LIVE from IRE 2025 with IKO! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Matt Barmore of IKO. You can read the interview below or watch the recording.

Intro: Hello. I told you we'd be back. This is Heidi Ellsworth and I'm live on the Sound Stage sponsored by SRS at the International Roofing Conference 2025 in San Antonio, Texas. And we have been having some amazing interviews. Our goal is for everyone who can't be at IRE to hear and see what's going on to be a part of it through the coffee shops. So we asked our friends from IKO, Matt, to come join us and tell us what's going on in the IKO booth. How are you?

Matt Barmore: I'm well, thank you very much.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. Let's start with an introduction.

Matt Barmore: Sure.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: If you could introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you do with IKO.

Matt Barmore: Sure. I'm Matt Barmore. I'm the senior product and technical manager-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Love it.

Matt Barmore: ... for single ply systems in Canada and the US.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay, perfect. We've been having a lot of product managers on, I just want to say and one of my favorite, because we get to hear a little bit of the inside scoop-

Matt Barmore: There you go, yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... of what's going on. So what are you showing? What are you guys talking about commercially in the booth?

Matt Barmore: Yeah. This year at the booth, we're doing a couple of different demonstrations, which is something we've done since we launched at IRE in 2022. Our two demonstrations this year include induction welded systems, which are somewhat new to a lot of contractors. Gives us an opportunity to start a conversation about our membrane and our installation products and also show them how induction weld systems can go down very easily and saving time and money.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow, that's great. And the contractors love hands-on where they can actually see it, because doing the demos in the booth, right?

Matt Barmore: That's right. The other one we're doing is a section of our booth we call Weld It Yourself, and we've heard from our contractor partners since we launched that, our TPO is easy to weld and that they that attribute, as well as being flexible. So we thought, well, let's just let folks try it. We feel like if they try it'll sell itself. Lo and behold, we set up a table and got some hand welders and folks have been having a great time. They get to weld it, we walk them through the steps and then we do a tear test with them. They can test the strength of the weld that they've just completed.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Nice. That's fun.

Matt Barmore: It's been a lot of fun.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. As the contractors are there, what are you hearing just overall with the market and kind of economy overall and what the contractors are saying both in Canada and the US about... I know it's been kind of cold, but we're getting into season here.

Matt Barmore: Yeah, no, we continue to see, I think everybody's continued to see good growth in the southern US, the warmer states. They've sustained us all through the winter. Been a harsh winter so far, Eastern Canada, Eastern US, Northeastern US. Everybody's about saying the same thing and hearing the same thing that we're hoping for a stable year this year. There's been so much instability. So the hopes are good for that. We're waiting to see what the impact of cross country tariffs may bring to certain goods. We don't know. We'll continue to analyze the data and respond as best we can.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, we just talked to on the Governmental Affairs Group from NRC this morning-

Matt Barmore: Oh. Let me get my notes, I'll write this down.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I'll tell you, 1st, no, March 4th we should hear something about Canada and they said that we shouldn't panic. There we go.

Matt Barmore: We try as a company never to panic.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Never panic.

Matt Barmore: That's never a good idea, no reason to.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: They said no. So it was good. It was a really good, it left me optimistic, not scared, which is a nice thing to happen.

Matt Barmore: Good. Good. It is. Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So commercially, IKO, what other products, what initiatives, what kind of things do you have coming this year along with your TPO line?

Matt Barmore: A couple of things that are pretty exciting for us. One is in the US we've continued our geographic expansion. We started when we launched in '22, only in all of Canada, but then the Great Lakes and the Northeast in the US, which were in the close service area of our plant. Just as a way to make sure that we systematically launched that we got a good feel of how to do the right things for our contractors and customers. And so we've been able to last year expand on into the Mid-South, Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. And then later in the year we've expanded down just recently into Texas and Florida, across most of the states in the rest of the south and then up into Missouri and Kansas too.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Matt Barmore: So it's been exciting for us.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Congratulations.

Matt Barmore: Thanks. Yeah. And we'll continue that March westward.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Westward.

Matt Barmore: As we go west young folks.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Get out to Oregon sometime soon.

Matt Barmore: Well, we will eventually be in every state.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, there you go.

Matt Barmore: I'm gunning to be the Hawaii representative. As soon as we can do that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Perfect. Yeah, it's pretty nice.

Matt Barmore: We'll see how we'll that goes. The other thing that we're excited about is we're launching a technical app very soon, it's called IKO Roof Access and it's all our technical documents, allows a contractor to have it in their hand or a consultant architect in their hand on the roof. They can call up detailed drawings, installation instructions, product data sheets, safety data, anything they need at their hands.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. Right there.

Matt Barmore: Yeah, we're excited about that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So if you're talking to inspectors, if you're talking to other folks, boom, right there or building owners, facility-

Matt Barmore: Makes the conversation go that much quicker. We can both look at the same thing at the same time.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, that is great. Congratulations. Apps are not easy.

Matt Barmore: It took a while to build.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I was going to say.

Matt Barmore: That's very true. Our marketing team worked very hard on that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, that's good. You guys have great marketing, a great team overall.

Matt Barmore: We do.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: What a great company you have.

Matt Barmore: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, thank you so much. Any chance you know your booth number?

Matt Barmore: I believe it's 10062, I believe.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That sounds close.

Matt Barmore: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And you'll see the big IKO sign. So if you're here, be sure to go check out the booth, try that hand welding for yourself and check out how great that TPO is.

Matt Barmore: Very good, thank you. Thank you.

Outro: Okay, thank you. We'll be back. We've got more people coming to the stage. This is a great day. And don't forget, later on today we have our live coffee conversations with manufacturers and distributors right here on the SRS Live Sound Stage.