Jay Jacoby - Bringing the Best Together – Fortify Building Solutions - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

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

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and we are here today to talk about some big news that happened in 2024 but is really playing a big part in 2025. And that is bringing together industry brands, heritage building systems, Metal Depot and Reeds Metals under the Fortified Building Solutions brand, which is part of Cornerstone. So we wanted to hear what's going on with all of this and what's happening and what can we look forward to in 2025. We asked Jay Jacobi to join us and talk about what's all happening. Jay, welcome to the show.

Jay Jacoby: Hey, Heidi, Heidi, thanks for having me.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I'm so glad to have you here. This is early morning on a Friday, but this is great. Let's start with a introduction. And if you could introduce yourself, tell us a little bit what you do with Fortify.

Jay Jacoby: I know. I know.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, so I'm our director of sales. So I work with our sales teams, our branches to help them to get obviously better at selling our products and then making sure that we can provide, know, premier service to our customers, which, you know, can be anywhere from end users to to contractors, developers and anything in between.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That was great. And you know what, let's just talk a little bit about the Fortify Building Solutions, how it came together and Cornerstone overall. Can you kind of give us that big picture?

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, so metal depots, reeds, metals and heritage building systems are all three brands with their own long histories. But one thing that we found between them and we saw a ton of opportunity was the market that they primarily played in when we talk customer profiles. those each of those three brands primarily work with, as I mentioned, end users, small contractors. They're not really going after the big dogs. Every now and again, we see the big big dog players.

You know, come to us on some commercial work, but a lot more on the on residential side, like commercial and whatnot. So we saw that alignment while also seeing them all play in different geographic markets. And with that opportunity, when you're talking end users, you're talking smaller contractors, you know, having a unified brand, there's there's just a ton of value in that to establish that to where everybody knows and we can leverage those synergies to, you know, to be able to grow within the markets. And as you see, Metal Depots,

As mentioned, they have each different value props that they are able to bring to the table. And by allowing those value propositions to align and be the same across is going to help us to grow. know, Metal Depots has a strong footprint in the New Mexico, Texas and then the East Coast markets. And with that, they have had access to our NBCI manufacturing sites. So a really strong footprint as well as a wide array of offerings.

And then Reed's Metals is similarly heavily in the components game, roofing panels, trims, et cetera, but was a really big differentiator for them was their same day next day service standards. Each of our different branches spread across the Southeast have a roleformers on site, trim folders there on site. So they're able to turn around material for these small customers really, really quickly, which is important in that piece of the business.

And then heritage building systems, know, they're bigger in the overall metal building side. So pre-industrial metal building, rigid frames, mini storages and bringing those under one roof is something we're really excited about doing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, wow, what a powerhouse to be able to bring all that together. Let's talk just a little bit about the synergies of all of those companies coming together and really, and you said it with Reeds and I'm so familiar with Reeds. They've been such a big part of the Florida Roofing Contractors Association. But when you're talking about efficient and effective solutions that are fast and simple.

That seems to be really key for what you all are doing in bringing these folks together. How are all those three brands under the Fortify brand really delivering that to contractors?

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, you know, I think a key thing you touched on was simple. And for us, we want to make it simple, especially for customers where it may not be right. You if you're talking end users, this could be the first time they've ever even done anything with a metal roof. you know, having our salespeople being able to effectively communicate with people that are not necessarily product experts goes a really long way. So we want to take something that can be complicated and make it simple for them.

You know, we have different types of offerings, whether it's, exposed fastened panels, know, your, your PBR, your residential ag panels, those types of things, to standing scene. So, you know, we're able to go and, know, for those PBRs that are simple, easy to package and send out, we're manufacturing those at the branches. And then, you know, multiple of our locations have mobile roleformers. We're able to go out to the actual job sites and produce it right there to help to reduce costs, tied to shipping, packaging.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Nice.

Jay Jacoby: Then also, you know, the potential for material defects because we're role forming right there on site. You know, it's, goes straight from the role former and you put it up on the roof and you're, ready to go. And, speed really is the name of the game. I mean, you know, in the Southeast, which is where reads has that very heavy footprint. there's, there's lots of options for people to go out there. and at the end of the day, you know, a metal panel, you know, to most people, it's just a metal panel, right? You know, so long as they like the profile and they like the color.

That's what they care about. And so a big way of when is that speed to market and overall customer service.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I tell you what and really with everything that's going on, I mean, you just saying about the Southeast with what we went through with hurricanes this year and the need for roofs and for speed, but also across the country with the severe weather and the fires, there's gonna be so much work and contractors needs people they can rely on to get the materials that they need to take care of their customers.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah. And right. We take no pleasure in any type of natural disaster, but we do take pride in the way in which that our products are able to perform in those types of scenarios. Something that I saw back when there was the Maui wildfires, if you remember those, there's this picture that went viral and you look and there was just utter devastation around it. And then you saw this one building that was sitting there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: No.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah.

Jay Jacoby: With the metal roof completely untouched. And that was because the hot embers got on that metal roof and it didn't catch fire. So, it's so oftentimes that metal roofing is thought of for wind speed performance, but to see that also in a natural disaster like a fire was something I didn't even expect to be able to see and experience. then, as we look to Southeast, we had historic storms hitting the state of Florida this year. And you can go drive around there and look from building to building.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Jay Jacoby: You know, seeing, you know, how well the metal roofs, stood up and then, know, for us, you know, for anybody that's in the construction industry, anytime you work on a project, my wife, she gets so annoyed with me because we'll be driving down the highway and I'll point, we did that building. that's ours too. You know? And so to do that and see, how they perform is, is just really cool.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, that is, know you're in the roofing and metal industry when you're going and pointing at projects as you're driving. Every family knows. Well, you know what, speaking of that and speaking of the different types of projects and you kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier about agriculture, storage, but let's, the rise of residential with metal roofing and metal siding is huge. We're seeing it, I mean, it just keeps growing. But can you kind of talk about the various projects and sectors that... Fortify is working in and kind of some of your specialties.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, so, you know, one thing that we really take pride in is the wide array of offerings and markets that we can support in. So, you know, when it comes to metal roofing, as touched on, we got standing seam panels that can be a little bit more expensive to your exposed facet panels that are less expensive, but still offer some really good value for the customer to our metal buildings. As we look at, you know, your rigid frame, kind of the types of metal buildings that have a long history of familiarity within our customer base to cold form buildings, which is a little bit newer, but still offers a fully engineered solution all the way to pole barns. So, know, no matter your budget, that's something we're going to be able to play in. So as mentioned, I mean, we're huge in the agricultural market. You know, there's a buzzword going around now that, you know, there's lots of talks of barn dominiums that you see in

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Jay Jacoby: There's metal panels and whatnot that go on it, but some barnum mediums come to us and people think, there's metal on it. I want a metal building. And we'll look and it's like, well, that's actually not a good fit for like a traditional metal building structure, but we can provide those panels and trims all the way to a new buzzword that I only recently heard of was shouses. Have you heard of shouses before? So it's the combination of shops and houses. So somebody will build a half shop.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: No, okay, what is it?

Jay Jacoby: Half house, know, living quarters and then they go and, you know, have the building also be able to house all their toys, whether they're doing wood shops or want to keep their tractors and whatnot. And we're really excited about the prospects of that growth because that is a really, really good opportunity for any of our metal building structures to be able to support.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, you know what, I keep hearing the exact same thing, Jay. And I think you're right, that term barnuminium is kind of being used for so many things, but really, Shouse is, I love it. And that is what people are wanting to do is to have these metal buildings and be able to really customize them to whatever they need, to whatever their needs may be with living quarters, but also, I mean, we see some with the barnuminiums where they have full arenas.

In full arenas and living quarters. I mean, it's pretty amazing as they're going out there. So what are you seeing on the roofing side of things and siding? I'm really interested in siding, especially with what we've seen in the last year or so with all the different patterns, different colors, just different profiles. What are some of the things that are hot that you're seeing overall for the roofing and siding sectors?

Jay Jacoby: Yep, definitely.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, so, you know, obviously we're very familiar with metal roofing and the traditional sense where you're talking your long, you know, PBR standing seam panels. But we are seeing a growing market of metal shingles. And one thing that we're really excited about that you may not even be familiar with, I don't know, but you know, our business cornerstone building brands recently acquired a company Mueller Inc. And there's a ton of similarities between what they do and what we're doing over at Fortify Building Solutions.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes?

Jay Jacoby: And that's giving us access to some additional products there. And a product line that they utilize at Mueller is Provia, which it's a metal shingle offering that has multiple different pattern types. You can see slate, barrel tile, there's wood finish options. And so we're going to be rolling that out here in 2025. And once again, has those benefits of metal, but can...

And I'm telling you right now, it's shocking. You go and see one of those and it looks like the real thing, but comes with a pretty significant cost savings. makes your roof overall lighter, you know, relative to, you know, like I said, a traditional, a traditional slate or barrel tile roof. So that's, that's really exciting. And then just the assortment of colors that you can get, get there with it. You know, you're seeing more and more of that, you know, kind of a barn style type of, know, the white and black contrast that's really, really popular right now.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I love that.

Jay Jacoby: And then the metal siding. mean, you there's tons of opportunities there as mentioned, you know, compared to a lot of our, you know, smaller competition, we especially see across across the Southeast. One of our big differentiators is going to be the ability to tap into our sister company, NBC eyes network for an expanded profile offering. And then one new thing that we just rolled out here in the last year is we now have a metal board and batten profile that we're really excited to be able to offer.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That board and batten is just going crazy. mean, people are loving that. Yeah, it looks so good. And talk about protection against fire. I mean, when you have your roof and your siding all metal, again, what long-term performance and protection.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, it's slick.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, no doubt. going to take a lot of heat to do something to that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I know. And that's exactly how we want it. So talk to me a little bit about the Fortify brand and your contractors. How is that, how are you working together with your contractors, supporting them to grow this metal market? What are some of the things you have going on there?

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, that's a big thing that we really like about our business is, our goal is to grow the pie, right? We don't want to just eat into an existing pie. We want to grow this overall market. And one of the best ways to do that is to be finding more contractors that, you know, are going to be able to put up our material and expand. So, you know, one of our big things, because we have retail branches where end users often come to, if there's somebody that's new in the business, doesn't have a big market presence for themselves.

If they show that they're a qualified contractor, do good work, if they say something, they actually follow through. Quality, weather tightness, all those different things that's important out of a good contractor, then we can get them put on our contractor list. And when a customer comes to us and they're looking for a roof, they're like, all right, I know what roof I want, but I don't know who's going to put it up because it's not going to be me, right?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Jay Jacoby: You know, we can give them that list so that opportunity for contractors to get put on that list is really huge for them, especially for smaller growing businesses there. And then all sorts of different training resources that we have there with it. We have a training program called Metal Pro Institute. You know, we offer weather tightness warranties where contractors can become certified, you know, weather tightness warranty contractors and whatnot. So there's a ton of benefits for contractors to be working with us, whether they're established or new and just getting into the game.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great, that's great. And let's talk a little bit, speaking of working with those contractors and getting to be in front of them, the International Roofing Expo is coming up in San Antonio in February. You all are gonna be there. Talk to us a little bit about what you're gonna be showing and what you're gonna be talking about with the contractors.

Jay Jacoby: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, really excited to spend some time on the river walk and get to hang out with some, some good roofers. Right. Um, so yeah, we're, we're going to be out there. We're going to have a big booth. Um, you know and then we're, I had already mentioned NBCI and Mueller. Those were a couple of our sister brands. We're going to be sharing a booth with them. So you're going to see Fortify, NBCI and Mueller all in one place as we work together as mentioned to grow that pie. And we're going to be, you know, just showing off all of our different.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Great.

Jay Jacoby: Panel profiles that we have out there are colors. In the last year, we've made an update to our color assortment to better suit our customer needs. Whether you're talking about siliconized polyester finishes or your Kynar finishes, we're going to be able to offer that, depending on what the needs is for the overall customer, whether they're worried about chalk and fade or they're worried about performance in coastal salt spray environments. So we'll obviously have a heavy presence when it comes to metal roofing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thanks.

Jay Jacoby: But as you know, so many of these metal roofers are doing way more than just just roofing, right? So we'll be there to talk about our metal siding options as well as our metal building options, whether it's coal barn, cold form buildings, which we call our hyper steel buildings or rigid frame projects. So really, really excited to be there. I definitely encourage anybody that'll be at IRE to come see us.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Rate.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I think I'm with you. It's going to be a great show. And I love that you have NBCI, Mueller, Fortify all together really kind of showing because I think I think there's a really strong segment in the roofing industry who is very familiar with cornerstone and with all your brands. But I think there's still a lot of room and a lot of contractors who are going to be looking for your solutions. And this is the place to do it at the International Roofing Show. So.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, no doubt. I love it, right? I'm going to talk to more roofing contractors probably in three days than I will in an entire year, right? Exciting.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That is so great. So talk to me a little bit about how contractors can get involved with you and with the Fortify brand. Like, what is the process? How does it work? I know it's national. So how do contractors start getting involved?

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, so you got a few different options, honestly. And one thing that we really pride ourselves on is ease of access and speed to communicate. So I would say if they're local to one of our retail branches that we have, as mentioned, essentially, we've got a really strong footprint with overall Fortify building solutions across the greater South, from New Mexico all the way across to the Carolinas down to Florida and everything in between.

So that's one really nice thing, right? know people nowadays, there's that horrible tendency of companies where, you know, it's so hard to get a person on the line to talk to people. You know, you send in a lead submission and you don't know necessarily where it goes. Or, you know, you make a phone call and you got no idea who you're talking to or where they're located. You know, look up on Google, really easy to find us Fortify building solutions. And you'll see your closest overall location.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Jay Jacoby: And, you know, if you're the type of person that enjoys face to face interaction, which I know I definitely am, you know, just go in and you can pop in at one of those branches and they're going to be able to get you taken care of. If you're unable to go and visit one of those branches, once again, you know, we're going to have that opportunity to still service you because the nice thing about Fortify, because we are owned by Cornerstone Building Brands, even if we don't have a branch location, which eventually we will have a branch location in everybody's backyard. I promise you that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Love it.

Jay Jacoby: Even if we don't today, we have a manufacturing footprint that is absolutely nationwide that we're going to be able to utilize. And we do have that national sales center, which is that heritage group that has typically been an online phone call based cell. They're based in North Little Rock, but they're servicing the entire continental US. In fact, I mean, they've sold projects outside of the United States, into the Caribbean, international, that we've been able to get them taken care of. But obviously in the United States, that's really our core.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Jay Jacoby: Business where we touch on. And once again, with that group, we pride ourselves on trying to just reply and respond as soon as physically possible, no matter what the inquiry is. And if it's something that we can't help you out, we'd love to point you in the right direction to where you can get to somebody that can. So it's a really, really great thing to have good people that are just there to want to service the customer and find out what they need. We're always going to ask.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Jay Jacoby: What do you need from us? And then let's find the solution to your problem versus us telling you what your problem is.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right. That's great. And that's exactly what contractors need, right? That's exactly what they need. Okay. So for all of the contractors out there who are listening right now, are some of the, what's some of your advice on hot trends looking at this year coming in 2025? And also just kind of your advice for them to get into, if they're not already in metal and they want to get into metal, metal roofing, metal siding, what's some of your advice on how to get started for 2025?

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, I mean, with anything that you first want to get started up in, I mean, the first thing is start doing your research and find trusted advisors to be able to work with. Right. And that's once again, something that we pride ourselves on because we do not only work with people that have been in the metal roofing industry for decades. You know, one of our specialties is helping people first break into these markets. So we're going to be able to help you out there. We'll set you up with training. You know, we'll let you go. It goes all the way there through it. Right. We can give customers.

You know, tours of our manufacturing facilities so they can see how, you know, material is actually getting produced. And when you see how it gets produced, it helps you understand, you know, some of the pros and cons of what you're trying to be able to work with. um, you know, that's a great place to start. You know, YouTube is a fantastic thing nowadays. I mean, you can literally learn how to do anything on YouTube. Um, so that's going to be something that they're going to be able to tap into as well. But you know, that face to face hands-on interaction, you know, any of our trainings.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Nice.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know.

Jay Jacoby: We're going to have mockups there that people can actually go touch, feel. We have field service representatives that can come out to the job sites if there's any sort of issues to help get that resolved. then once again, the really nice thing, especially if you're in the footprint of one of our retail branch locations, is that speed to serve. If something goes wrong, we will help you get it fixed quickly, which is a key, key differentiator for us versus the people that just don't have the type of footprint that we're able to provide out there.

Um, so, then once again, those trends, right? I mean, we're seeing more and more metal roofing, right? Um, I know, I know, you know, there's lots of conversations around, you know, climate change and global warming. And there are people that are uncertain of what's happening, but you know, the one thing that I know I can't deny is I'm seeing a heck of a lot of natural disasters going on. And the best thing that we can do, you know, as you see insurance premiums going up, the best thing that we can do to protect ourselves is, is, is exactly that protect ourselves.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yep.

Jay Jacoby: You know, develop a shelter that's going to be able to handle the elements as best as physically possible. So that's a big piece there with it. You know, in the state of Florida, you know, you may be familiar, you know, they're, supposed to be passing a law that makes it to where HOA's can't limit the use of metal roofing across, their neighborhoods because they found that, you know, it just performed so incredibly well. So those are big trends that we're seeing. And so if anybody's thinking about getting into that metal roofing game.

I highly, highly encourage it's so much opportunity and we're seeing a lot of growth. And with growth means we need more contractors.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We need more contractors. The homeowners are requesting it. And especially all these new types of structures that we talked about with barnaminiums, shouses, all of these different things, there is such a demand. So we need the contractors to be trained in great installations and have that offering so that people can get what they need to protect themselves. I love it, Jay. This is perfect. And you know, I'm gonna say to others out there too, if you're listening to this roofing road trip, we're also going to be having

Jay on metal cast, and we're gonna be talking more about the buildings and about the overall building structures in metal buildings, because I know a lot of contractors, roofing contractors, who have gone into metal building also. it is the place to be, that's all I can say. Jay.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your wisdom. And we are so excited to see you at International Roofing Show. We're gonna have you on our, or expo, I should say, we're gonna have you on our soundstage. We're gonna be there. And for everyone out there, please check out the Fortify directory on both Roovers Coffee Shop and Metal Coffee Shop so that you can get all the information, that contact information, see where all the locations are. and be able to start bringing this into your business or growing your already metal business. So Jay, thank you again.

Jay Jacoby: Yeah, thank you so much. Nobody I'd rather talk to early on a Friday morning.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. It is early on a Friday morning. And thank you all for listening. Please check out all of our podcasts under the Read, Listen, Watch navigation on all of our sites. And also on your favorite podcast channel, please subscribe and set those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.