LIVE from IRE 2025 with HB Fuller! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Suanne Stevens of H.B. Fuller. You can read the interview below or watch the recording.

Intro: Hello everyone. We are back at the coffee shop soundstage. My name is Megan Ellsworth. Thank you all for tuning in. I am here with Suanne Stevens from HB Fuller. Hello.

Suanne Stevens: Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me today.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. We're so glad to have you. Can you tell everyone a little bit about you and HB Fuller?

Suanne Stevens: Absolutely. So again, my name is Suanne Stevens. I am the Vice President of Commercial Roofing for HB Fuller. It's actually a brand new position for me. I've only been in the role for about 30 days.

Megan Ellsworth: Gosh, congrats.

Suanne Stevens: Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Suanne Stevens: Yeah, and actually I moved in from a finance role for HB Fuller, so a little bit different, but I've been around the roofing business for a long time in my finance role.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it.

Suanne Stevens: And something I've always been interested in to move more into the business side of it, so super excited for the role.

Megan Ellsworth: That's exciting.

Suanne Stevens: The roofing business for HB Fuller is part of our building adhesive solution business, which also encompasses many other pieces of the building envelope. So super excited to have a great year this year, and the show's been great so far.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, good. So yeah, let's talk about the show. How has the traffic been to your booth and what are people asking about?

Suanne Stevens: Yeah, the traffic has been great.

Megan Ellsworth: Good. Good.

Suanne Stevens: It's been busy. The days go by in a minute. Just in a minute, it just seems like you get there and then it's time to go again. Lots of buzz on the year. Data centers is a big word.

Megan Ellsworth: Huge.

Suanne Stevens: Have you heard that before?

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, we were just talking about it. Yes. My gosh.

Suanne Stevens: So lots of noise out there about data center-

Megan Ellsworth: Hot topic.

Suanne Stevens: ... demand, hot topic for sure. And then the other one is what is going to happen in the industry, especially with tariffs and what the impacts of those are going to be.

Megan Ellsworth: Right. Yeah. I mean, I've heard about that every single day we've been here, at least by one person, if not more.

Suanne Stevens: Yep.

Megan Ellsworth: What's going to happen? What do we need to do to prepare? So hopefully we can get some more information soon and see what happens.

Suanne Stevens: Absolutely.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, so I hear you have a new product.

Suanne Stevens: We do have a new product. I brought a brochure with me.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. We love show and tell.

Suanne Stevens: So we have a new product. It's called PG-1 EF ECO Generation 2 because we do have this product now, but this a Generation 2 product and EF stands for Equipment Free.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, awesome.

Suanne Stevens: But what this is is it's two part adhesive and A part and a B part that go together, and they're canisters, so just like your canister that you might have on your grass grill.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay.

Suanne Stevens: And then there's a hose and a spray nozzle that go with them, and it allows the contractor to spray the adhesive on the roof and equipment free, labor savings. But the big news about this is the sustainability aspect. So this is propelled just by CO2. It's the same thing you have in a can of soda. So no harmful contaminants for the environment, safe for the worker.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh my God, that's amazing.

Suanne Stevens: So we are super excited about the sustainability aspect of this and how we can help both the environment, the people that are using the product and everybody.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. And that's great. So exciting too, that it's because it makes just one less hassle on the roof, especially a big roof, big commercial job. You just want to get up there and do your little bits and be able to get off.

Suanne Stevens: And labor, as we all know, is a challenge, right?

Megan Ellsworth: Right.

Suanne Stevens: Contractor labor is a big challenge. So we've been designing products over the last several years with the intent in mind of how can we reduce labor and help the contractor.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. And that's awesome. And that's what makes HB Fuller stand apart, I think, from the crowd. Y'all are really thinking about the different ways to help the contractor make their lives easier.

Suanne Stevens: Absolutely.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. I love it. Okay, so anything else that people are asking about or curious about when they come to the booth? Any products?

Suanne Stevens: So we have a lot of products in our business, and if you come by booth 5079, you can come see us.

Megan Ellsworth: Perfect.

Suanne Stevens: And you can see some of our turn-a-Bon Tapes. [inaudible 00:04:09] We've got some of our metal building tapes-

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome.

Suanne Stevens: ... as well. And then we've got some other product demos that we can share with you as well.

Megan Ellsworth: Perfect. Okay. Say that booth number one more time.

Suanne Stevens: 5079.

Megan Ellsworth: 5079. Well, Suanne, thank you so much.

Suanne Stevens: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. You're so welcome. Everyone, go to the HB Fuller directory on rooferscoffeeshop.com to find out more and see all the different products that they offer. What's your website as well?

Suanne Stevens: Www.hbfuller.com and then if you go there, there's a roofing tab and you can click right in.

Megan Ellsworth: Perfect. Easy peasy. Everyone, stay tuned, we have an RLW live from the Leister booth at 9:00 or 10. A.M. Central. And Suanne, thank you again.

Suanne Stevens: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

Outro: Absolutely. Okay...