Speaker 1:
From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism, here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world.
Now let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.
Lance Glinn:
Founded in 1956 by Barclay Simpson in Oakland, California, Simpson Manufacturing has grown from a small family business into a global leader in the building solutions and manufacturing industries. The company's origins trace back to Simpson's vision of creating high-quality, durable connectors for wood framing, an essential component in building strong and safe structures.
Over the next few decades, Simpson Manufacturing continued to innovate and expand its offerings, responding to the ever-evolving needs of the industries it serves. In 1994, Simpson Manufacturing on public and in 1997 joined the NYSE community of listed companies under the ticker symbol SSD.
Simpson's impact extends beyond its product innovations as it plays a crucial role in shaping industry standards and promoting safer building practices. Actively ensuring that products not only meet but exceed necessary requirements, Simpson's dedication to safety and quality has earned it a reputation as a trusted partner among builders, engineers, architects, and the everyday customers using its products.
Leading the charge in Simpson's growth, innovation, and dedication to building safer, stronger structures is today's guest President and CEO Mike Olosky. Since taking on the role in January 2023, Mike has been focused on shaping Simpson's future to not only sustain its current leadership, but to expand its impact and presence within the industry.
Mike joins us Inside the ICE House to reflect on Simpson's past as the company reaches a milestone 30 years since its IPO, while also detailing plans for the future and the impact emerging technologies are having. We will also discuss Mike's Michigan roots, his global experiences, and how the career stops along his journey have influenced his leadership style. Our conversation with Mike Olosky, President and CEO of Simpson Manufacturing is, coming up right after this.
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Lance Glinn:
Welcome back. Remember to subscribe wherever you listen and rate and review us on Apple Podcast so that others know where to find us.
Our guest today, Mike Olosky, is the President and CEO of Simpson Manufacturing, that's NYC ticker symbol SSD, and has led the company since January 2023. Prior to joining Simpson, Mike spent more than two decades in numerous leadership positions at Henkel. He graduated from Michigan Tech with a degree in mechanical engineering, earned his MBA from Michigan State, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Oakland University.
Mike, thanks so much for joining us Inside the ICE House. Welcome to the New York Stock Exchange.
Michael Olosky:
Lance, thank you very much for having us here. I appreciate it.
Lance Glinn:
So, Simpson here to ring the closing bell this week, marking 30 years as a publicly traded company, a significant milestone in its nearly 70-year company history. What does it mean to you to personally lead Simpson at this time, this momentous time, and how do you reflect on the company's journey over the last three decades since IPO?
Michael Olosky:
Yeah. We started almost seven years ago with our founder Barc Simpson. He developed the connector when a neighbor came over and asked him to help him with connection from a wood-wood perspective. And since then, there's been very strong leadership teams in place, and Lance, to be quite honest, it's total team sport. So as much as I'm very honored and happy to be CEO, we've got a lot of people that are doing a lot of good things to drive the business forward and take great care of our customers. And to be recognized here on the NYSE and be able to ring the bell tomorrow afternoon is going to be really cool for the whole team.
Lance Glinn:
I mentioned the 30 years is just under half of the almost 70 years that the company has been around since 1956. The company, a rich history, a legacy obviously to uphold, as you approach this milestone 70 years and the next year and a half, two years, how are you and your team honoring the company's past, while also obviously working to build its future and innovate its future?
Michael Olosky:
Yeah, good question. One of the things that we've talked about as we look forward, is what got us here will get us there, which is usually the opposite of what a lot of people said. The culture that's helped us build this great company, the business model that we've continued to develop over decades of operation, this strong customer focus, this people-first mentality where everybody matters, which is one of our core values, all that stuff we want to continue on, we want to build on, and we want to make that culture even stronger as we move forward.
Lance Glinn:
So, in your view, from a 35,000-foot view, what sets Simpson apart from competitors in the building solutions and manufacturing industry? What key advantages give you a competitive edge?
Michael Olosky:
I really think Lance, it's our business model. And let me take two minutes to just go through the business model.
We've got a very talented group of people. We've been working with building code officials and building code agencies for decades. We know them very well. We are helping them design and build safer, stronger structures. We're also working with engineers and architects, training them again on how to use our solutions to help them design and build safer, stronger structures. And then we work with the builders. We're working with the builders to help them do the same thing. We're also working with the builders to help them build the most efficient houses. We've got people that are calling in all the national builders as well as all the local builders. And then we do a very good job of covering all of the lumberyards, pro-dealers, contractor distributors in between, and we make sure that we're providing great service to them. One of the things that we try to do is, if they place an order today, we ship it out that afternoon. They get it the next day.
So, we are touching all aspects of the building and construction space. We're bringing in what we think is a super innovative product line. It's the broadest and deepest product line in the building construction industry. That makes us a one-stop shop for structural solutions, and it makes us the partner of choice.
Lance Glinn:
So, Mike, growing up in Michigan, and we just talked about your childhood before recording, you grew up with parents, and correct me if I'm wrong, that were teachers, you had grandparents worked on assembly lines, you sort of understand the challenges and aspirations of working-class families. How have the experiences of your youth and the lessons from your upbringing shaped your leadership style and how you work at Simpson?
Michael Olosky:
Yeah, I think it very much links to the everybody matters part of our values. Growing up with mom and dad, who were teachers, that were also union members, my grandparents were also union members, growing up in a blue-collar town just outside of Flint, Michigan, just had that approach of everybody can contribute, and we've taken that over at Simpson. So, from the person that picks the product that ends up going to our customer, the fact that they need to pick the right product, we need to do it efficiently. The person that makes our engineered stamp steel solutions, that the quality of those has got to be perfect, to the salesperson that's out there helping train our customers, everybody really makes a difference. And that's what I picked up when I was growing up in very much a blue-collar town.
Lance Glinn:
And you spent over a decade then living and working abroad in places like Germany, Shanghai, Singapore, collaborating obviously with people then from a diverse background. What were some of the key challenges that you faced working in these different and unique environments, and how did these experiences overcoming these challenges shape your next ventures in your career ultimately up to now at Simpson?
Michael Olosky:
So, when you live in Germany, Shanghai, and Singapore, you spend almost 14 years overseas, you learn to adapt to different cultures. You learn that everybody has different ways of doing things, and you also learn that there are a lot of ways to get things done. And so, I think part of it is just making sure that when you're working with the teams, you've got clear targets, you got a clear idea on how you're going to get there, you got a good way to run the business, you make sure you get the right people in the right seat of the business. You do all that, you adapt to the cultures, and you flex with it and good things will happen.
Lance Glinn:
Was there a big language barrier in Germany, Shanghai, Singapore, et cetera?
Michael Olosky:
Everywhere. Quite often when I would travel out with our salespeople and to visit customers, they didn't speak English. So, then I got to watch body language. And I still carry that over today. So, one of the things I watch is when our team meets one of our customers, how do they acknowledge them? Do they embrace them? Do they smile? Do they ask about their family? You see that body language, and you can see it in the language from the customers. Do they really like, and they engage with our sales teams, or maybe it's a little bit standoffish?
That experience I really picked up predominantly in China. When I'd go to visit customers in China, I really didn't have any idea what they were saying, but you could very much tell the body language between places, where we had good relationships and the places where we had difficult relationships.
Lance Glinn:
You mentioned founder Barc Simpson, and I want to read a quote of his. He said, "Good business leaders focus on the long-term outcome, not short-term gains. You should think of your role as being a long-term investor, not a day trader." Is that how you view your role, leading Simpson?
Michael Olosky:
100% agree. Just a really good example of that. If you look at our P&L over the last couple of years, we've invested significantly into our people, into our manufacturing setup, into our warehouses, into our engineering capabilities, our digital solutions capabilities, with the belief that the housing market is going to pick up, and when it picks up we need to be ready to support our customers to enable them to accelerate growth. And we've been doing all that with an eye in the short term, but very much a long-range view on how this is going to help us best help our customers going forward.
Lance Glinn:
So, I want to start by talking about the trades' industry. In January, the US Chamber of Commerce reported a labor shortage of over 600,000 jobs in manufacturing with trades facing growing shortages for over the last really decade. Before we discuss how Simpson's working to uplift the trades industry and open it to more individuals that may not be so familiar with it, why do you think that this gap exists and that interest in the trades seem to be declining or diminishing over the last few years?
Michael Olosky:
Good question, and let me give you an example. When I was in Germany, there was a big emphasis on making sure that we identify people to go into trades early on. I think now when you look at most students, middle school, high school, there's a big emphasis on going to college with maybe not a clear path on what do you do after that. So, the fact that the German culture and the German education system really is geared towards sending people into trade schools early, and also identifying kids that want to go to college, they got a good balance there, and I think we could be better balanced on that.
If you're working for Simpson, and you're doing tool and die work, or you're helping us in the factory, you could have a fantastic career. We've got people at Simpson that have started our manufacturing facility that are now general managers running a 300, $350 million business.
Lance Glinn:
So, when it comes to then uplifting the trades' industry, Simpson is supporting it through the Building Talent Foundation, a non-profit focused on connecting young and underserved individuals through trade skills and career opportunities. So given these labor shortages and what we see as this declining interest in the trades, how do Simpson and the foundation work together to appeal to the younger generations, appeal to these middle schoolers, high schoolers, those who college may not be for them, and showcase the long fulfilling careers that could come with working in the trades and that path to the middle class that obviously a lot of people are searching for.
Michael Olosky:
Give back is one of our nine values, and Barc started that, and I believe the whole company's living that every day. We're talking a lot about how can we continue to give back in a more meaningful and impactful way, and one of the ways we think we can do that is by addressing the trade shortage in the building and construction industry.
There's all kinds of estimates on the number of the labor shortage in the building and construction industry, but we think it's right around 400,000 people. So, we think a nice way for us to give back to help our customers by reducing that building trade shortage, and by also helping people enter the trade to make a good career. To help them grow personally and professionally, is to take everything we know about the building and construction industry and take it to these people. So that means going to trade schools, that means conducting fairs, that means us taking all of the training programs we use with our customers to help them build safer, stronger structures and taking that to people to teach them to frame better, to be able to make wood to wood connections better. And we think that's an opportunity for them to grow and help the industry at the same time.
The team at Simpson, we're super excited about the building and construction area, and it's just one more way that we can give back that gets everybody really engaged.
Lance Glinn:
So just as Simpson is working to uplift the trades and introduce the trades to more at a younger age, Simpson also plays a critical role in supporting communities affected by natural disasters.
In 2012, as a junior in high school in New Jersey, I remember pretty well Hurricane Sandy and the devastation that occurred within the state. I was lucky my family sustained a few lost shingles here and there, a downed tree, not much damage, but obviously as you go closer towards the shore and southern New Jersey, the damage was significant.
So when you have intense weather events like Sandy in 2012, like a Hurricane Beryl in Texas earlier this year, how does Simpson contribute to rebuilding efforts, then help these communities that were devastated rebuild and once again thrive?
Michael Olosky:
When those events happen, and those are super important and, of course, our thoughts are with the people that are involved in that, we send people out to work with building code officials to walk those sites. We'll typically walk the sites. We'll be checking out the buildings. We'll be pointing out where maybe there could have been design changes, or maybe they could have used some of our structural solutions to maybe make sure that that house withstood that particular incident. We also donate products all the time. We donate our time and efforts to make sure we're going out there and training people and helping them build back the community. We're providing support to all the local builders and the building agencies and building code officials to help them get things back up as fast as they can.
Lance Glinn:
So when you think of the term titanium economy, it really refers to companies produce these specialized durable products, essentials, obviously various industries. How does Simpson contribute to the growth of the titanium economy in the US while prioritizing American workers, prioritizing manufacturing in the US, and making sure that you build at home, you manufacture at home, and the workers, obviously, are employed at home?
Michael Olosky:
Our founder started the connector marketing. It's stamped steel components that connect wood. They're very engineered. We thoroughly test them in various applications. We test them in big systems. We do put a lot of time and effort into making sure these stamped steel products are heavily engineered and perfect for the application to meet all of the load requirements identified by the building codes. And when we do that, we are doing that with locally sourced steel. So, we buy all of our steel in the US. We stamp all of the steel in our four manufacturing plants in the US, and we are distributing that through our US sales team.
So, it's a perfect example of a high value product that is creating a lot of value and adding a lot of value to our customers, but it's all designed, manufactured, engineered in the US.
Lance Glinn:
So, Simpson leads the world in structural solutions, designing, building safer, stronger homes and communities, as we've obviously discussed. As industries evolved, so has obviously the buildings solutions sector. Since taking the helm at Simpson and really over the last decade, how have you seen this industry progress with obviously advancements in technology, leading to greater efficiency, and obviously much needed innovation?
Michael Olosky:
I think the digital solutions have evolved over the last couple of years, and I think we're really early in that ballgame. At Simpson, we have got 18,000 SKUs, broadest and deepest product line to be a one-stop shop for structural solutions. So, we have all these digital tools that help our customers figure out which is the right product for the application. We have tools that help them engineer our product in the CAD systems. We have tools that help them visualize our products. And we've got tools that help our customers, for example, manage options and houses. We've got tools that help our lumberyard customers do takeoffs, which means create an active bill of materials. And these are all digital solutions that we're offering.
We have over 50 web apps that help our customers really run and do their business more efficiently. And we think we're in the early part of that ballgame, and that is only going to expand for us and for our customers over the next several years.
Lance Glinn:
So you're in the early part of the ballgame. Are you projecting, or are you trying to forecast what the middle innings look like, what the seventh, eighth, ninth look like, whether that be five years from now or 10 or 15 years from now?
Michael Olosky:
We've got some pretty cool ideas. One of them, of course, AI is a common topic. The ability to use AI to look at a blueprint. And then from that blueprint identify what the right bill of materials are, what are the right components, and try to do that as efficiently as possible, both to make sure you minimize the cost for the house, but also you get an accurate representation of material, so you don't have a lot of waste. We think there's a lot of opportunities for us to leverage AI tools in that area.
Lance Glinn:
And is AI currently being implemented or integrated... you're seeing with businesses all over, whether it's in their products and services or whether it's just in what they do on a daily basis working to have their employees be more efficient to do things that used to be done by hand now could be done by computers. Does AI have a role right now with Simpson?
Michael Olosky:
It's a small role at this point. We're using it with some of our demand planning and supply planning tools. We're using it to help us write various types of documents and run various engineering-type reports where we can use AI to speed up some efforts. We're trying to make sure that we're setting up our data and our documentation in the right way to be able to leverage AI in the future.
We're early in the ballgame on this one, and we've got some ideas that we think could be interesting, and we're pretty excited about how it's going to play out.
Lance Glinn:
Simpson offers a comprehensive library of CADs and software resources to complement your products. What goes into delivering these capabilities, and how do they then benefit customers? How do these tools enhance the experience for clients obviously looking to make a purchase?
Michael Olosky:
Yeah, an example would be if you're going to try to figure out which of the couple of thousand connectors is the right applications, you've got selector guides where you can put in your requirements, and it'll identify the right product. We think that going forward, there will be AI tools that'll make that process even faster and even more accurate.
And then we've got tools where, for example, we plug in specific capabilities into CAD/CAM systems, and those CAD/CAM systems can then manage how builders manage options with their particular houses. And then we've got tools that can take those house designs and then run them through a process where it creates that bill of materials that I talked about earlier.
There's a lot of technology involved in it. And just a good example, we've got probably 600 pages of catalogs that have all kinds of technical data. We want to make all that technical data in those catalogs readily available and easier to use via digital apps and digital solutions.
Lance Glinn:
So consistent innovation really is I think the key to growth, right? Always thinking about how can things be improved, right? You see a problem; how could we devise a solution to, obviously, fix that problem?
When it comes to Simpson's products, services, technologies, what is your process for identifying these issues and then going about developing these solutions? How do you collaborate with customers to understand what needs to change and then go about addressing those needs?
Michael Olosky:
We're trying to drive innovation across really everything we do, from how we run HR, to how we run our back offices, to how we run the supply chain, and we're working hard to drive innovation across all aspects. But let me talk about the traditional version of innovation that's around products.
We're looking at our new product development process really around two buckets. How do we drive incremental innovation, and then how are we swinging for the fence on a couple of big-ticket opportunities?
For the incremental innovation, our product management team takes the lead. They've identified through the sales team, through engineers, through input with customers, a lot of different product ideas that we collect, and then we basically put into a product pitch. It's a couple minute video that we do with a little bit of detail and a little bit of documentation. We put that out there. And then we encourage a lot of Simpson team members to come in, take a look at it and vote and give their inputs. We've got a lot of different ideas coming in, and we've got a lot of people giving ideas on those products with the hope that we get to a target number of products that have got a good value prop, that we've got a good idea in how we can develop them. That's how we drive the incremental innovation.
And then on the bigger ticket innovation, we've got a process where we bring people in, we give them a couple of big picture topics on areas we think we could drive major innovation programs in, and we let them loose. We give them some free space. They are working through the design ideas. They're doing the business case behind it. They're doing a little bit of homework. They're going to visit job sites. They're going to visit lumberyards. And then they're coming in saying, "Okay, we've got some initial ideas." And then the team works through to help them prioritize what's good, what maybe can be put on the parking lot. And then they further develop it with the idea of getting to a very targeted list of things that can have a big impact from a bigger innovation perspective.
Lance Glinn:
A lot of failure?
Michael Olosky:
Always. Always. But I think the trick here is fail fast. Be super focused on the things that can make a move, but if they're not eventually getting there, you got to cut it right away, and then you got to refocus the efforts on the things that you think are going to make the big impact.
Lance Glinn:
So, I ask about how you find these issues and take feedback from customers. You can really then flip it to how do you find issues and take feedback from employees to, obviously, make sure that Simpson is a place that people love to go to work to every day. How do you solicit that feedback from your employees, and then not only get that feedback and hear what they have to say, but then act on it and essentially not just talk the talk but walk the walk?
Michael Olosky:
We partner with Gallup. Gallup does an engagement survey that helps us get a handle on how we're doing from a culture perspective and how we're doing from an employee engagement perspective. We've had, I think, 70, 80% of our team respond to that, both blue collar and white collar, and we got all kinds of feedback on opportunities for improvement. And we are also able to take that feedback and give that to our frontline supervisors and managers, so then they can see how are they doing with our teams, where are the opportunities for improvement and a little bit of benchmarking, how are they doing versus their other Simpson supervisors and colleagues, and how are they doing versus external firms?
I think that gives us a nice little baseline to help us be better supervisors and better managers going forward. And really the key to that is driving that culture and making sure that we're driving that culture and creating good engagement with our teammates.
Lance Glinn:
So, innovation isn't just limited to customer facing products. As you mentioned before, there's a lot of areas for innovation. It's not just the services that you send out to your customers. It also plays a role in building more sustainable environments and safer communities. According to the 2022 global status report for buildings and construction, the sector accounted for over 34% of energy demand and nearly 47% of energy and process related CO2 emissions. This is back in 2021.
How is Simpson working and innovating to reduce its own carbon footprint as well as obviously that then of the broader industry?
Michael Olosky:
We are certainly driving water, energy and waste reduction across all of our facilities on a per unit basis, and we've got plans in place to try to do that, and we've got people that are leading those teams to do it. That's internally. From an external perspective, we are working with our customers on this pipeline tool that I mentioned. A pipeline tool helps them create an accurate bill of materials, so they don't buy extra waste. And if you've ever been to a job site, you see a lot of construction waste. So, we believe that can reduce waste with our customers.
We acquired a company called Etanco in Europe, and one of the things that they do are facade systems. A facade system is basically a new skin on the outside of the building. Our structural solutions attach that skin to the wall, and then the customers could put insulation in between, and that increases the thermal efficiency of those buildings by up to 50%.
That facade business is growing very strongly in Europe. We think there's opportunities to roll that out here in the US. And that is a significant driver of reducing thermal energy using both residential and commercial buildings.
Lance Glinn:
I want to touch on M&A. Earlier this summer Simpson announced the acquisition of Calculated Structured Designs, a Canada-based software development company.
What was the strategic rationale behind this acquisition, and how does it align with Simpson's long-term goals?
Michael Olosky:
Digital solutions are a key part of our business model, as we talked earlier. One of the things that we need to be able to do is provide design capabilities for trusses, wall panels and floor panels, and CSD was a company that we were licensing the floor panel software from. They decided to move on, and they wanted to move into retirement, so we had the opportunity to acquire them. Now we can fully integrate that floor panel solution into our truss offering, where we'll have a fully integrated truss, wall, and floor panel system.
Lance Glinn:
When it comes to just M&A as a whole, obviously I'm sure there are prospects that you look at, obviously can't buy them all, obviously can't acquire them all, you had to be selective. So how do you determine really the who, what, when, where, and why of M&A? How do you determine this company is going to be the right fit, and now is the right time to bring them in?
Michael Olosky:
We have very specific product playbooks for each of our main product lines. We have very specific market playbooks for each of our market segments. And in both the market and the product playbooks, we've identified opportunities for us to expand our product line or expand our reach within a particular market segment. When we do that, we identify all types of candidates. And then we bring that internally on a corporate level, and we run that through basically an ability to win market attractiveness and a parenting type advantage to try to figure out which of these targets would be good or are not a good fit for us.
At the end of the day, our red thread here is we want to be a structural solution provider. So, we want things that are engineered. We want things that are specified. We want solutions that are specific to the market segments that we're in. But the reality is we are in a very, very specialized business, very specialized business, so there just simply aren't a lot of large targets out there. There are a lot of smaller targets, that we call tuck-ins, where it's in addition to a product line or another offering, we can give to a particular market segment.
Lance Glinn:
I want to quickly turn our attention now to the housing market. Look, it's clear now is not the easiest time to buy a house. I know that firsthand. My wife and I, it seems like for the last year, year and a half, we have been looking for that first home for us. We're in an apartment. But it's tough, right? It's no secret that it's tough to buy a house right now.
How does your team sort of forecast just the long-term prospects of the US housing market, and how do these projections and these forecasts influence Simpson's long-term strategic planning and investment decisions in that sector?
Michael Olosky:
We believe in the housing market mid to long-term.
Lance Glinn:
Your lips to God's ears, Mike.
Michael Olosky:
We do. We believe in the housing market mid to long term, okay.
Short-term is a bit of a challenge. We are on track to have probably the third declining year in housing starts. We use all kinds of market indicators. We're talking with our customers, the builders. We're talking with our lumberyards and pro-dealers. We've got feet on the street everywhere. We're getting a lot of different input, and there are mixed opinions all over the place in the housing market, as you know.
But just to put this a little bit in perspective, from a Simpson view. Let's assume that the forecasts are right. We're going to be around 1.4 million housing starts. That'd be down three years in a row. Last time that happened was 2007, '08 and '09. If you look at the last time we had 1.4 million housing starts, it would've been 2020. So to compare the Simpson business in 2020, we had had a nice little COVID bump. We hit $1.25 billion. We had a nice little operating income bump. We were 20% operating income. Three out of four years later, we've got a declining housing market. We finish at 1.4 million units again. Now Simpson's going to add roughly a billion dollars on the top line and roughly $200 million on the bottom line.
So we've significantly increased the size of the business, and we've significantly increased the profit in the business. And we've done that by a couple of different ways. One, we've gained share across all segments of the business. We've added 450 million net in terms of pricing to our top line, and then we've also added $300 million in acquisition. So, 750 acquisition and net pricing, 250 million in share gains.
Lance Glinn:
Last October, Simpson announced plans for a $105 million plant expansion in Columbus, Ohio, as well as plans to build a new fastener facility in Tennessee.
How will the expansion and obviously this new facility enable Simpson to innovate more effectively, meet growing demand for product, and just increase overall the company's market presence?
Michael Olosky:
This goes back to the titanium economy. We want to make our products locally. We want to use locally sourced product. We want to do the engineering locally. We want to sell it locally. And to be able to support the building and construction industry, which is also very local, we need to make sure that we've got the facilities and capabilities in place.
So take the Gallatin example. That is a place where we produce fasteners and anchors. We've got a facility that's in Gallatin now. We've started a Greenfield site. We're building a completely new factory, which will basically double our production capabilities of fasteners and start to increase our production of US anchors as soon as that facility opens.
From innovation, how does that support our customers? One of the areas that we're trying to accelerate growth is in the mass timber industry. So, think big wood cassettes, cross-laminated timber, you crane them into place, and you can quickly build a new facility. It's all wood, so it's more sustainable, and they're beautiful-looking buildings. We provide the connections for those buildings. And most of those connections are very high-end fasteners that need to be produced fairly quickly, and the best way to do that is locally, in the plant that we're building in Tennessee.
Lance Glinn:
So, Mike, as we begin to wrap up, I asked before about Simpson's development, you obviously talked about the focus on all things digital, but when you view the wider scope of the building solutions and manufacturing industry, what new trends or developments or even challenges are you watching that could ultimately impact the future?
Michael Olosky:
I still think it comes back to the digital process. I think the digital tech capabilities can help us accelerate things.
We talked about the tools that can help the builders. We talked about tools that can help the lumberyards. And let me give you another specific example. We acquired a small company called EasyFrame. They have a saw that can cut packages for our customers. They can cut the lumber to the specific needs for a particular wall panel, maybe that their building, and at the same time we can print instructions onto the wood that they are cutting. So put the fastener here, put the connector here. We believe that will speed up assembly of those wall panels as an example, and we believe that'll increase the quality of those wall panels. That's all driven by digital solutions.
Lance Glinn:
I mentioned back at the start that Simpson is here to ring the bell, celebrating 30 years since its POI, and that 30 years is about a little less than half of the almost 70 years that the company has been around.
As you near that seven-decade mark, how are you plotting Simpson's future so that the company continues to not only grow but really thrive over the next 70 years?
Michael Olosky:
Our executive management team is working with a broader Simpson team to update our strategy on a regular basis to confirm our external financial ambitions of above market growth with top quartile profitability. When we look at how we're doing that, we look at the five market segments we're in and the five main product lines that we're in and identifying nice large market opportunities where maybe we've got room to grow. And the more we look at our core markets and our core products, we still think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to drive above market growth.
If you look back at the last eight years for us, we've grown 250 basis points above market. The last two years we've grown 800 basis points above the market. I'm not saying we're going to grow 800 basis points above the market every year, but we do believe by looking at our core products and our core markets, there's plenty of opportunity to continue that 250 basis points improvement above US housing starts going forward.
Lance Glinn:
Plenty of opportunity to continue to grow for Simpson Manufacturing.
Mike, thanks so much for joining us Inside the ICE House.
Michael Olosky:
Lance, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen, and follow us on X, at ICE House Podcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House.
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.
