allen: There's a level of excitement that I haven't experienced at this show in a long time.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. I feel the same way.

David Allen: Good. Good.

Heidi Ellsworth: Very good. Over 20,000, I'm hearing, registrants. We had over 500 at National Women in Roofing Day. I mean, it's just been boom, boom, boom. Everything is packed.

David Allen: That's wonderful.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's awesome. I know.

David Allen: That's good news. It's good news for the industry.

Heidi Ellsworth: We need it.

David Allen: It's good news for everybody here.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's going to be a great year, too.

Joel Shealey: Absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth: We're not listening to the media. We are just doing our thing. Everyone needs a roof.

Joel Shealey: Absolutely.

David Allen: That's exactly right.

Heidi Ellsworth: Everybody needs a roof.

Joel Shealey: Everybody needs a Bitec roof.

David Allen: You need a metal design roof on your shed at your home.

Heidi Ellsworth: Our shed. Oh, we have another shed too, that we can-

David Allen: Well, that'd be two rolls then.

Heidi Ellsworth: Right, Two rolls. Okay. I'll pick the color.

David Allen: Consider it done.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. Okay. We're good. Yes. This is great. Gentlemen, as always, I love you. Thank you so much.

David Allen: We love you too.

Joel Shealey: All right.

Heidi Ellsworth: This is so much fun. We're going to be back. I think we have one more interview before we trek down to see Megan Ellsworth play at the SRS XTV. Then I will be back at 3:30 with the Roofing Alliance teams. They all presented this morning. The student competition presented. They're going to be here, live on the sound stage. Stay tuned. We'll be back.