LIVE from FRSA with MCA - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Jeff Henry of MCA. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Hello, and we are back on the sound stage at the FRSA Show. I'm Heidi Ellsworth and we are live with RoofersCoffeeShop sponsored by Beacon. And I am sitting here with a good dear friend, Jeff Henry, from Metal Construction Association. Jeff, welcome.

Jeff Henry: Hi, Heidi, glad to be here. Thank you for the invite.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I'm so glad to have you. It's funny because I'm seeing you right now, and then in five days?

Jeff Henry: Well, three days.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Three days?

Jeff Henry: Our summer meeting is next week in Rosemont, and we're glad that you're going to have a presence there.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I'll be there. We'll be doing some live video from there, too, talking to all of our metal friends.

Jeff Henry: And we have a great agenda and line-up of speakers for the week. So there's going to be a lot of information shared, and we're releasing our 2024 market studies. So there'll be new insights about the future of the metal roofing industry and walls.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Tell us a little bit about that study. How was that put together?

Jeff Henry: FMI is our vendor of choice for that study, and they've been doing this study for us for probably almost 20 years now. And they go through a sequence. They look at the overall construction environment, so what is going to be the total built environment and the predictions for that in the coming years. And then they start whittling down, so what is metal's engagement there and how much share does metal have in the different sectors of the construction industry? And they build forecasts for short-term, long-term and it gives us insights for our members to be able to make some business decisions.

Heidi J Ellsworth: That's great. Well, that's the one thing I love about going ... First of all, we're so proud to be a part of Metal Construction Association and to attend and to support, but I love going there and listening to all the people and meeting with everyone. There is always so much going on, and you really get a good insight of not just roofing, but as we on Metal Coffee Shop, but of the whole metal building and metal construction industry.

Jeff Henry: Our focus is the building envelope, so that's inclusive of both the roofing and the wall sectors. We have three primary product lines that engage there in single-skin roofing and walls, MCM panels and IMP panels. And we deal in the commercial, industrial and institutional segments, architectural metals. So our partner, sister organization MRA, addresses the residential side, so a lot of collaboration there. But our agenda is very heavy on the technical end. Our purpose is to promote the use of metal in the building envelope and we do that through marketing, our technical research, education and advocacy, so we have codes and standards advancement, et cetera.

Heidi J Ellsworth: That is cool. It is a great association. And the thing that's excellent is that anybody can get this information. You can go to the website, and there are case studies, there's information, there's architectural, technical, so much information that can help your business. And if you become a member, you go to the meetings and actually anyone can go to the meetings.

Jeff Henry: So nonmembers can come once, and then they're required to join to come again. We think if you attend the meetings, you'll immediately see the benefits of the membership and the activities that we do. And we've had great success, and the people who have attended that then converted to be members. But I think the technical documents are there. We have over 80 white papers and technical bulletins. We have best practice manuals and guidelines, so a lot of information there. One of the greatest attributes of any association, but MCA in particular, is the network of people there. We cover the entire vertical, so from raw material suppliers all the way through the contractors and people have access to that entire network. And there's a very communal feeling in the association.

Heidi J Ellsworth: So true.

Jeff Henry: While they compete in the marketplace, when we come together, there's fabulous collaboration between everybody that's there.

Heidi J Ellsworth: To just promote the use of metal. And it has been hot, Jeff. When you go out on the show floor, can you believe how many metal manufacturers are out there? How much metal is on the show floor?

Jeff Henry: Well, this is incredible. Last year was my first opportunity to attend here, and I was impressed last year with how much metal. It's exploded since then.

Heidi J Ellsworth: It exploded. I said the same thing just earlier.

Jeff Henry: It's almost exclusively metal. There's a few shingle manufacturers and tile manufacturers, but it's predominantly metal. And that's indicative of what's happening in the marketplace.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yes, it is.

Jeff Henry: The metal share continues to grow, especially on the residential side, the re-roofing market [inaudible 00:05:07]. And people I've talked to here, the contractors I've talked to here the last couple of days have just echoed that and reinforced it. A gentleman told me today, he goes, "Everybody's going metal."

Heidi J Ellsworth: They are. They are. That's what we're seeing. Well, and a big reason is because of the weather, extreme weather and metal holds up to it. So speaking of extreme metal, I understand that you also have some updates on another association that you're involved with, RECOWE.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. Part of our engagement is we have the opportunity to serve on RICOWI's board of directors, and RICOWI is the Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues. So it's really a collaborative of all sectors of the roofing industry, where you have the cedar-shake groups, the copper development, the tile and asphalt people are there, metal is obviously represented. And it doesn't matter what sector you're in. The whole purpose of that organization is to improve the performance of roofing systems. So when there's a wind event or a hail event, any extreme weather event, they send out investigative teams to go visit the structures there to look at if there were failures, what were the causes of those failures and then bring forth recommendations on how do we improve the resiliency, durability and the overall performance of our buildings.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I've sat in some of those meetings before when I was with Eagle View, are now involved. RICOWI is now coming onto the Coffee Shops, and we are so pleased to have them and to be able to share their data and share what they do and their mission because it's so important. And the weather's only getting more extreme every day.

Jeff Henry: That's right. And so IBHS is involved, obviously the insurance industry, and they're interested in how do we improve the performance of the buildings. And it really is, as I said, the only collaborative formula I'm aware of where the whole industry comes together and says, "We're going to figure this out for the sake of the overall industry, not just any particular product line or anything else."

Heidi J Ellsworth: Right. It's really the overall. Wow. Well, you've got a lot going on.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. Never a dull moment.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Never a dull moment. And you know what?

Jeff Henry: I enjoy it all.

Heidi J Ellsworth: We do need to put a shout out to METALCON in the fall. MCA is an owner of METALCON along with a great team led by Judy Geller, and it is going to [inaudible 00:07:44] show. We're going to have the soundstage right there, and it's over Halloween.

Jeff Henry: It is over Halloween, so that should bring some interesting twists to it. We're excited about this year's show. We're in Atlanta. They have always been a good market for us. The show floor is already larger than last year's show in Vegas, which was a fabulous show. We're expecting early registrations for attendees are up, and so we're thrilled to be coming back to Atlanta and looking forward to having really a dynamic show.

Heidi J Ellsworth: We are, too. We can't wait. We'll be there with the soundstage. So I'm going to see you in three days in Chicago, and then I'll see you in Atlanta. So Jeff, thank you so much.

Jeff Henry: Well, thank you, Heidi. I appreciate the opportunity and what you do to help promote the industry and all the groups that are within it.

Outro: Thank you. We love it. And we love being a part of Metal Construction Association. So MCA is awesome. Stay tuned. Be sure to check out MCA and RICOWI and all of these great associations on RoofersCoffeeShop in the directories. You can get all this information, and you can become a member because it is well worth it for your business. It'll help you grow in metal, and that's where it's hot. It's hot in here on the metal market. So thank you all, and we'll be seeing you soon with some more interviews.