Paint supplier and distributor work together to bridge a gap when demand rises unexpectedly
Above: The CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select color palette from AkzoNobel is used by thousands of architects, coil coaters and metal building product manufacturers.
September, 2023: Paint supplier and distributor work together to bridge a gap when demand rises unexpectedly
When Metal Building Supply Inc. (MBS) needed to source a specific color of coil coating to meet a spike in demand over normal usage, AkzoNobel’s CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select standard color palette program meant the company was able to obtain the product required immediately. This enabled MBS to maintain the project schedule, manage costs and keep its customer happy.
Based in Gravette, Arkansas, MBS provides residential roofing, general purpose and pre-engineered metal buildings. These include mini storage buildings, modular offices, hay barns, steel beamsupported structures (called red iron in the trade), pole barns, riding arenas, churches, gymnasiums, agricultural buildings and more. Its products—including panels, trim, fasteners and other hardware — are available in a diverse range of coatings, including Galvalume, painted coatings, metallic and textured products.
MBS has its own rollforming and trim departments, the first of which produces thousands of squares of cut-to-length steel panels in three different profiles. By manufacturing its own panels and trim from steel coils, MBS is able to provide quality service at lower prices.
Because the metal building manufacturing process occurs in-house from coils, the color of its trim matches its panels perfectly, the company states. MBS fabricates steel beams using CNC plasma and sub-arc tables.
Services include engineering test reports, installation instructions, and structural design. The finished products come with a variety of long-term warranties.
HUNTER GREEN
For many years, MBS used AkzoNobel coil coatings due to their combination of robust performance, reduced complexity and ready availability. MBS experienced a spike in demand for the hunter green color. The surprise in demand came so quickly that there was no time to order through normal channels. Instead, MBS reached out to Flack Global Metals, which distributes the full range of AkzoNobel’s CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select series colors, to source the coating directly.
a house uses a CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select color for its metal roof
one of MBS’s red iron structures
Flack Global Metals is part of AkzoNobel’s CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select program. This guarantees immediate availability of this portfolio of coatings. Prior to the implementation of the Select program, having immediate access to the coatings was not an option for MBS.
MBS was able to order and collect the hunter green coating it required immediately, ensuring all of its current jobs and projects stayed on track and customer expectations were maintained.
RELIABILITY
“We supply residential roofing, general purpose and pre-engineered metal buildings to customers across five states,” says Jose Mendoza, MBS president and sales manager. “Quality, reliability and availability are crucial to our customers. Over the years, we’ve come to trust AkzoNobel’s CERAM-ASTAR 1050 Select coatings because the performance has never let us down.”
In addition, he says, “the improved color program means we can obtain any standard color immediately without having to wait for it to be ordered in. [That] empowers us to keep projects moving forward, minimize color complexity and decrease inventory levels while also improving our service to our customers. It is a win-win for MBS and our customers.”
Aaron Underwood, who is Flack Global Metals’ vice president of construction products, says the CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select program “has enabled us to streamline our product offering. This program has increased operational efficiency through a reduction of stocked colors, as well as lowering the risk associated with slow-moving items,” that is, the unwanted carrying cost.
Underwood says that Flack offers “enhanced color service tools (including AkzoNobel’s Canopy app) to support and guide customers to the standard color palette. Most importantly, the CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select program gives us added color efficiencies while exceeding customer expectations.”
MBS works with architects to design buildings virtually, in software, while also making decisions about the best materials and palette for each build.
FORMULATION
CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select coatings are formulated using AkzoNobel’s proprietary coil coating technology. With a targeted palette built of popular and in-demand colors, it is designed to optimize business efficiency and make color complexity a thing of the past by combining exceptional product performance with immediate availability of standard colors. This makes life easier for both coil coaters, and distributors and service centers.
“When we launched the CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select program in early 2021, it optimized and improved business practices for our customers,” says Manoel Rodriguez, regional commercial director Americas for AkzoNobel Metal Coatings. Since then, the product line and associated supply program “has gone on to be adopted by countless of our most valued coil coater, distributor and specifier customers.CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Select optimizes their businesses, saving inventory and complexity while improving customer satisfaction.”
AkzoNobel, 614/294-3361, http://coilcoatings.akzonobel.com/us
Flack Global Metals, 480/575-3221, http://flackglobalmetals.com/
Metal Building Products Inc., 800/467-0626, http://metalbuildingsupply.com/
