Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: So, good afternoon. We are here in Tacoma Park Fife at the Evergreen Golf Club as part of the C700 event this week. And so happy. It was an indoor golf thing. I was scratching my head when I saw the itinerary.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Like, it's a little chilly outside.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: It is cold. Wait, isn't it cold in Tacoma this time of year? Why are we golfing? I'm confused.
[00:00:46] Speaker C: This is a cool event too.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Cool venue.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. It's nice. You know you don't have to wait for the foursome in front of you, right? You just keep going.
[00:00:53] Speaker D: Yeah. And you don't lose any balls.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: And you don't lose any balls. That's true.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: You hope you could.
[00:00:59] Speaker D: I did.
[00:00:59] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
There you go.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Well, and in my neck of the woods, you're not dodging any alligators either, so.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:08] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: So we're chatting with Bryson and Jared. They agreed to come and sit down. I think Steve twisted your arms or bribed you or something. I don't know. But anyway, yeah, welcome. Thanks for joining me.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Happy to. Thanks for having us on.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'll let you guys talk about, introduce yourselves, your company, where you are located and what your business is about.
[00:01:27] Speaker D: All right. Thank you. So my name is Jared Wright. I'm in Tucson, Arizona.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:31] Speaker D: And our company is Open and Close Windows and Doors. The company was formed in late 2006. I came over and joined the company in its early stages in 2009 and took over sales and marketing. And we have just grown in the old Pueblo. Taken a lot of market share, but we're still growing. We specialize in not only residential retrofitting, but custom new construction service. And we do our own installations. So we carry amazing products like Milgard, but we carry, I would say overall, about 20 different national manufacturers. So from interior doors, exterior doors, window, obviously variations, but we do a lot of. If you come into our showroom, we have a 19,000 square foot building.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:02:23] Speaker D: Beautiful showroom. But we do automated systems, so huge multi slides, stacking door systems, custom iron entry doors, things like that.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Do you handle Western as well?
[00:02:35] Speaker D: So we are a Fleetwood dealer.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: And Western is the complete opposite. So that's their competition.
[00:02:42] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:43] Speaker D: So it was one of those things that we were not allowed to take on another dealership with, being a Fleetwood dealer. But when Miter purchased PGT and assumed Western, there are Certain products that I think fit right into our lineup. So with the AX350 and some of these things. So I know it's under the guise of Milgard, but it's still a western product, so we'll still sell.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:10] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: All right. Nice. Well, when you were describing your product line, that's immediately what I thought of was Western. So some legacy pgt.
So I live in Florida.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Which is really why I was very happy that I was not outside today.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah, very much.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Right. Okay. Well, thanks for jumping in.
[00:03:26] Speaker D: Yes, ma'.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Am. And so, Bryson, tell us about you.
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Okay, we'll do. Jared, I have to say I love the name of your company, by the way. That's such a cool name.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, I thought that too.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Major props to your owner.
[00:03:33] Speaker D: Yeah. But that it's the play on words. It's awesome.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: It's super cool. My name is Bryson Gunter. I'm with Utah Window Experts. We're based in Orem, Utah. We're very similar business model to open and close over here. We've been in business since 2002. I want to say I'm not as tenured as Jared. I've been with the company for about four and a half years.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:53] Speaker C: My good friend Alan Horn and his dad, Steve Horn started the business very much grassroots. Steve started it. His home was. Had a little home office and was storing windows in his garage.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Yeah. For the first couple years. And we were mainly selling to contractors at that point. And then Al, his son got back from a service based mission for his church and came on board and was helping him. Then they grew from there, moved into the facility that we were in that unfortunately burned down this last weekend, which was wild. It's been a crazy week. No, nobody was injured, nobody was there. It's been less than a week. It happened on Saturday.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: We've been there, I mean, ever since we moved out of Steve's home. So it's been kind of a whirlwind of a week.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: My boss, my buddy who's Al was supposed to be here, but there was just too much going on for him to come. So thankfully nobody was hurt, nobody was injured and none of our product was damaged. So none of our customers product. We store it separately. Wow. From a different location, but lot of our tools and memories and everything went up in flames. It's wild. It was wild. It was a complete loss. So. Yeah. I just say that just because, I mean, we no longer in that location. So I think we're Gonna try to find a new location and build new memories and grow from there. But similar to Jared's company, we mainly focus on residential replacement or retrofitting. We do a little bit of new construction, custom homes. Similar to Jared. We don't carry as many brands. Milgard is our top brand. We've been selling them since we started. In fact, Steve, our owner, was a Milgard rep prior to starting the company and that's how he got set up as a dealer. That helped him get set up and was one of the first in Utah. And then we also have another local brand called Amsco, but we mainly sell Milgard and then we also have some other brands that we've got some multi slide doors and bi folding doors and entry doors and stuff like that. But again, similar to open and close, we have our own install crews. We're really big on service. I mean, we've been in the community again for about 20 plus years and we really, really focused on that kind of that homegrown feel with our customers.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Okay, excellent. And so obviously you're both selling the C650 currently or have been selling the C650. And so you got invited to this VIP event for the prelaunch of the C700. Jarred, we'll start with you. I want to hear what your thoughts are about the event and then the product.
[00:06:17] Speaker D: Oh, wow. So the event's been great. I think it really tells a lot about an organization when they do something like this to bring everybody together. You get to meet a lot of dealers from all over and I feel like that helps us grow. Talking to another dealer out of our state and he says he gets more out of those interactions and it really is a catalyst to help them grow, grow their business, you know, because you get the top dealers from all over and you get to extract the nutrients out of what's made them successful. So I think it's amazing that Milgard puts that on this platform that allows us to come together like that and really spoils us. You know, the event last night was great. Got to dress up for me. I don't know about Bryson over here, but I don't have a lot of opportunity to wear a suit and tie. So it's nice to get dressed up and be able to hang out with everybody. And of course the factory tour and this event, I think it's great for unit cohesion. I'm a Marine, so I get it. You know, I think the more that you do together, the more that you are able to come together as A team as a whole. So I think it's brilliant the strategy that Milgard takes, because there's not another manufacturer in the almost 17 years that I've been doing this. That actually takes the time and the attention to detail that Milgard does from when they used to do symposiums, roundtable meetings. They still do. And really getting collectively information input from their dealers that are actually boots on the ground. They're the ones dealing with the homeowners and utilizing that, inputting that and making changes in their production, which was amazing.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Okay, we'll come back to product information. Bryce, I want to hear what you thought of the event last night. We were actually at the same table.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: I didn't get a lot of time to talk to you. I was yakking with my friend Jordan.
[00:08:11] Speaker C: That's okay. I mean, that's hard to follow up what Jared just said. I mean, he pretty much hit on it. I think one of the biggest things that he hit on is coming and interacting with fellow dealers.
[00:08:22] Speaker D: Right.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: I mean, a lot of times when you're at home, you're just solely so focused on the day to day activities, what needs to be done that day, what's right in front of you.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: And not really looking at long term growth and long term planning. And to be able to kind of step outside of that and come here. And Jared hit on it. I mean, I think they only invite the top dogs to come here. Right. So, you know, you're at, you're kind of in the creme de la creme when it comes to dealers and to kind of rub shoulders with them, ask them about their business, how are they doing this, how are you doing that? How do you guys focus against on this or on these areas? What do you, how do you sell these products? How do you service that? I mean, you can't get that from your day to day activity. So I think that's a valuable learnings. And then the event last night was so cool. I mean, right there on the pier, you walk outside. I mean, I was FaceTiming my son when he went to bed and showing him around and he was just like in awe. It was cool.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry.
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[00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah, very different than Utah.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: Very different than Utah.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: And so what are your thoughts about the 700? I'm going to let you Go first.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Okay. I hope that leadership hears this. A 78 inch casement is huge. So, you know, similar to Jared, we do probably a handful of custom homes per year. Maybe 10. 10 or less. I cannot tell you how many times I'll be going through a set of plans. They want fiberglass and there's a seven foot casement and I can't do it. The max is out at 5ft with Ultra. So to be able to go up to 78 inches is huge. I mean, if you put your hands on it last night, it was just smooth, just opening and closing. And then I absolutely love that they brought the smart touch lock to the sliders and single hungs. I think it is just sleek and sexy. I think that's a game changer above the old positive action lock. So. And then the big picture windows, those are my main takeaways.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Jared, what would you add to that?
[00:10:23] Speaker D: Oh, goodness. Where do you start? This is a product that we've been waiting, anticipating for. I mean, it's well over six years because I love the Milgard Ultra product, but it's not a complete line. The 650. And it's a little frustrating when you try and do a house package and you have to use different products in certain areas because the limitations.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: I think that's a big one and I didn't mean to interrupt you. That's a lot of limitations.
[00:10:50] Speaker D: Yep, it's. The sliding glass door was lackluster, you know, was kind of clunky and big sight lines and things like that. And some of these things that we've kind of given our opinion over the years, actually, and more so feedback from the customer.
So when this was going to launch, we already knew kind of some of the details and just super excited, but actually seeing it, touching it, filling it, playing with it, it's sexy. Yeah, I love the clean sight lines. I like the nerd out with the engineers. And really seeing how it's produced and the way that the mechanical fasteners and the hot glue and these things, seeing it in the technology is just wild.
Carrying different products. You know, I'm familiar with Marvin, I'm familiar with Pella, and those are the only really competing fiberglass products in the marketplace. Colby has a Forgent series, which is they call composite, but it's not really there. And same thing with the Andersen 100 series. This is powder coat finish. And it's just amazing and hitting. I think they said a DP66 with a casement. With a casement is wild. So the sliding glass Door is sleek. Slides.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: Well, yeah, and those rails, dude, no more tall French rails.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: The hardware options with the flush handle. And I really love, and I know this isn't part of the launch, but the transition, seeing the black spacer in there, you know, on this, it just, it really is a clean product. I'm excited to sell it. I'm excited to get feedback from the customers and see it in the openings.
So.
[00:12:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, it just expanded our offering that much more because Jared hit on it. There was a lot of limitations when you're going through building out a custom plan and you just have to like go back to the customer, Ah, sorry, can't do it with this. And we look at a different product, I think that just completely got rid of that. So.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the market's changed a lot in the 30 years since Altra came out, big time. And I love the fact that the Pultrusion is done in house and that they spent the time talking to the manufacturers. Like when I learned from Mike about the Joseph machines, because we use Joseph machines at PGT for punching out the vinyl extrusions and also aluminum extrusions when we're building our products. You know, there's 22 pieces in there and it's doing all different kinds of things, but it's 22 pieces. They went to Joseph and partnered with them and said, we need something that can do all of this.
And they actually developed a specific CNC machine that has 32 parts. I think the one today we saw had 31. But still, that's dedication and commitment to say, we're not going to just accept the standard that you do for every other window and door manufacturer. We want something that's better than that because this is our goal. And so I was like, whoa, we could do that. That's pretty amazing.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: That's amazing.
[00:13:44] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: And to say that we can come after Infinity now, that's pretty big because they're taking a lot of market share a lot. And to have a competing product, I think this will be able to compete with them.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: Well, kudos to Milgard because, you know, they've been listening to the dealers over the years and they pretty much implemented everything that I can think of into this product line with the option to still update some of these things, you know, because my immediate reaction is, well, why didn't you put the smart touch bolt on the sliding glass door? And like they said, we can still do this. So I like that they're still entertaining some of these add ons or these options. In the future, but with this. And it's one thing to try and conceptualize what goes into starting a new product line, because realistically, other than the pultrusion process, this is a completely new product. So seeing it, and like you mentioned, this machine has 31 stage steps or whatever is fascinating and it kind of just puts it into perspective. But I will say, probably one of the things I was most impressed about, because from a manufacturing standpoint. The boxing. Oh, yeah, right.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: That machine was crazy.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: So cool.
[00:14:55] Speaker D: The footprint.
Because I can only imagine having to stock all those upc, like every single box and how much storage and how much you have to have on hand and all these things. So that was brilliant. So having that vision, that foresight. The screen.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah, the Flex screen.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Flex Screen is so cool.
[00:15:12] Speaker D: I think it's a game changer because there's only one other manufacturer that I know of that's implemented that into their production line. Especially at the IBS show, it's a big hit. You know, everyone's there playing with it. It gets a crowd. Because that company doesn't have their own machine. Yeah, they may now, but they didn't. So the fact that Milgard is like, hey, we're gonna actually just own our own machine and make it in house, I think that limits the amount of people involved in this. Because that has been an issue in the past of quality control, you know, buying the screens from company X.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:42] Speaker D: Cause they just switched it not that long ago and there was some issues. So being able to have that in house. Yeah, that's going to be a game changer. Excited.
[00:15:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: And you have the option of having them sent together. Having them sent. You know, there's some flexibility there.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah, it's really exciting.
[00:16:00] Speaker C: Flexibility with the screen.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Flexibility.
Look at that.
Yeah. And that's the thing right here. You have this, like, really expensive product and it's that last little detail that last.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: You know, if it snags you there,
[00:16:17] Speaker C: well, that's what the homeowner will remember.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: I mean, a screen. We've had thousands and thousands of dollars of revenue held up over screens all the time. All the time. It happens all the time. It's so frustrating for them and for us.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: And for us. Because a lot of times it's out of our control too, so.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And nobody's out to do that on purpose. Like, we want to be able to deliver it full and complete and everybody can get paid and move on and live happily ever after. So I really appreciate the Depth and thought that went into it.
Recorded several episodes since I've been here and had conversations with manufacturing leadership, with the product developers, the engineering teams. So one of the things that they didn't talk about, and I'm gonna let you guys know so you don't have to wait until this episode airs.
So when they were 3D printing for the corner keys, they actually used a translucent material so that they could see where the wet silicone was going in and make sure that it was traveling around.
So, I mean, that's technology in action. Like, we're gonna figure out a way to test this before we build it.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: We're gonna test it in small batches and make our adjustments as we go so that by the time we're ready to actually have the whole thing, we already know it's gonna be fine. Because we've been playing with this little corner for weeks, months.
[00:17:34] Speaker D: I love that. That's cool.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: Super cool.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: I was like.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: I didn't know that.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I was like, what? You did what?
That's cool.
[00:17:41] Speaker D: I wanna see the video.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah, there probably is a video.
[00:17:45] Speaker D: I'm sure of it. Yeah, that stuff's intrigued me, for sure.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: I don't know. That may be proprietary.
I don't know. Translucent material on a 3D printer, maybe.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: How do you do it?
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Yeah. But anyway. Any parting thoughts?
[00:17:59] Speaker C: I'll say one last thing, and Jared's already kind of mentioned this, but I think one big thing is the feedback that they take from dealers and how seriously they take it. And they realize that that's not just coming from us. That's coming from the end customer. We're not just saying that just to. We're not blowing smoke. Like, we get that feedback from customers, from the market. Right. That's what the market wants. And they come and they learn from us, and then they take that and actually implement it. That means a lot. I think that goes a long way. And Jared mentioned that he hasn't seen that with hardly any other manufacturers that you work with. That holds a lot of weight for dealers and then turn around and be able to sell an awesome product to the. Back to the customers. That's huge.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Right? Well, I mean, we depend on you guys. Like, we don't know. We're not out there dealing with the homeowners. I mean, maybe in dribs and drabs, but it's a partnership.
[00:18:43] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Right. If we can't build it so that you can sell it, then none of us are succeeding.
So we're all interdependent in that way.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: Well, and you can see it. That's what. And I guess that's just what I'm trying to say. You can definitely see that.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, and to have the executive presence here. Matt Brock, Mike, everybody.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: We were chatting with Matt earlier about football. Super down to earth Matt and football. What you wouldn't think, Right?
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Nice. Any parting thoughts?
[00:19:08] Speaker D: I think we kind of nailed it. So funny because whenever we do some of these big shows and a lot of times, you know, I wear Milgard shirt so people automatically like, you're Milgard. And well, I work for open and close. But this is one of the manufacturers that we represent and the customers see you as they're dealing with you. So you are essentially Milgard.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:30] Speaker D: You know, and 1,000%.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that's such a good point.
[00:19:34] Speaker D: And for them to bring us in and keep us in the loop, educated so we can deliver to the customer really means a lot. And I feel really confident. You know, there's manufacturers, there's one we're partnering with right now that's a natural manufacturer. Just from the customer service, the after action and some of these things, the quality has changed so much that we're parting ways with them. I've never had that issue with Milgard where I've had to worry about our company reputation on the line.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: It's.
[00:20:04] Speaker D: And I love that they have brought us in like that. It feels like a family from day one. And that hasn't changed. Even with all the transition they've had from Milgard and MI merging, becoming Mitre and acquiring PGT and all of this, I felt like they've really been very transparent, you know, and they've let us in. Not that they had to, but they did. And that's really helped with us just growing with them.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah, well, as an employee from the PGT side, I mean, it's been amazing for us.
[00:20:36] Speaker D: You leveled up.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, we did. And you know, every company gets to decide what their focus is. Right. And the previous focus was get bigger. You know, get bigger, get bigger, be profitable. We were publicly held, so there's a certain obligation there, right. To your shareholders. You know, there was still good DNA, was still good culture, it was still very much community minded and a lot of philanthropy involved in that. And team members were valued, but it was just a different focus in the business. And I love the approach that this leadership offers to us where they're grabbing the best of everybody. Right. So Milgard was strong in this area, MI was strong in that area. PGT had different strengths and we're all just kind of culminating the best of the best of the best, and that's good for all of us.
[00:21:21] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:23] Speaker C: We're in the same boat. We're all in the same direction.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Exactly. Awesome. Well, gentlemen, thank you so much.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: This is a great conversation.
[00:21:28] Speaker D: Thank you for having us.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Thanks for coming out and being a part of it, and we'll let you get back to it.
[00:21:32] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Thanks, guys.
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