Melissa Dunson – Who is Central States Manufacturing? - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Melissa Dunson of Central States Manufacturing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seatbelts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. Hello everyone. My name's Megan Ellsworth here at Rooferscoffeeshop.com, and you are listening to Roofing Road trips. I'm so excited because I have my dear friend here with me, Melissa Dunson and we're going to be talking about Central States and metal and manufacturing. So hello friend, how are you?

Melissa Dunson: Hey, Megan. It is so good to talk with you again. I'm doing really, really well. How are you?

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yay. I'm doing so good. Better now that we get to chat. Yay. Okay, so let's just have you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Central States to get started.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Melissa Dunson. I'm the Senior Manager of Marketing Services at Central States, Inc. It is really the leading metal components manufacturer in the country. Our geographic reach is really huge, and I always tease people because I was in building products for 15 years in another industry and had never heard of Central States. And one of the things that I've figured out as I've been here for most of this year, has been how many other people are in this same situation and they just really aren't familiar with the history of the company, about the fact that there's a good chance they're using the metal that we're manufacturing, very high quality, excellent customer service and they don't even maybe know who the company is. So it's an amazing company. I think a lot of other people should know about it.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah, agreed. Agreed. So to start us out, let's talk about the huge growth of metal. What are you seeing now that you're in the metal industry?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, so metal was something that where we were obviously paying attention to previously, worked in roofing and it was one of those things you're looking and you're paying attention to it because this market's growing and growing. Gave a presentation at National Roofing a few years ago, and it was really about can other types of roofing material even stand up to metal? And I wasn't even in metal at the time, but the data that's coming from various reporting agencies and research firms is that metal is the material that is forecasted, metal and composite is forecasted to grow in roofing where a lot of other types of materials are, they're projecting that they'll either shrink or that they will stay the same. And so there's a lot of headwinds in metal. There's also all of the extreme weather, which my gosh, right, even in the last several weeks, what we've seen.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: Extreme weather is driving it. Insurance companies, as they're continuing to look at how are they going to cover various building materials, that's helping to drive it, legislation is helping to drive that. And then all of that is trickling down to contractors and property owners who are saying, hey, we want higher performing, longer lasting building materials. And metal, it just fits. It ticks so many of the boxes. It is that superior building,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: It does.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah.

Megan R. Ellsworth: It so does. Every time I talk about metal on a podcast or listen to one of our metal casts, it's just I'm constantly reminded what a great material it is. Infinitely recyclable. And seeing all those videos from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton,-

Melissa Dunson: Milton.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I mean, you don't see any metal roofs flying, so.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, I mean I think it's a great call out. There's a reason that coastal areas and areas where they experience lots of severe weather, I don't just mean hurricanes, but hail are typically the areas in which there's a lot more openness and demand for metal roofing. So those things really go hand in hand as people have had to deal with extreme weather events and they start asking the question of like surely there's a building product that is a higher performing, longer lasting building product. They don't have to keep doing this every two years.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so let's discuss the history of Central States. You mentioned it has a long rich history. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Melissa Dunson: Absolutely. So again, this is one of those, like I had to learn this when I came here because I wasn't familiar with the business, but it's such a remarkable business when and I'll give the history, but I'll just from a personal experience, someone asked me, first came, "Why would you want to come to Central States?" And I said, "Well, I've talked to some of the people who work here and even if half of the things that they've said are true, everyone should want to come and work here." So it's a remarkable company. So the company started in the 80s. It was actually 1988 right here in Northwest Arkansas. I'm sitting here in Springdale, Arkansas right now.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Nice.

Melissa Dunson: But just a few miles up was our very first plant. It was just one little machine that he bought, a guy and he decided to start this company with this idea of let's be the very best supplier because we treat customers the right way, we treat them the way that we'd want to be treated and we focus on customer service, doing what we said we were going to do and having the highest quality materials. And the thing that I love about the company is that even though it's grown tremendously, so think about that. We're talking about one little company right here in Northwest Arkansas with one little plant, with one little machine has now grown to the geographically largest metal manufacturer in the country. So we have, yeah, we have 11 plants, two more are going to launch next year. I mean geographic,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Wow.

Melissa Dunson: The expansion. We have 1400 employees, I mean, think about that, across the United States. Our own dedicated fleet of delivery trucks and logistics system that's unlike anything I've seen.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Love that.

Melissa Dunson: So that they can take care of the customer. And then I haven't even mentioned, my favorite thing about the company is that the company is 100% employee owned, like 100%.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Oh, no way.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. So that mindset has infiltrated the entire company and it colors everything that they do. So you have this 100% employee ownership model where every single person of those 1400 employee owners is all thinking like an owner and taking the responsibility to say, hey, I'm going to do whatever's necessary to build the business and to take care of my customer. And so we've kept that customer first, quality first mentality that just has now exploded as our employee base has exploded, as our number of manufacturing facilities, as the number of products that we're making has exploded. And just making sure we maintain that really amazing foundational piece of our culture that not only makes it a really amazing place to work, but also makes it such an amazing supplier because we treat customers the right way.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I love that. Wow. I had no clue. Like you said, I had no idea.

Melissa Dunson: Me either. It's this wonderful hidden gem when you start to learn about it and people who are deep into the metal industry will say things. I was just talking with someone earlier this week, had been in the metal industry for 30 years and said, "Oh yeah, I've heard of you guys, but you're very quiet." I'm like, "Yeah, it's been a very quiet company." Quietly growing and just doing the right thing by customers and it's just caused the business to grow exponentially to the point now, I mean it's, we are the industry leader now.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah, that's truly incredible. I mean, the fact that you all have the largest amount of acreage of a metal manufacturer in the United States is crazy and very impressive.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. And it's really, it's about our distribution reach. Right. That's what makes us the largest, is that we can reach as one manufacturer, right, not a regional manufacturer. And metal for one reason or another, has largely been a regional game. Right. So you have manufacturers that are local, and then you have manufacturers that are regional.

And we are this really expansive nationwide national manufacturer. But the thing that I love because people have an idea about the national brands, but because of the 100% employee ownership and the way the company was started, even though we have this nationwide scale and footprint and delivery and logistics system and production and all the colors you could ever possibly want and all the profiles, we still have this customer first, very local business feeling, customer service level where we do it right by customers. And so you have all of the scale and all of the footprint, but you still get that personal touch. And that is like magic Megan. It's magic.

Megan R. Ellsworth: It is.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah.

Megan R. Ellsworth: It is. Yeah. And that's so important. I mean, not just to the customers, but when you feel as though as an employee, you're making a difference in someone's day, in someone's work process that makes you feel good, makes them feel good, it's a full circle.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, it's interesting, some of the, like on the wall, there's signage everywhere and one of our missions is to make raving fans of our customers. I mean, how great is that?

Megan R. Ellsworth: Oh, I love it.

Melissa Dunson: And some of the principles that every day, that they tell employees, we need to live by these which is own it, is that ownership mentality that goes into everything and then to have a can-do attitude, which is that we're going to get the job done, we're going to do whatever we need to do. And then finally, and I love this one, is act in love with each other, with our communities. Isn't that amazing? And then with our customer.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I love that.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. Own it, can do and act in love and that's on the walls in every facility that you'll find from Central States. And I just have to give it one more shout out because it's just wild that there are businesses in the world that still do this. Giving back is an actual program here at Central States where all different facilities, people have paid time off to go do giving back opportunities, community events and,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Melissa Dunson: And volunteering in their communities. And there's amazing, so there's ones that we do at a corporate level that are all the way across the company and then every plant, they go and they have giving back and they pick an organization or two or five or 10 in their community and they adopt them and they partner with them. And it's such an important part of the culture here. I just love it.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I love that.

Melissa Dunson: [inaudible 00:11:32] give you all the feelings?

Megan R. Ellsworth: It gives me all the feelings, and I just love that you all are employee owned.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I think that's so, so special and really sets you apart from other companies.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, agreed. And customers. It's interesting, the customers we've had for a long time, they can see the difference, right, between an employee owned company,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: I'm sure.

Melissa Dunson: And someone who's not as a supplier because the way that we interact and the choices that we make are different because we're employee owned.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Okay, so can you walk me through the synergy of your brands working together? So Central States Manufacturing, Metal Central Sales, Building Works, Estimates, designs packages and delivers everything. Then Elevate erects the building. Can you tell us, kind of give us the full picture?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. So Central States used to be, right, it started, this little manufacturer with this one plant, this one machine and it's really grown and as it's grown it has realized there is more need in the building products industry for metal than just components manufacturing. Right. So we started out as a components manufacturer and then began to build other capabilities and services and then acquire some other ones so that we can offer lots of different kinds of customers, lots of different kinds of services depending on what it is they need. So we still have, we have Central States Inc, which is the big parent company. And then we have these different arms that are a part of the services we offer. And so we have Central States Manufacturing, which is that base piece of the business, the components piece.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Got it.

Melissa Dunson: Manufacturing that really is, we're making the stuff. Right. And then we have Metal Central, which is a retail arm where in areas where we have our plants, like if there's contractors and they want to buy from a retail location with metal experts, then we can service them in that way. So we have, it's called Metal Central and you can go check out Metalcentral.com, learn all about our different locations. They're growing.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Cool.

Melissa Dunson: And then we have Central State Building Works, which it really handles the design and estimation, some of the permitting, drawings and for complete metal building packages. So that's some people call them pre-engineered metal buildings. And then we also do self storage, but this is everything.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Oh, cool.

Melissa Dunson: The frames are metal, the roof, the walls, everything in it is metal and you can design it. And then we just take care of all of it for you, package it up and deliver it for you to install it. And the thing that's so amazing about, I know the thing that's amazing about that business is it takes care of so much of the expertise that's needed and just delivers a product that a contractor can go ahead and install. And there's so many different kinds of buildings that are a great fit for pre-engineered metal buildings or complete metal building packages.

It's not just warehouses. It's not just storage units. I mean, really there's light commercial and office usage and agricultural and residential shops and garages and there's recreational facilities and religious facilities. There's lots of different options that it can do it, but it's an incredible, really interesting portion of our business and anybody who's interested in playing around with a cool new tool, if they want to try to design their own metal building package, you don't have to really know anything about metal building to do it. You can go to centralstatesco.com and find in the dropdown our 3D building designer. It's a brand new tool we just launched. And you can drag and drop, you can add in tractors and horses for size. It's pretty [inaudible 00:15:25]. I put a lot of horses in my designs.

And then right from there it's like, here's the specs for it. I want to request a quoting and do all of it online. So it's a very cool tool. And then the last piece of it is Elevate, which used to be called Storage Structures and is a premium contractor in the nation that's doing multi-story. They started out doing multi-story storage units.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Okay.

Melissa Dunson: Really high end, really beautiful. And so we acquired them just in, I think it was the end of 2022, beginning of 2020.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Okay, so recent.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, it was, maybe it's the end of 2023. It was very, very recent, but they had been a long time customer and they are a remarkable builder. I mean that's really, they want to be the best builder. That's their goal. That's one of their big slogans, is we want to be the best builder. And one of the things that they did to be the best builder is they patented a form of technology. It's called the Alpha Framing system.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Oh.

Melissa Dunson: It really allows people to put up the structure of these buildings three times faster.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Oh.

Melissa Dunson: In a world in which labor is so many times, it's the bottleneck, being able to do this is really remarkable. So they're an incredible builder and they have their own site and you guys can go check them out, but Elevate Structures is what they're called now. They rebranded because they are going after more than storage units now. Right. They actually, the technology they have, they're like, we can build hotels and schools and multifamily apartments and all these various different things, so.

Megan R. Ellsworth: That's beautiful. I love that.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. So there's just a lot,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Wow.

Melissa Dunson: There's a lot to Central States. We don't just manufacture, we do building packages and do estimating and we'll erect it and we'll sell it to you if you want. And so it's a really fascinating business that has a wide breadth and all of it's in metal building products and all of it's about servicing the customer, whoever that customer is.

Megan R. Ellsworth: That's awesome. Wow. Oh my gosh, I'm learning so much. This is incredible.

Melissa Dunson: Right. Talking about it,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: I'm so excited to design. I know. Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. You should go on there. And like I said, my favorite of the building designer and it's probably silly, but it's because I'm not actually a contractor, but it's all the various things so that you can see what the size. Right. You're building,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: You're erecting this building and you're designing it and you're like, okay, the thing I'm doing is I'm putting a combine inside of it or this is a residential shop, I want to put a truck in there and see how that would fit in there. And it has the ability to add all of these items in and it's, yeah. And if you need something else that's more custom than when you can design on there, we have a separate form that you can enter your custom specs. Somebody will get ahold of you and quote the building for you.

Megan R. Ellsworth: That's great. Wow, this is amazing.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. I know.

Megan R. Ellsworth: That's so special. Okay. So we love metal. We've talked about how much we love metal. Why should contractors look at adopting metal products, metal building products, roofing, siding and more than that too, why is metal special?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. Oh gosh, there's so many different ways to approach that question. So I mean, one of them is that there are headwinds, right, there are movements happening within the building products industry that metal has momentum, right? It's metal momentum and,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: Look at that, like don't be left behind. There's a movement that's starting to do testing and discover that metal is a superior building product in many uses. And then because of the sustainability, because of the energy efficiency, because of the longevity of it and really some of the, in recent years, hidden fastening systems, it's also gaining a lot of traction with property owners. And even in the residential space, that people who typically were like, listen, I don't want my house to look like a barn. They don't. I mean, panels have really, really grown. Metal siding doesn't look like it used to. You can apply it vertically, it has digitally printed wood grain on it that looks so real, but you don't have any of the problems that you have with wood siding.

So there's homeowner demand. It's growing all the time. There's the momentum within the building products industry, within the insurance industry, that's all happening with that. There is the sustainability environmentally friendly factor of it. It is largely recycled material that is 100% recyclable at the end of its life. It has higher energy efficiency ratings. It doesn't end up in a landfill and it is,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Love that part.

Melissa Dunson: And it is a much more compatible product to apply solar panels to.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yes.

Melissa Dunson: So it's all around, people are very attracted to for that reason. And then what I would tell contractors is that because of all these other reasons, people who add metal to the offering, their product offering, whatever it is, whether it's roofing, whether it's siding, if they add it in there, we've actually seen that contractors can make more money. Right. It's besides the fact that it's something they can add to their business. It's an additional product. It also is a differentiating factor from people who are doing vinyl and composite siding, right, that you can also offer this. It's a differentiator for people who are doing tile or doing asphalt shingles. Right. It's a differentiator,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Exactly.

Melissa Dunson: That they can also offer this. And then if you go and look at installation costs, guys can make more money installing metal roofs. They do. And so that's really part of what we've talked about. I mean walls, building packages, all of that stuff. It's like add it to your product offering and see if you don't make more money doing it because we believe you [inaudible 00:21:43].

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: One of the reasons the guys are so open to it, contractors as they've looked at it, it's like this helps me offer something else and build my business. And then as a supplier, because we are so customer focused, I didn't even mention, so the long time customer promise that we've had, it's right on time every time and that is,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Love that.

Melissa Dunson: It's our customer promise. And so that's something people can partner with and build their businesses on. And once they see that, they love the material, they love the supplier and together we can do something great and be successful.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: Yeah.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah. And that's so special. I think a lot of times, especially when you're adding a new product offering, a new system, you need to have that manufacturer, that supplier in your back pocket ready to support you. And Central States, I mean obviously is that person. And so that's really, really beautiful. And who doesn't need support?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. Well, and just being able to offer metal expertise, right is,-

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yes.

Melissa Dunson: Because we've been in the industry a long time. It is what we do. And we don't just do one thing in it. And we have, because we're employee owned business, we have people who've been here for decades and the depths of their knowledge about the technical aspects of metal application, whether that's on walls, whether that's a building, whether that's the roofing is really, really deep. And because we're customer focused, we love to share it with customers. We want to be people's metal experts and help them. If they are in metal now, we want to help them do more. And if they aren't using metal yet, we'd like to help them get into metal.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So I love that at the beginning we kind of talked about Central States is kind of quiet. It's silent but deadly. And wow would you say Central States has touched contractors without them even knowing it?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah. Well, because of the ways that we've sold in channel for many, many years, there are a lot of contractors who are using our metal and they don't even know that it's our metal.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: And so, and I know they're using our metal because we have this extensive geographic saturation. Right. And so there are certain areas of the country where we are the only national metal manufacturer that is available in that particular region of the country. And so there are people using our products who don't know. And I would say regardless if people have known in the past that it was us, their ability to rely on delivery, right, on time, right, on time, every time. Their ability to rely on the quality of the product.

And we will have other podcasts to talk about the difference in thicknesses, in gauges and it's not all the same. 29 gauge metal is not always 29 gauge metal. It's not all the same. About paint technology, about why panels, certain designs work better for certain applications, but because we've been so customer focused and so quality focused, you have contractors all over the US who've been benefiting from our foundation and haven't even known it's us. And so we want to talk with contractors. We want more voice of the customer. We want to be able to understand because we're customer focused, what do people love? What do they need more of? What challenges are they facing in their particular business that we can help provide a solution for? Because we have so many resources and assets and so many different parts of our business that we can as a leader in the industry.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Wow. Well said. Absolutely. That's just incredible. So if any of our listeners out there today are like, I need to get in touch with Central States, I need to start adding metal to my offerings, how can a contractor begin using Central States today?

Melissa Dunson: Yeah, we would love to connect a contractor, either to have a conversation about how can we get them involved, right and how can we get metal to them. If they have a distributor in their area that we have set up, we can connect them with that. We can also talk directly with them. We can try to open up, whatever that is. So I would say go to centralstatesco.com and then click contact us. It'll bring you a form, and if you fill that out, we will find. Right. I feel like that movie. I will find you.

Megan R. Ellsworth: I will find you.

Melissa Dunson: We will find you, and we'll connect you with the person, whether that is a knowledgeable distribution rep that we work with in your area. Or we will connect you with a knowledgeable Central States rep in your area that can help you either switch suppliers, grow your business, add a different type of metal product or maybe get into metal for the very first time and just help you understand how can you start to use metal in your business.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Dunson: We would love to talk to you. We love customers, we love treating customers right. We want to make raving fans of all of you.

Megan R. Ellsworth: Yay. Everyone out there. You can also go to rooferscoffeeshop.com to the Central States directory and see all this information there too. Melissa, this has been fabulous.

Melissa Dunson: I know. I love when we get together. It's my favorite.

Outro: Me too. This was so fun. If you're a contractor and you have a fire lit within you now after listening to this, you need to get metal in your business, then please go check out Central States. They are an amazing company and we're so glad to have them on RCS and MCS now. So thank you, Melissa. This has been a wonderful chat and everyone out there, we'll see you next time on Roofing Road Trips. If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on the next Roofing Road Trip.