Summer minisode series: Ensuring sustainability with Weyerhaeuser

Zach Wojtowicz (00:05):

What’s up everybody? Zach Wojtowiczhere on “The Building Code,” our minisode episode series, where we’re talking about some of our partnerships and the things that are going on in the construction industry. Today, we have Weyerhaeuser, Bill and Pete, here to talk a little bit about their company, their product, all the things going on in construction. How are we doing today, fellas?

Bill Rieger (00:22):

Doing great.

Pete Hess (00:23):

Doing great.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:23):

Good to see you both. Before we kind of get into it, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about your roles in Weyerhaeuser.

Bill Rieger (00:29):

All right. So, I’ll start. My name’s Bill Rieger. I’m the sales director for Engineered Wood Products Division for Eastern U.S.

Pete Hess (00:38):

And I’m the same, but in the west.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:39):

Nice. We’re full coast-to-coast right now.

Pete Hess (00:42):

We are.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:42):

Fantastic. Well, thanks for coming in and talking a little bit about your company and you guys, one of you is local.

Pete Hess (00:50):

I am. Yeah

Zach Wojtowicz (00:50):

You’ve been to Omaha College World Series. You’re very familiar.

Pete Hess (00:52):

I am.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:52):

Yeah. You’re going to get your first experience, first time in Omaha?

Bill Rieger (00:56):

Yeah, first time here. I’m excited about it.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:58):

Yeah.

Bill Rieger (00:59):

Looking forward to the game tonight.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:00):

Yeah, I’m excited for you guys to experience that and spend some time with our other partners. We just kind of bringing everybody in talking about their company. It’s going to be fantastic. For our listeners out there, can you just talk a little bit about Weyerhaeuser’s relationship with CBUSA?

Bill Rieger (01:15):

Yes. So, Weyerhaeuser, as a company, of course, we manage timberlands, but as far as where Pete and I come from, it’s the Wood Products Division, where we take that natural resource and create wood products that are used in the building industry. Specific to the relationship with Weyerhaeuser and CBUSA is our engineered wood products, which is the Trus Joist brand. It’s products like TJI Joist, Microllam, Parallam, and TimberStrand beams, and it’s those products that we market through CBUSA to their builder members.

Pete Hess (01:53):

And so, we have 55 reps in the marketplace. And so, CBUSA actually gives us the ability to drive down into a more diverse, smaller, custom builder set of customers for us.

Zach Wojtowicz (02:07):

Yeah, absolutely.

Pete Hess (02:08):

So, it’s been a great partnership. We’ve been together with them, I think seven or eight years.

Zach Wojtowicz (02:11):

Oh, wow. Okay. So, I was just talking to Anderson, and they’re closer like two years, so we kind of get a range of people that have been in that group purchasing organization, CBUSA. Can you talk to us a little bit about why someone would choose Weyerhaeuser for those engineered wood products? What kind of separates you from maybe some of the other options out there in the market? I think, for our listeners out there, they probably have products that they’re buying right now. And so, I want to always give you an opportunity to talk about why your products over others.

Bill Rieger (02:41):

Yeah. You just mentioned Anderson being a partner. The Trus Joist brand is similar to that, where it represents quality and not just the quality of the products, but if you think about the companies that are manufacturing those products, they have a reputation in the industry of producing a good product, but also standing behind those products and going beyond just selling a product, but actually being a partner in helping a builder build a better house and that’s what our goal is through the CBUSA organization, is to reach out to builders and help them build a better house for people.

Pete Hess (03:16):

Yeah. I would just add, so Weyerhaeuser’s vertically integrated, so we own the timber, we own the wood products, we actually also have a distribution network, as well. So, it’s breadth of products. So, if you lumber, OSB, plywood, and then, of course, engineered wood products, and even within that space in the engineered wood products, we have the largest breadth of products there with our beams and our joists.

Zach Wojtowicz (03:39):

So, you got the whole end-to-end experience when it comes to the structure of the home. I think that’s really important to call out. It’s like, you know that the supply chain is all part of the same experience and that you’re going to be able to get whatever you need for all your housing needs, right?

Pete Hess (03:56):

Right.

Zach Wojtowicz (03:57):

What about in terms of the customer experience side of things and the relationship that you have with your builders? Like boots on the ground, the CBUSA chapters, what’s like if someone wanted to have that support, what does that look like for you guys when you’re working with buyers and builders?

Bill Rieger (04:12):

Yeah, Pete mentioned it a little earlier about our boots on the street or our territory managers. We pride ourselves on having … We’re not selling from afar. We have people in market in the communities, where the builders are building and they’re there to again, be a resource, be a consultant for the builder to help him either design and then eventually build floor systems and the structural system of the house.

Pete Hess (04:36):

Yeah. So, we have over a hundred people in our Engineered Wood Division, if you will, from a sales, engineers, designers. So, it’s the full gamut from a start to finish from a support standpoint.

Zach Wojtowicz (04:49):

Yeah. I think that’s huge. With construction, obviously, things, they go wrong, you need someone to be able to discuss with. Having that partner, it’s something that’s come up everybody that we’ve had on the minisode series has brought that up. And I think in working with my own customers, that’s something that even builder trend has learned, right? We got to be there when they need us. What about some of the other product innovations or things that you’re excited about? What are maybe things that are maybe not to market or at market that you’re hearing a lot of great feedback from customers or anything that you feel like? If you had your elevator pitch, you’d be like, “You got to be on this engineered wood product.” What is it?

Bill Rieger (05:27):

As far as new products coming out …

Zach Wojtowicz (05:28):

Yeah. Just things that you’re excited about.

Bill Rieger (05:30):

So, we have a lot of excitement about the future and some ideas and some work that’s being done. We’re not going to get into any details.

Zach Wojtowicz (05:40):

Sure. It’s all … You want to dangle it. We tell, we’re like, “Oh, there’s things coming,” and then we hit them with, “Where to find it?” Later, right?

Bill Rieger (05:46):

But what we can say is we’ve re-energized our culture of innovation. And one of the ways that we feel like we connect with the building industry is that, again, we have people in market that are working with builders. Not only are we hoping to provide solutions with what we already offer, but we’re listening what challenges are the builders seeing. And we’re bringing that back internally and work on ideas, take them. And a lot of them don’t pan out, but a lot of them get through that system. And again, I’m excited about some of the things that are potentially coming out here in the future.

Pete Hess (06:25):

Yeah, I would just add, so the company has just rededicated itself to innovation, Trus Joist brand was innovation, was the first engineered wood products brand, and the company itself has rededicated to that. So, it’s become a very visible platform within the organization on lots of levels, not just the product level, but from our organization, you have 50+ mill organizations that are operations that are innovating every day or coming up with some new way to do something or looking at something from a new lens. And it’s been very successful from us, and we do have some other products and stuff on the horizon that we’re excited about and stay tuned.

Zach Wojtowicz (07:08):

Yeah. I’m like, Ah, I got to follow up. We got to do a second episode, make sure we get this information. You mentioned though, those are inspired by some of the problems that builders are facing. Can you talk to what are you hearing from your customers when it comes to the problems they’re facing or the challenges? Maybe you don’t have to tell me what the solution is, but what are the things that builders are saying in this space? And I think the reason I ask is a lot of people probably will hear this and be like, “Maybe I need to take a second look.” I need to understand what maybe other builders are experiencing that I’m just maybe not keen to or aware of that you guys are taking and kind of bringing to market that overall, the goal is to get the construction industry to all have better products, better structures, all those things.

Bill Rieger (07:53):

You want to start, or you want me to?

Pete Hess (07:55):

So, I would say one of the things we’ve been talking about with a couple of the CBUSA folks here is just making sure because the product we have is structural frame, so it’s not as sexy as new processes …

Zach Wojtowicz (07:56):

But important.

Pete Hess (08:08):

But clearly important.

Zach Wojtowicz (08:09):

Yeah.

Pete Hess (08:09):

And so, the opportunity to educate the builder community on what sort of floor they want. If you’re building a home at the price point, you want the floor performance to match the price point that you’re selling at. And we’ve found that oftentimes, that may be an area that they’re not investing the time and resource and doing the research to match the floor performance with the type of house that they’re building. So, we were talking about, we have a proprietary pro-rating system, which is something we’re going to educate, we’re going to take into the CBUSA field to make sure that they understand and get the performance that they want for their flooring.

Zach Wojtowicz (08:51):

What about things that feed into sustainability? This is a theme that’s come up quite a bit just from being prepared for lumber shortages. And as resources become more finite, how are you guys addressing that sustainability challenge for the construction industry?

Bill Rieger (09:09):

Well, we’ve always been focused on sustainability. We’re over a hundred-year-old company.

Zach Wojtowicz (09:14):

In timber.

Bill Rieger (09:14):

In timber.

Zach Wojtowicz (09:15):

So, I’m sure you’ve been aware for a while.

Bill Rieger (09:17):

Yeah, and we manage a significant portion of the timber resource that’s in North America.

Zach Wojtowicz (09:25):

Really?

Bill Rieger (09:26):

Just shy of 12 million acres in the U.S., and we manage timberlands that are on government land in Canada. And so, our focus is to make sure that that resource is available for generations to come and if you think about people, Pete and I aren’t on that side of the industry, but I get to spend a little bit of time out in the woods doing wood stores, and I’m amazed at the people that work out there because they’re doing work that they won’t even get to see the results of. They’re planting seedlings, they’re managing this forest, and most likely, they’ll be retired when the benefit of their work is realized, and that takes a special group of people. But yeah, it’s core to our business.

Pete Hess (10:11):

Yeah, we talk about this from time to time, but we harvest annually 2% of the forests that we have. So, there’s a perpetual growing factor, obviously. So, that’s a very small number, and then we optimize 95% of the log that we harvest.

Zach Wojtowicz (10:28):

Wow, that’s amazing. Where are the timber farms located? Where are they? I’m just curious now, genuine, like that’s really interesting.

Bill Rieger (10:36):

In a real general sense, Northwest, Southeast.

Zach Wojtowicz (10:38):

Yeah, makes sense. Not Nebraska and a lot of trees in these parts of the world or of the United States. Really amazing stuff, love to hear these different things that are happening in the construction industry. For our listeners out there, where could they get more information about Weyerhaeuser and the things going on and to get updates on of these amazing products are hitting the market?

Bill Rieger (10:59):

So, I can give you the standard answer at our website, obviously. So, instead of trying to spell out Weyerhaeuser, you can also use wy.com …

Zach Wojtowicz (11:06):

Wy.com.

Bill Rieger (11:07):

Or Weyerhaeuser.com

Zach Wojtowicz (11:08):

Love it. What a get on the domain.

Bill Rieger (11:11):

Yeah. But also, of course, social media. But what we prefer people to do is to reach out to our local reps. They’re there in the market. They’re a drive away from you. They can come out and talk to you and work with any builder that’s listening. They can reach them through CBUSA, as well.

Zach Wojtowicz (11:30):

Love it. Well, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in for our minisode. We talked about Weyerhaeuser all things and the engineered finished product world, and that’s really important obviously for your structures. Bill, Pete, thank you so much for coming on. It was great to have you on.

Pete Hess (11:31):

Thank you.

Bill Rieger (11:43):

Thank you.

Zach Wojtowicz (11:44):

Enjoy the baseball game today.

Bill Rieger (11:44):

We will.

Pete Hess (11:46):

Yep, we will.

Zach Wojtowicz (11:47):

For everyone out there, we’ll catch you next time.