speaker-0: 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 seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. Hello and welcome to Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and today we're here to talk about something that I think is so important for contractors right now, and that is diversifying your business, looking outside where you're at. And we have some of the coolest products that we want to bring today and talk about that overall philosophy of how do you add that pizzazz to what you're doing in everyday business? that's what's making a big difference in today's economy.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: I am so excited to welcome Ralph Bruno with Tando Composites to talk to us about what's going on out there and give us really that great big picture about Tando. Ralph, welcome to the show.

speaker-1: Hey, good morning, Heidi. Thrilled to be here.

speaker-0: I am so excited to have you here. It you and I've had a couple little trying to get together and now I just know this is gonna be the best podcast ever because we are tenacious. That is what it's all about. and so let's start out with an introduction. If you could introduce yourself and tell us about Tando.

speaker-1: Sure, Heidi. So my name's Ralph Bruno. I'm the president and CEO with Tando Composites. And I had the pleasure of meeting you at the PEPA meeting. Used to be VSI, I was a two-time chair of PEPA, which is the Polymeric Exterior Products Association. And we've noticed a real trend both at PEPA and in my career of most roofers are now getting into siding and other exterior products. our main customer. So we don't sell any roofing. So if there's a listener who just does roofing, I would tell you start getting into siding. There's some real money to be made. And we're here to talk to them about how new technologies in siding can help the roofers really expand their top and bottom lines to the company.

speaker-0: You know, Ralph, that is exactly what we're seeing. Especially I think there's a couple of factors playing in that, the economy, of course. But I think a bigger part of it is since COVID, since a lot of the things that have gone on, homeowners are really looking for to build relationships with a contractor who can kind of take care of them. And so if they get a new roof, they also want to look at their siding. They also want to look at their doors and windows. So there's just this huge demand, I think, from homeowners saying, Hey, we want a relationship with you. We loved what you did on our roof. Can you keep doing everything? I I would love to hear a little bit about your career because I think just like mine, we've seen things change over the years going from, you know, you get in roofing you have a customer and you don't see again for twenty years to no, we wanna keep these customers. But I'm really interested in your career. If you could share a little bit about that, that would be great.

speaker-1: Sure. I know it's only an hour podcast, Heidi, so I'll try to give we've both been doing this a long time, so I'll try to give the readers stuff and specific. so I've been really fortunate in my career to be part of two game changing brands and technologies. And I'm trying to take that same brand building, category creation, and technology expansion into Tando Composites. So early on in my career. When my hair was about the same size as yours, Heidi. Like

speaker-0: I would

speaker-1: I was part of the I was the first employee at mobile oil. You say, why is that important? Well, mobile oil was we bought a technology that eventually became TREX. So I was able to see firsthand a new technology, which at the time wasn't even called composite decking. We didn't know what we had. All we knew is that we were combining wood fiber. And scrap polyethylene film and coming out with something new. We eventually made it into decking, eventually branded it Trex, and it eventually became a new category called composite decking. So I saw that happen firsthand. And if you would have asked me 30 years ago, did I believe in everything we were doing? I thought some of our bosses were off the ball crazy that this is never gonna work. What happens when the big guys get involved, right? But I saw Trex go from nothing to today, it has a market cap of over five billion dollars. So having seen that happen firsthand, after we went public, I left Trex and started up another company. I started up a company called AZAC Building Products, which at the time was a very small the company we acquired was called Compression Polymers. They were actually making toilet partitions of all things, believe it or not. But they had this technology where they would foam up PVC and we saw the same sort of substitutive technology. Foam PVC can replace wood trim. And we use the Trek, the playbook that I learned at TREX, right? Which was create a better product, tell everyone about it, and then make it easy to buy. Fast forward to today, a year ago. AZAC Building Products was bought by eight for eight point eight billion dollars by James Hardy. So we're able to take this technology. So we see all the same dynamics. It's clear as day to me that we have with Tando Composites what was going on in the market with Trex, what was going on in the market with AZEC. We see that same sort of category creation, new brand development in Tando Composites, and we're well on our way. And really the roofing and siding community are going to be our main avenue to grow this to, you know, the next billion dollar brand.

speaker-0: That's that's amazing, Ralph. I mean, I remember back in the day as I was starting my career and just looking at trucks, I I was just like, wow, what a what a building product, what a brand. so so impressive. And of course, Azek, who didn't know him, and going through that. So tell me a little bit more. Now you I'm I'm so curious. Tell me a little bit more about Tando itself. how do you see that same type of innovation and really that change that you've experienced twice before on such a huge level?

speaker-1: I'd love to ID. So there's really like three main buckets that I look at. One is can you substitute for what the product is that you're replacing? Two is can you then create a new category? And then three, create a brand in that new category and that will take you over. So the two products that we have that the roofing and siding are buying, the first one I want to talk about is Tando Stone. We are the first generation of what's called composite stone. We're really the only composite stone on the market. And the substitution that we're having is we are substituting for mortar applied stone veneer. Right? So from both an installer and a consumer perspective, consumers are looking for mixed materials on their homes, right? The days of just the little pink house from top to bottom is no longer. They have lap siding, they got shakes, they got stone. However, if someone wants stone on their house until Tando Composites came out, Really, the only way to put stone on was with a mason. It's really expensive. It's a really long install. So it wasn't really affordable for most consumers. With Tando Stone, we know now we have a product that siding installers and roofers love putting in. It installs like traditional siding. It's super lightweight, but it also for the homeowner, it creates something that they've never had before, a stone that can go in ground contact. Absorbs no moisture, virtually unbreakable. So when we're looking at all these homes that need to be updated, we know that the siding installers who install Tando Stone never go back to what they were using. So we have that whole substitutive play. We're creating a new category of composite stone. We have more and more people asking for composite stone. And we've already established ourselves as the number one brand of composite stone. So much so we're already expanding. We have a composite brick, and you'll continue to see more masonry composite products come out from Tando so that we can hit the market of the exterior siding and roofers, can put in these products where before it was really the domain of just the mason, right? So it's a clear and easy substitution, new category, and we got the leading brand of Tando Stone. And we just know, much like composite decking, once folks started using composite deck, the thought of going back to a wood deck that's splitting, cracking, warping, their sealing every year, for a siding installer and roofing contract, and now they can offer their homeowner stone. They're differentiated. They can offer a stone that will never break, can go in ground contact, will never lose color in sunlight. It's really a game changer for those siding installers who've started to use our products.

speaker-0: I I I have to tell you, that gets me so excited to think about that on the Tando Stone because there's so many things, Ralph, that are bouncing inside my head right now. But one of the big ones is because I'm from the mountains of Oregon, right? So we have a lot of freeze thaw and we have a lot of kind of, you know, snow and ice and everything that's going on there. And to think about that where we see the mortar degrade time over time over the lifetime of it and just the amount of time that it takes, it is such a great solution. not just for the look and for the installation, but for the performance. I mean, when you think like you said, it can touch the ground, it doesn't absorb water, you don't have to worry about freeze thaw, that's huge.

speaker-1: Yeah. And I'll t I'll tell you two quick stories, Heidi, that I love going out in the market and meeting our customers and just seeing what they're doing about it. And yeah. From the freeze thaw and moisture, probably one of the markets we have penetrated the most already is Maine. There is more tando composites stole in Maine than I think lobsters are sold, right? And I enjoy going up there when I meet with some of the contractors and what they've been telling us, and we're doing not only residential, we're doing light commercial and we Just met with a contractor who's doing a lot of fast foods restaurant with Tando Stone. Asked him what he liked about it. He said something I hadn't heard before. It wasn't the install, it wasn't this one. It's like Ralph, we've had product that's on for six or seven years in a main. We get a lot of snow. So when we plow the snow, we couldn't plow the snow up against the buildings because you'd have all that moisture against a concrete or stone product would get ups. So with Tando Stone, it's great. When we clean up We just push the snow banks across because we absorb no moisture, there's no wet stuff. So that was super cool. And the other super cool story that just happened. So we talk about our stone being virtually unbreakable. And that's big for the roofers, because some other guys there's been some other products that are more just big slabs of painted concrete that break in trans really ha heavy and just tough. And there's a lot of breakage and install. Not only we did not have breakage and install, we are a class four hail rated. And you talk about that, it's always great. In the month of May, we just got pictures back from a homeowner. There was something called cyclonic hail in Wisconsin. I do who knew there was such a thing. It's when hail really whips around almost at a 90 degree angle. Homeowner had siding on their home in Tando Stone, sent us pictures of the home. Windows and siding were totally destroyed. Tando stone looked perfect, right? So wow. Just seeing that picture, right? We go around, class four hail rate and it's sort of this. But to actually see a homeowner go out of their way, send us a picture and just say, I just wanted to let everyone know we're okay. Here's what my home looked like. We need to replace the whole exterior with the exception of Tando Stone. There wasn't even a scratch, right? So

speaker-0: my gosh.

speaker-1: We're really showing that more and more to say, hey, here's what it is in theory, but here's what this means for your customers, right? You could put snow against it, you could put it in ground. And if there is a cyclonic hail event, or if your weed whacker hits it, your your kids hit it with a beat, it's not going to break, right? So it's those little things that when we get out and educate our installers, they can help sell to their homeowners, which helps drive additional revenue and additional margins for them.

speaker-0: Yeah, and I what what you were saying too, just about even contractors so often will things will arrive and it's broken on the palate. It's not you know, they have damage. to be able to not deal with that up front and then to have it sort do performed to that level, that's amazing. And so okay, the stone and then I have to tell you on my house and we'll be talking down the road, but In the Pacific Northwest, there is so much shake siding. and you know, all the little areas where they have it up at the top, you have the shakes, and then it goes into the siding. It's it it it's a beautiful product. Again, same problems. Tell us about I mean, same problems with traditional materials. talk to us a little bit about beach house shake.

speaker-1: Yeah, so it it's I'm glad you asked Heidi, because it's almost a blessing and a curse that we have two products at the same time, right? That have similar value propositions. So Beach House Shake reminds me so much of the Trex sort of substitution, and here's why. And I think most of the market gets it. The market has seen this before of traditional wood products just don't hold up to exterior environments being substituted with composites. So, you know, thirty years ago when we launched Trex. It wasn't a tough putt get a consumer to say, hey, they were happy they had a deck, but then when you asked them, what does it look like and what is it to upkeep, you'd get the slump shoulders, my goodness, we're putting water seal on it every year. It splinters, it cracks, my kids are getting splinters, blah. I thought it w this is really a little mutt. And that happened to every deck. So when we look at natural cedar shingles today, right, it's almost the same plate. People love having natural cedar shingles on their home. And they'll actually promote if they're selling their home, they'll say it's sided with cedar shingles, right? As opposed However, much like every consumer who had wood decks would tell you, every natural cedar shingle, which means it's not painted, just put up cedar, looks really bad really quickly. Natural cedar discolors quickly and unevenly. And over the last decade, as we've transitioned from old growth cedar to new growth cedar, the cupping and cracking and everything, it just deteriorates faster. So every home that has natural cedar on it, it starts to look splotchy, dark brown, black, and there's really nothing you could do to get it. You could pressure wash it once or twice. You can get some of that stuff off, but now it just comes right back, the mold mildew, so you don't get so we have a product that we get to do you love cedar shingles and you want them staying looking perfect. Beach house shake, and I knew we had a winner, Heidi, and what really verified it, all respect to the Pacific Northwest and Cedar Shingles. And I spent a lot of time out there in love. But Cape Cod is sort of the epicenter of Cedar Shingles. There's actual architects who call them Cape Cod shingles or what three years ago we got in with the top lumber yard on the Cape, a company called Mid Cape Home Supply. And the demand for cedar shingles in the Cape far exceeds the supply. However, all of these small communities have historical societies, architectural review boards. So you can't just go in there and say, Hey, I know there was natural cedar there, but we have this product you could you will get Tossed to the wayside. So Mid-Cape actually did their own research for two to three years of is there a product that will meet the authenticity of a natural individual cedar shingle? And after years of research, they selected Beach House Shake. And I'm happy to report every town that we go to, the first thing we have to do is go to their historical society or on the Cape. If you're to install it, they call it the historical societies, because usually the answer is no. But we are approved by every historical society we go to, and we'll show them job after job because they'll say, we thought that that was natural. It has the authenticity of natural cedar shingles. However, it's going to stay looking perfect for the life of the home. So very similar value prop to Trex, right? So now when people have a choice of the natural cedar or beach house, while the first few years it was just filling the gap of supply and demand, more and more homeowners, architects, and installers are now putting beach house shake in because it looks just like natural cedar. However, it's going to stay looking great without any upkeep.

speaker-0: Wow. That I mean it makes so much sense. It makes so much sense. And the fact and and that's probably why all the historical societies are approving it because of the look, the performance, and and let's be honest, it's harder and harder to get cedar shakes too. So you are in the right perfect right place, right time, as Ralph, I'm sure you're already aware of.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: Yes, that is so cool. So you earlier mentioned, and I'm really intrigued with this, you mentioned brick too that you were looking at. Talk a little bit about that.

speaker-1: Yeah, so we launched a composite brick end of twenty twenty-six. And really at the end of the day, Heidi, it has all the same substitutive and value place, right? Traditional brick needs to be installed by a brick mason. And you're very limited to the time you can install brick. If it's raining out, you can't put it in. If it's cold, in cold climbs, what they need to do is actually shroud the structure. In like a tent, it has to be a certain temperature to make sure that the mortar you're putting on doesn't freeze, dry too quickly. And there's also two dynamics in the marketplace that we're seeing, Heidi, that are accelerating our growth that I'm sure most of your listeners will appreciate. There is a hyper sensitivity to affordability today and to labor shortages today, right? It is something throughout the channel. We're hearing more and more of. So our brick, much like our other composite products, we're able to take these headwinds of affordability and labor shortages and make them tailwinds for our customers. You can now install brick faster at a much better cost than you could natural brick. So it sort of has that same play, and the siding and roofing installers can put it in. You are not waiting for a brick mason. So it has all those same substitutive plays as our stone. We just think of it as a red stone at some point, right? As opposed to putting a real stone you put But it it meets all the affordability and you don't need specialized labor. Roofers insiders can put it in. We have an a whole install training team that quite frankly it's the easiest job in the world. They spend like thirty seconds on the job site and the roofers and side guys, we got this. Like you c it's not that hard. Like it's a super easy install for our roofers and siders if the consumers looking for either a full brick or sort of a brick accent on their homes.

speaker-0: that that is that is so cool. I can I can just I can just see it right now. okay. So Ralph, I I I have been in marketing my entire career. I love marketing and hearing what you have done with the brands that you've worked on. I'm really curious as you bring in the stone, the shake and now the brick, this disruptive product, right? You're disrupting something products that have been used for generations and but bringing in really good solutions. Talk to me about what some of your biggest challenges are in bringing those brands into the industry.

speaker-1: that's a great question, Heidi. So the word committed is sort of too you need to be committed or you'll get committed if you don't believe in this stuff, right? So I can remember the power of the category in the brand with Trex and AZAC. And if you're first in and create a new category, you're going to be there for the long term, right? And I can now look at that and say, hey, I've seen this happen firsthand. Trex is the number one brand of composite decking. They were the first in. AZAC is the number one brand of PVC trim. They've grown to other brands. Our biggest challenge is really throughout the channel. I think consumers are getting it. They certainly get it with Beach House Shake, right? We show these aspirational pictures and folks want that. And we, you know, we're using this positioning line, the composite shingle that never tells its age. It's a fairly, it's a fairly easy concept for consumers to get to. When we show Magnificent homes on the beach. This yeah, I want that. It's gonna stay looking like that, they get it, and they'll be able to do a little research and get it. Our biggest challenge is really getting some of our channel partners to understand why we're different and how to properly present it. I may have tried something else ten years. You're just like such especially with Beach House Shake Specific, right? So there was a transition from cedar shingles Now we have Beach House Shake, but in the middle there was a lot of polymer shakes being made. They're all great products. They're great products. I say this is the chair of Peppa. Heidi, I'm not here to ban. However, polymer shakes really don't authentically replicate natural cedar shingles. It's really tough, and we haven't seen polymer shakes be approved by historical societies. They're five inches, they're sort of cedar shap shaped, but they're in different colors. They're reds, they're blues, and they're gonna have some of the issues that polymer shakes have. Expansion contraction. They're more prone to breakage. They're gonna fade. So we have a installation category of siding. yeah, I've seen that stuff before. You know, I tried that. We really didn't like it. It faded. I really didn't like it. I had a lot of movement. I really didn't like it. It wasn't Miami. So we gotta stop it. Guys, let's Educate you for a little bit. This isn't a polymer, this is a composite. This is new technology. And in our training, we'll show them our rigidity is something popular. Our impact resistance, where Miami Dade high velocity wind rated. And we offer a warranty on our composite shingles. This is what really gets the installers. We have a 20-year, we call it a color retention warranty. We've paid zero claims if our composite products. Change color in 20 years. There's a hundred percent replacement of material and labor. Polymer doesn't even come close to that. It's prorated. We know it's gonna fit. So our biggest issue is really re-educating folks, making sure we could spend right. This was a couple minutes just, and then I'll say, really? Show me a couple pictures. We'll show them pictures. Show me that it doesn't, it really has color retention. We'll show them jobs that are six and seven. Then once they start using it, it becomes fairly easy. So in that motion, we are displacing cedar shingles, our on-the-wall costs are way less than cedar shingles. However, our biggest issue in that market is overcoming folks who just say, I'm looking for something low maintenance. I don't care what it looks like. Those folks will probably buy a polymeric shake and be very happy with it, right? It's a lower price point. They don't have to do anything, but it's not gonna have the look. The authenticity of a natural cedar shingle, nor is it going to have the durability because all of those polymer shakes fade. While they fade uniformly, they're gonna have fade. We're gonna stay our color is color fast, 20-year warranty on that. So education is really our biggest issue, making sure our installers are presenting it the right way as a displacement for cedar, not as an upgrade to polymer, right? Because if it's just an upgrade to polymer. Consumer will Well, it's it's sort of the same thing. No, we're going right after those cedar shingle communities and make sure they understand they don't have to compromise with a composite shingle and beach house shake, and they'll get the durability and the authenticity that they desire.

speaker-0: That's really it's really about like you said, it's it's a new category. And I don't think people I I I do agree that people think it's the same thing and so that is a huge challenge. But I have to say that really what you're looking at too is when you look at people understanding the trucks plant and that that's a composite, you do have some history to show that this is a little this is a little bit different.

speaker-1: Correct. And and the the biggest challenge. Yeah, just going back memory lane for a minute, Heidi, there was never, as I try to tell people what happened 30 years ago, there was a very small plastic lumber category. It never really took off. So we were able tracks every once in a while when we were first running out tracks, that's just plastic lumber. We say, no, it's not, it's a composite. And we would say why it's different. Different what Beach House Shake is, there's a pretty well formed polymer shake industry. And it's accepted at a certain price point, right? Our education is now going back and saying, hey, we're the replacement for the wood is a composite just like Trex, and you can finally have something that looks just like cedar, and you don't have to compromise on the fade or sort of the monochromatic look of something.

speaker-0: Yeah, I love it. I think that I mean, when I look at that, I'm just like, what how fun. How fun for you to be where you're at and doing what you're doing. okay, let's talk a little bit about I I have to tell you, Ralph, this half hour has gone so fast. I'm just like, my gosh. We you're right. When you started you said it should be an hour, and I agree with you. so we're we're gonna be coming back and doing this again. Tell us a little bit about how contractors can start getting involved with tando composites and really kind of and especially roofing contractors. Cause you mentioned this earlier. You were kinda like, there's a little bit of a it's a little they're not sure, right? They're not sure how easy that's gonna be or how they can add it to their business. Give a little bit of advice about how they can start looking at this.

speaker-1: Yeah, so we try to make it the roofing and siding contract are our primary targets, especially vis-a-vis Stone. That's who we're going after. So we've partnered with a lot of their key dealer yards. So they should be asking their dealer yards, right? So where they're buying their roofing products today, we see this consolidation going on in the roofing and siding industry. And when we look at those top lists, so I was just on the phone this morning with some of our Executives, right? The top 500 list came on for the in-home remodelers. Of the top 15, eight do siding, all eight are now using tando composites, right? So we can point we can point to folks of saying, hey, here's number three, and they switched over 10 years ago. They've never done anything for stone. So I'd say first and foremost, the roofing and siding contractors should ask their dealers, be it An ABC, an L site, a QXO, an SRS, a Lancing, where they're buying their siding products. Ask them about Stone and Shake alternatives. Chances are we've been in there. If we haven't been, we will be. We really believe in building this huge stocking dealer network so it's easy to buy for the roofing contractors. If not, if they don't have it, tando composites.com. Go to our website and we'll just say you want to speak to someone, and we now have Over three dozen reps who do nothing but call on the signing roof and contract. If you reach out to us on tandocomposites dot com, I still read every inquiry. I promise you you will get a call back in less than twenty four hours. We'll get your samples and take you through how to build your business model.

speaker-0: I you know what? I Ralph, you are making me so happy because I have to tell you, I have been I have been on this path of the contractors talking a lot about it on our site, about that they need to get in. They need to look at diversifying their business and they need to look at ways that make sense. I think this you Tando is composites is exactly what contractors, roofing contractors should be looking at and it's a great way to start doing that. So you and I are gonna be back. We've got a couple of podcasts coming up and we're gonna talk more, go little bit more in depth on how contractors can start making this switch and start expanding their businesses and how you can be helpful for that. So let's do it again.

speaker-1: Well, thank you, Hadi. The time flew by and once again look forward to anyone listening, get in touch with us. You may personally get a call from me. I'm I'm passionate about ensuring the installers can make good margins and grow their business by using composite technologies in Beach House Shake and Tando Stone.

speaker-0: I agree. I agree. It is awesome. Thank you so much. We will be back with another podcast very soon with Ralph because as you all know, this is what you have to be doing for 2027. This is the stuff you need to start planning. So once again, and be sure to check out the Tando Composites directory on Reverse Coffee Shop. You can get so much information. We have articles coming out along with these podcasts. So do the research now, get a hold of and like Ralph said, you can email and he'll be probably one of the ones to answer. He checks them all out. So Ralph, thank you again.

speaker-1: Thank you, Hadi.

speaker-0: Thank you and thank you all for listening. Be sure to check out all of our podcasts and be sure to subscribe and set those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing 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.