What is the True Cost of Replacing a Roll Up Door?

[00:00:00] Ashley Harper: Hi, welcome to the SteelBlue podcast. Today, I'm joined with Vaughn Bacon, VP of operations at MetalMax. Also, Craig Eisenbrandt, he is the regional sales manager for SteelBlue. And Bray Allen, our chief operations officer. Vaughn, can you start by sharing a bit of your background and how you got into your current role at MetalMax?

Yes.

[00:00:20] Vaughn Bacon: Sure. Been in this industry for quite a while. I was 30 years at NBCI NCI. Then I got an opportunity to move closer to where I went to college and closer to at my, at that time, my parents and got an opportunity to move to MetalMax. At that time, we had we had two locations in 2017 and now we're up to nine locations across the country and I just got the opportunity to move and it was a great opportunity for my family.

And it was I had an opportunity to move some of my industry experience here to MetalMax.

[00:00:55] Ashley Harper: Awesome. How do you know Craig and Bray?

[00:00:58] Vaughn Bacon: Bray and I worked together. He was with DBCI at the time with an NCI company. And he and I got thrust together in a executive manager's meeting. Bray was at in where, San Antonio

[00:01:11] Bray Allen: I think that was San Antonio. Yeah. Yeah. There's about 500 of us together.

[00:01:16] Vaughn Bacon: And it doesn't take long. Oh. Especially in, in, as, as long as I've been in this industry when somebody is real and when somebody's talent and work ethic stands out and Bray's did, and he and I have always been attached for that reason, but we've become friends since that. And so he and I have known each other 20 years, right?

Or longer.

[00:01:41] Bray Allen: Yes, sir. And I will make sure to send you a check for the kind words after this.

[00:01:46] Vaughn Bacon: I just want to make sure I read it right.

[00:01:49] Bray Allen: Yeah, no, good job, buddy.

[00:01:51] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah. Thanks.

[00:01:52] Bray Allen: And I will mirror that. Our first interaction with Vaughn, that's literally been, 20 years ago, it seems like Vaughn and you're right. It was a big crowd, right? There was four or 500 of us

[00:02:02] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah, there, was. Yeah.

[00:02:03] Bray Allen: All across the globe and to Vaughn's point, you identify those people that are like minded, same interest.

And at that time it wasn't personal interest. It was, Hey, how do we get to the next level that we're trying to for the benefit of our company and so we just hit it off very well started working together through some of the previous roles that Vaughn had. I had a product line that he was interested in and he had an avenue for me to get that product line out there.

So we just went to work. Broke a couple of records. A few people identified and recognized what we were trying to do, so it just grew and grew and grew from there. But yeah, to Vaughn's point, I guess I'll just keep my check because Vaughn's character point as well. So we've had a long working relationship, even though we've both parted ways with the other company that we with, we were with.

We've maintained that relationship done business and previous ventures as well. And, it's just been a good thing again, knowing who you're working with and who you're dealing with the character

[00:02:59] Vaughn Bacon: It absolutely does.

[00:03:01] Bray Allen: Yeah we chose to do business together because of who we are as much as what we do.

so a big deal for me too.

[00:03:07] Vaughn Bacon: Pricing goes away. You generally get what you pay for. But service word your honesty and integrity means more to me than anything, and that was the first, that was the first reason. That was the main reason. Yeah. That's it.

[00:03:24] Bray Allen: Yeah it was funny when Craig and I first visited you there, Vaughn. We tried to work it out a couple of times and just scheduling didn't work out. And I think Craig chuckled a little bit when we got there, we walked in and Vaughn said, I don't care what you're selling. If Bray's, you're selling it, I'll buy.

And so Craig was like, it can't be that easy. And while we joke about it and laugh about it, it's that that's what gets us, to be able to have the conversations. Vaughn,

on behalf of SteelBlue to MetalMax, we appreciate the stance and the character that you and your team have in the industry.

And, we identify you guys as one of those that we want to partner with, right? want our name associated with somebody, Metal Max is a good one.

[00:04:00] Vaughn Bacon: I appreciate that. And you all know that everything that you all do, you turn a product out and you don't make everything you rely on suppliers. You rely on your coal suppliers. You rely on your ancillary people that provide things to you. But the end of the day, we look at SteelBlue for a door.

We don't worry about those other things. And so you partner with people that help your quality and backup what you say to your customers.

And that's what, that's why we partnered with you. First was our relationship, but second is that, that we know when we put our name on your product, we're good. We're good.

And at the end of the day, that's what we've all got to have. We're only as good as you are,

[00:04:47] Bray Allen: Yes, sir. 100%

[00:04:50] Vaughn Bacon: So that's it.

[00:04:51] Bray Allen: And I think it's important to note too, when we first started this conversation, I just want to identify on a couple of things that Craig worked really hard at in trying to, I'm gonna pull him into the conversation here. When I was blessed to be able to make the introduction because of the history with Vaughn and it was a beautiful thing to be able to say, Hey, Craig, meet Vaughn.

Hey, Vaughn, meet Craig. And man, those two guys took off. Craig, worked out, I'm going to get down there and we're going to do a demo and Vaughn, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but he got down there and he put up the door. You had a team come in and take a look at it. Craig installed it with some help from you guys and just made everybody feel warm and fuzzy about it.

And then it, it just took off from there, right?

[00:05:30] Vaughn Bacon: It did. It really did. And, when we supply what we do and we go coast to coast, we send your product into Canada, we send it everywhere. And to know and Craig has done an absolute fabulous job of, if everything was great, if every product was perfect. If every schedule went as planned, anybody can do that. But when you know, when an issue arises, you've got somebody on the end of that phone that's willing to listen and help and understand and listen to your side. We're not always right. But they understand and they help us through situations is exactly what Craig did. And you're right, you and I had a relationship but we had not done this business. And Craig walked in, he's answered, he's been proactive, not only reactive but proactive. And we shipped one door to one of our customers, one door. And he was there when the door arrived. We brought our customer's representatives in. We let those guys put it up when they had questions, it was answered and it's really seamless.

When you're talking about the quantity that we buy, it was a little bit, we had some angst, right? Switching and changing this many people that touches your product. We had some angst because it was a big change. This is a major part of what we do, but it's been perfect. Craig has been not only, like I said, reactive, he's been proactive and he's helped us in every phase to this point.

[00:07:04] Craig Eisenbrandt: Yeah, I want to point out when we delivered that roll up door the sample door, there, there was a couple of things that needed to be fixed, right? So you and I talked about the things that need to be adjusted with your barn guys and with our product and how that needed to be done.

And it was really easy to come back to the plant with those one or two, three. Things and say, look, this is what we need to adjust. This is what they're asking us to fix. And it's important that you guys know the products as well as you do to allow us that opportunity to make a better product.

[00:07:35] Vaughn Bacon: And yes, and you're right. And everybody looks at a problem from their side, right? And we look at, man, we've got the easiest product in the world. It should be easy to understand. And it's not always easy for somebody else to accept or look at somebody's issue. And like I said earlier, we're not always right.

We do not know doors. We know people that are very good at them. But we needed some changes that were specific to what, even though we think our world is simple and cookie cutter and it can't get any more, it's different. And, you all adjusted, made those changes midstream. And everything just, we couldn't ask for more.

Now they weren't that made to us. They weren't that major. We don't know on your end, how major that was or what that did to, to your production, to your efficiency and for your time, but it was, it's perfect for us, absolutely perfect.

[00:08:32] Bray Allen: I'm going to make a shameless plug here and make Ashley, she's going to smile when I say this. So Vaughn, that's some of our core values, right? The collaboration aspect of what you and Craig did, and then the evolution aspect of it, right? Being two of our core values. That's one of the things.

We brought you a product. We say, Hey, we think we've got it. And you said, Hey, it's great. Can you do this and this? Absolutely. So we collaborated together and then we evolved the product to make it better to fit your need.

[00:08:58] Vaughn Bacon: Yes, you did. And not only did you do those, you go, is that now what you need? Is there anything else? No, man, this is exactly what we needed and we got no pushback. We didn't get, Oh man, I don't know. It wasn't even a question of we'll look into it. It's what else do we need?

And it's been great, really good.

[00:09:21] Bray Allen: So one of the things that I thought Von, understanding and knowing your business model a little bit. One of the things that I think we brought to the table pretty early on that I think you appreciated was the quantity of doors that we can get on a truck. We separate ourselves from everyone else in the industry because of the way we package and because of the way we stage our doors.

Has anybody else, and I'm, has anybody else ever come to you with, hey, this is how we do it. We believe this is the best bang for buck for you. How did that work out for your business and how you guys go to market? Was that an asset or an advancement in what helps you in the marketplace?

[00:09:58] Vaughn Bacon: This one is easy for me to talk about. And I really get carried away with this, but the way you package our doors is nine per door or nine per bundle. We've got the hardware inside the door. So once they pull a drum off the hardware for that doors in the rails are in the bottom.

So everything we dropped nine doors. We've got everything we need in that package. Not only because we use a distributor model when we pick up or get delivery from you. Then that's 0. 1. We have to ship to 0. 2 and then they have to use it. So it allows us on our trucks, more room to double stack. And not only is it saving, we have to strap those doors down. So none of the strapping on our trucks, either pickup or delivery. And our unloading and loading, we're damaging doors. We're strapping to dunnage. We're strapping to packaging, which helps us immensely. And I've got to give you a little plug here, which we didn't tell. When you all presented this to us, you all did a test and showed us a video where you trashed a crate of doors. And all the doors were great. We kind of dummy tested that ourselves

[00:11:14] Bray Allen: This would be great.

[00:11:15] Vaughn Bacon: Puts them on a forklift up and we were moving them and the guy dropped a bundle. It fell corner down and when it did, it fell corner down. We were able to pick it up, literally pick it up and put it back on the truck. All nine doors were great. So that when you're talking about that, instead of, we used to get them shrink wrapped in bundles of 12 and that didn't allow us to double stack. We were strapping over the actual doors themselves. And when we move those doors three or four times, and you've got, whether strapping from the factory or factory from our distribution point or wherever, by the time that door gets to Canada and we discover it's damaged, it's a process to get a replacement door and to get it it, that was a game changer for us.

It really was.

[00:12:10] Bray Allen: be curious offline after, after we're into this for, a year or so. I'd be curious to see what your cost of quality is, has been based on the change.

[00:12:21] Vaughn Bacon: You're talking about the

[00:12:22] Bray Allen: curious to see,

[00:12:22] Vaughn Bacon: difference.

[00:12:23] Bray Allen: how many doors replaced last year? The trailing 12 months of how many doors you had to replace with from your other provider versus us.

[00:12:30] Vaughn Bacon: I could absolutely give you those numbers. We've got them in 2023. Damage is, and when damage happens, it's always one of these, right? It wasn't my fault, it's their fault, it's not the trucking guy's fault. it's they came to the factory that way or somebody hit it with a forklift and you've always got that circle, but so far, none. So it's pretty easy to compare numbers.

[00:12:56] Bray Allen: Yeah, Good. Good. Actually, knock on wood on your desk because that's a great

[00:12:59] Ashley Harper: yeah,

[00:13:00] Bray Allen: right?

[00:13:00] Vaughn Bacon: Now today's a new day, right? But

[00:13:02] Bray Allen: that's right.

[00:13:03] Vaughn Bacon: We're good,

[00:13:04] Bray Allen: but, as an operating guy, that's one of the things that are important to me is that the cost of quality, right? And yourself and your role, that's the same thing.

[00:13:11] Vaughn Bacon: We're always

[00:13:12] Bray Allen: look at the impact, that's right

[00:13:13] Vaughn Bacon: That's our daily job is to manage cost.

[00:13:16] Bray Allen: That's right. look at the impact to the bottom line to your point earlier, and we came with that, right? I know that we were. We were competitive on our pricing, but we not might not have been exactly where you wanted us to be or would like for us to be in but this early into it.

You can see the cost of quality is going to be significant. So we appreciate you I won't even say rolling the dice. We appreciate you entrusting us with your business for a little bit of

[00:13:40] Vaughn Bacon: And I appreciate it. But what I've got to and to add to this point, and I told you I would beat this to death, but the cost of a door replacement for us is. And I know you want to talk about this down the road, but we sell to a sister company, our doors, we sell to one of our sister. So we do not have, we're not a standard customer that can go to market and mark up a door 25, 30%, right? We do not have that. We sell in volume. So our markup and our margins are extremely minute on a door. When you look at a single door, we have literally. No profit value in it in a single door. So when we get three hands down and we have a door that is fabricated incorrectly, or the parts are mismatched, or there is a damage to a door for our customer to go out and replace this door or to repair this door, I have to pay those overhead or added cost of travel time, repair costs. It's not necessarily the door at that point, the cost of the door is really doesn't matter.

It's the additional cost. So when you start adding those exponentially, when it costs more to do business than it does that we're making. So to put a dollar value on that is beyond what I can give you the actual dollars in black and white,

but those costs and the peace of mind. And I'm telling you, it's daylight and dark for us. It really is.

[00:15:27] Ashley Harper: I love this story, but Vaughn, I want to give our listeners an idea of your company and what you do. So if you can give us an overview of MetalMax, that'd be great.

Sure, MetalMax was started in 08, right at the worst part of the economy. We all know that it's been in this industry forever and in any industry. What 08 did and where you and I were at a company that absolutely got rocked in 08.

[00:15:55] Bray Allen: Yes, sir.

[00:15:55] Vaughn Bacon: So MetalMax started, we were started, our owner, our principal owner, owned a company that does storage barns. Now he's national. At that time, he was pretty much in the Southeast. And he was absolutely blown away at the cost of shingles. And he was putting shingles on it and couldn't believe what metal costs. So he bought a roll former and bought a building to put a roll former in to simply supply these sheds. On what few little metal roofs he was putting on. When that got started, we were trying to buy coal. They were, I wasn't with them at the time and happened to think, man, we could probably do a little retail sales here and there. It went from that until we have got two sister companies. We have what we call our wholesale business and what we call our retail business. Now we have nine locations across the United States. We do considerably, we're not as balanced in retail and hotel sales and retail sales as we would like to be, but we do have a full half of our business that is dedicated to retail sales at all nine locations. And we do have a full component, metal component industry that sales to the retail market, as well as we supply our sister companies with metal across the United States in multiple locations for that.

So we do have a kind of a two sided business, but we are a national company now that started with a guy that just wanted to bought a roll former to subsidize his cost a little bit. So it's a Cinderella story, but it's an amazing one.

[00:17:39] Bray Allen: Gives us a good pattern. At SteelBlue. That entrepreneurial attitude,

[00:17:44] Vaughn Bacon: That's it. That's it. That's

all

[00:17:45] Bray Allen: sheer our determination and grit.

[00:17:47] Vaughn Bacon: is to get that entrepreneurial spirit that, every dollar counts. And one of the things going back when we talked about coming to MetalMax, when we were in, the company we were in, Bray, we were so big and through the changes and we were a publicly traded company and everything changed and moving to MetalMax every day.

I can affect change instead of being affected by change. And every day you can make a difference in customer experience, in employees growth, and it's just a phenomenal way to do business. It really is. It really is.

[00:18:26] Bray Allen: Yes, sir. And to that point, Craig's up here now at the shop we're in our shop in Georgetown and so we come up here a couple of times a year. And so Craig's up here today and he and I are walking through the shop, looking at a new product line that we're hoping to launch.

We're not hoping to, we're going to launch in Q4, another shameless plug. We're going to launch another product line in Q4. And so Craig and some of the guys from the sales team are here and reviewing that and looking at it. But it's nice to be able to walk the shop with a guy that's out there beating the streets every day and says, Hey, you know what, can we, is there a better way to do this?

[00:18:58] Vaughn Bacon: Right.

[00:18:59] Bray Allen: And collectively work on it, we know that if at any point we become stagnant, we die. So we're constantly trying to figure out how to improve and how to make things better. And again, the pattern that you guys have said at MetalMax and it's like our paint, Ashley and I were picking paint for the room that we're redoing here.

We purposely identified a color because of the name of the color called Strong Will. And that strong will and grit and determination is what's made MetalMax successful in business. And that's what SteelBlue is striving to do. So again, appreciate the just can't say enough how much we appreciate the example that you guys are leaving in the industry.

[00:19:35] Vaughn Bacon: And I don't and we understand what this is for. And this is truly. When you find somebody that truly has the desire to do business, and you get an opportunity to work with them in today, it's rare. It's rare that you find somebody with the same integrity and drive and to just do things right.

Sometimes look somebody in the eye and shake hands rather than a contract or some binding. And if somebody tells you something, they'll do it, and you can count on it and you've got that support means a lot. It really does.

[00:20:11] Craig Eisenbrandt: Yes, sir. Hey, so I want to talk Vaughn a little bit. Can you share some of the market trends maybe with your side of the industry, maybe with our, with our viewers and, just what you've seen and where it's going.

[00:20:24] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah, and we've all seen a softening of the market, and I think that's been the trend for the past I don't know, 14, 15 months. We've seen a softening in cost and in usage. And I think that will continue probably through the rest of this physical year. There is level set that I don't think will ever be, when you look at where the numbers was during the COVID, I think those numbers are superficial and nobody will ever experience those kinds of numbers again, as far as our relationship in what we're buying from you, I think I see it steady and probably increasing next year. I think I think the market's going to rebound. It's an election year that plays a big part into what we all do. I see the market getting a little stronger after the first quarter of next year. And hopefully that, that will hold true but for the next few months, I see it softening some, I think we're hopefully we can stay leveled out. So that's where our trend is. We're putting some growth opportunities in front of our retail sales. We do through fastened panels, we do special trim, we do standing seams, we're seeing a steady growth in some maybe some custom products, standing seams, some different wall panels. The through fastened market is getting pretty volatile now. As far as pricing, we see some people doing some crazy stuff with pricing. So we're trying to concentrate on some special products on a retail in some higher end stuff, some standing scenes and specialized wall panels and things like that. Our wholesale business is holding very strong. We're doing very well. We're on track to do a little better than we did last year. In fact, so our end with SteelBlue should come in is what we predicted. Maybe a little better.

[00:22:15] Bray Allen: Thank you, Vaughn. And that's good. We try to keep in tune to various industries. Of course we venture out into various industries or various market segments with the product that we provide. And so everything from self storage to, commercial doors to whatever. Now for you specifically.

I know you said barns and I'd just like to clarify that a little bit. Give me some idea on how you identify a barn is some people call it a shed

[00:22:42] Vaughn Bacon: It's a shed. It's a shed. We call it the barn side. It's the shed industry and those things used to be the kind of good drive by Lowe's and look at. These guys have gotten so high tech in their world that these things are almost living quarters. These things are, and we do two types of doors for those, but it is the shed industry and the shed industry in the past 10 years has grown unbelievable. And they've got a lot of competition, but our, I think, and of course I'm a little prejudiced, but I think our group of companies do it better and set the tone for the whole industry. And I think their growth and their leadership over there is second to none, but it is the shed industry. And that's what it's known as. Yeah.

[00:23:31] Craig Eisenbrandt: But how many barn shops or shed shops do you think you guys service just out of your MetalMax facilities nationwide and Canada?

[00:23:40] Vaughn Bacon: I'm probably not as versed on that because my attention's all on metal max, probably 300, 350. I'm guessing that's a ballpark number. Yeah.

[00:23:49] Bray Allen: Yeah. So we got to build more doors.

[00:23:51] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah,

[00:23:52] Ashley Harper: I like to hear that

[00:23:52] Vaughn Bacon: doors, because they're not stopping. They're,

[00:23:55] Bray Allen: That's know, love right. Yeah,

[00:23:56] Vaughn Bacon: States and Canada. Yeah,

[00:23:58] Bray Allen: absolutely. So Vaughn your sheds or barns. What's your go to word? Is it barns?

[00:24:03] Vaughn Bacon: I call them barns. That's what we, that's what I call them. But it is the, that industry is known as the shed industry. So that's what it is. Yeah.

[00:24:12] Bray Allen: and are they are they primarily used for storage or it

[00:24:15] Vaughn Bacon: That's what they, that's what they're intended for. And I

think that's what due to the fact, they still in some areas have to build to code, even though they're considered a temporary structure, but they're not intended to be inhabited by no means, but that's not saying I don't, who knows what people use them for, but,

[00:24:33] Bray Allen: Yeah. My 18 year old just graduated high school and she's Dad, I need my own place. Can you build me a shed out back

[00:24:39] Ashley Harper: to

[00:24:39] Bray Allen: live in? Go figure,

but I might be able to work something out here Vaughn.

[00:24:42] Vaughn Bacon: There you go. I always, but

[00:24:45] Bray Allen: Anyway, you give me the shed and I'll put a door on it.

[00:24:47] Vaughn Bacon: Right, they don't come equipped for plumbing or things like

that. It is a shed, so they do all kinds of things with them. Yeah.

[00:24:54] Bray Allen: Very nice. I know we see them a lot. When we started doing business, and I'm sure Craig is the same way now going down the road, we identify, Oh, wait. That's some of Vaughn's product.

[00:25:03] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah. That's probably your doors. It's in them,

[00:25:05] Bray Allen: Yeah. Yeah. So I don't dunno what the identifier is, if it's the door or the shed, but either way I'm happy to see it.

That's what we're in this for.

[00:25:12] Vaughn Bacon: And you go down and go, that's one of our lots. That's not, that's our product. That's not.

[00:25:17] Bray Allen: That's right. That's right. So I do have a little funny here I'm gonna throw Vaughn out. When Vaughn and I left our previous role, I got a call one day. Vaughn, you may remember this, you may not. I got a call one day out of the blue. From a cheese processing company in Wisconsin. Because Vaughn dropped my name and Hey, I know a guy that it doesn't matter if it's a washing machine plant, he'll help get you squared away.

So I had these guys call me at Vaughn's direction and ask me about moving to help run a cheese manufacturing operation in Wisconsin. Vaughn, you could have imagined the look on Michelle's face when I told her, Hey, look, I've got an opportunity in Wisconsin.

[00:26:02] Vaughn Bacon: We're gonna sell cheese. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:05] Bray Allen: Needless to say, I stayed in the door business.

Can you figure huh.

[00:26:08] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah, so you guys be careful if I got your name, so it's on, right?

[00:26:12] Ashley Harper: uh-ohh.

[00:26:13] Vaughn Bacon: Who knows, right? Yeah.

[00:26:15] Bray Allen: Vaughn, how long have you been at MetalMax now?

[00:26:17] Vaughn Bacon: I've been at MetalMax eight years.

[00:26:19] Bray Allen: Wow. Time flies.

[00:26:22] Vaughn Bacon: It does. It really does.

It really does. Yeah,

[00:26:26] Bray Allen: And that's a really good group you have up there, the folks that we've met. And so just again, super excited about what we're going to continue to do. Is there any challenges on the horizon that you think could, pop their ugly head up and we have to attack them collectively yet? What is it that maybe keeps you up at night?

[00:26:41] Vaughn Bacon: You're talking about internally or you're talking about just as an industry. I think

as an industry I think we're all and the funny, the older you get, the longer you're in this industry, you realize how few of people that there is backfilling. The people that really want to earn their stripes.

And Bray, I remember when you definitely weren't in the position you're in, but you're in the position you're in because you went through the steps, you stayed the course, you leaned into the hard times, you did it when it wasn't fun, you did it when there was no recognition, you did it because you took pride in what you did and, everybody wants now immediate gratification, immediate reward. And without putting in the hard times and trying to build culture and trying to find people that want to go and do it right and do the steps. I think as not just our industry, but every industry is having trouble finding people that are long term into the game. So we have got to make sure that we give them the training, the encouragement and to grow because one day when we're not in this industry, who's going to do it? Who's going to take the time to go out and hang a door and understand what that door is. They want the sale. They want the gratification of seeing the purchase orders come in, but they don't want the dirty work.

They don't want to go out and help us figure out what the issues is and to understand the other side of that. To me that's our, everybody's biggest concern right now.

[00:28:20] Bray Allen: Yeah, that's just a generational thing that we're trying

[00:28:23] Vaughn Bacon: It is. It is. It truly is.

[00:28:26] Bray Allen: Yeah, we see that. It's odd that you say that. I had a conversation with my, the plant manager here in Georgetown this morning about identifying the key people and maintaining you know, the relationships that we have with our employees that we want to grow, that we want to see excel and succeed in life.

Our goal here is to make everybody as I want to say wealthy, but I know that means different things to different people, to make everybody enjoy life as much as possible. And so whether that be while they're at work or while they're at home, we want people to be proud to come to work.

[00:29:01] Vaughn Bacon: Be proud of their job, be proud of the career and take care of their families.

[00:29:05] Bray Allen: Yessir,

[00:29:06] Vaughn Bacon: and you would like to give everybody that opportunity because the better they are, the better we are.

And for me, that's our biggest challenge industry wide or in any industry.

[00:29:17] Bray Allen: So Vaughn and Ashley, if I'm jumping, you're the calm, settled one of the group here. So if I'm jumping ahead by all means, but Vaughn, I'd like to give you an opportunity to just for lack of a better term, give us the sales pitch for MetalMax. What should people out there in the market. Steer them toward MetalMax. Tell us what, highlights you and what your company offers, the products and things. How can you service the people that would be seeing this podcast?

[00:29:40] Vaughn Bacon: That's the bottom line, in what we do, no matter if we're at our existing companies or what, where I'm at now our panels are pretty much the same. A piece of trim is a piece of trim. A standing seam panel is a standing seam panel. But all I hope they look for in us is what we looked for in you. When they call us, they get a reputable guy on the phone that tells them the truth. Gives them a great product at a competitive price. And service. You only get one time. And we're going to run out of one time customers. Eventually we are. And it's harder to keep a customer than it is to earn a customer.

It's easy to go in and take a customer from somebody, but that first impression, getting our people to buy in to what they're listening to and to recognize customers for what they do and make a customer appreciate. And I hope we make a customer grateful that he spent his money, hard earned money with us. And word of mouth means everything. So all I hope is that MetalMax is different. We're not the same. We don't take advantage of a situation we appreciate when a customer takes their time to reach out to us and we hope we can be a good partner with that customer because it is hard to earn money and it is, you can't make everybody happy, but man, we need to try. We really do. And at MetalMax, that's what we strive for is just not only meeting their expectations, but going that extra mile, making sure everything's right. Following up, giving a call, making sure it turned out the way they wanted it. And that's because what we do. We didn't, we're not splitting atoms here. We make metal panels, period. We make trim, we make standing seam, and that's what we do. So the only thing that can make us different is our culture, our people, and our service. We're never going to be the cheapest. We don't set out to be the cheapest,

[00:31:42] Bray Allen: Right.

[00:31:43] Vaughn Bacon: But we set out to be the best. And that's our sales pitch in a nutshell.

That's all we can do.

[00:31:48] Bray Allen: And that's not what you do. That's who you are.

[00:31:51] Vaughn Bacon: I hope that's what we are.

[00:31:52] Ashley Harper: This has been great. I've loved y'all story. Is there anything that you want to share? What's next for MetalMax?

[00:31:58] Vaughn Bacon: We're going to expand our product lines. Like everybody else we have, there's only so much you can do with the products you have. And we're always into research and development. We are looking at going into some other avenues of business. We're looking at branching out into the building industry.

Which is cold form buildings where we started a new post frame building initiative, which I think will give us and you an opportunity to do more business with those opportunities. We're going to get into more red iron. We're going to get it. We're branching out other than panels and trim.

We're getting into true building groups and componentized buildings and things like that. That is huge steps and backfilling those positions and getting experience in and getting our people trained and get the software and getting as marketing, you understand, getting all of that up to speed and getting our websites up and getting all of that done. That's our challenge for the remainder of this year and probably for the first two quarters of next year. But that should help us really expand our footprint and get into more ends of our industry.

[00:33:06] Bray Allen: So you're going to need some, he's going to need some bigger

[00:33:08] Vaughn Bacon: bigger doors, right? We

[00:33:09] Bray Allen: that's your, yeah, that's exactly, couldn't be better.

[00:33:12] Vaughn Bacon: Exactly. So we are going to need, we're going to need wind rated doors. We're going to need various sizes of various colors. Right now we do eight by sevens, nine by sevens, as y'all know, in white. That's what we do. And so now we're going to start branching out order and other doors and other kinds of doors and other rated doors and things like that, which we're going to have to add to our packages to go out to these buildings.

So yes, that's an opportunity for our partnership to grow. It's an opportunity for MetalMax to grow exponentially over the next year and a half.

[00:33:43] Bray Allen: Well we're your partner. I won't say it out loud. Maybe no one will hear this, but we got 27, some odd 27 to 28, maybe even 32 colors on the floor right now. So you pick your color. And we've got a 12 by 14 hanging back here that we're about ready to launch out.

[00:34:00] Vaughn Bacon: That's great.

[00:34:00] Bray Allen: when you get ready, we're ready to rip where, can our audience go to find out about MetalMax or what you guys have going? Or new products?

[00:34:08] Vaughn Bacon: Please visit our website at www. metalmax. com. When you go there it'll wherever parts of the country you're at. You can pick a location. It will put you in direct, connection with our people and our sales force in those nine plants. We're getting ready to open a brand new plant in the next month in Cherokee, Iowa. So that's, we'll be growing in that location as well. And we're looking forward to getting that one up and online. We got a lot of things coming. That one will be on our website here in the next three or four weeks. We're getting our people staffed up getting people hired, getting those facilities trained.

We've got the building squared away. We've got our equipment set. We don't have it dialed in yet. We're starting to deliver coal. So three or four weeks we should be up and running in Iowa.

[00:34:57] Bray Allen: That's fantastic. Good for you. Absolutely. Vaughn, I wanted to you're only a couple of hours, a few hours from our plant here in Georgetown. So I want to invite you to come up anytime, anybody else off of your team, come and see our operation here.

If you come this week, it's bourbon week in Kentucky. So I got a nice place over in Frankfort, right? A place called Top of the Rock that we rent. Guy's very eclectic with his bourbon collection. We can do a bourbon tour right there in the living room.

[00:35:24] Vaughn Bacon: So you understand, I just told you I'm in Oregon, right? Why did you tell me that's a month ago?

[00:35:29] Bray Allen: What a terrible person I am.

[00:35:30] Vaughn Bacon: Yeah,

[00:35:31] Bray Allen: but the invitations open. if you come to Kentucky, it'll be bourbon week. If Vaughn Bacon's in town, it's bourbon week.

[00:35:36] Vaughn Bacon: It's always bourbon week when Vaughn's in town, right?

[00:35:39] Bray Allen: There you go.

happens

[00:35:39] Ashley Harper: at the rock stays at the rock.

What happens at the rock

[00:35:42] Bray Allen: at stays at

[00:35:43] Vaughn Bacon: that, yeah. I like that.

[00:35:44] Bray Allen: There's a whole story behind that von we have a an apartment that we rent here and it's called top of the rock You can find it on verbo and the guy we've become very close over the past couple of years and man you're talking about a host of hosts that this gentleman has helped us with everything from hooking up with the right people in the community for tax incentives and anything else, right?

If you need to know, he's always going to say, I know a guy. So you need to meet my guy. Cause I know a guy. So I know a guy you just come on up anytime.

[00:36:14] Vaughn Bacon: It's always good to know a guy,

[00:36:16] Bray Allen: That's right. That's right. Ashley, thank you so much for the invite.

[00:36:19] Ashley Harper: No, I'm happy to have you guys.

This has been a great conversation. Y'all story has been super awesome to listen to. So

I thank ya'll.

[00:36:27] Vaughn Bacon: Ashley it's been great seeing you again.

Craig, always good to see you.

brother. Craig,

[00:36:32] Bray Allen: You too, brother. Yeah, Thank you for picking up the torch and just running with it. I can't. Yeah, we know how busy you are Vaughn, and we really appreciate you taking the time as a partner of SteelBlue. And we definitely see you as a partner in the MetalMax family.

[00:36:45] Vaughn Bacon: What a great way to end this. It's not a customer and a supplier, it's a partnership. And that's truly what we feel we're in here. And for that, we're eternally grateful. This is one of the best things we have right now. Thank you.

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