Ronnie Pollack - Your Tariff-free Advantage - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with CIDAN Machinery's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Ronnie Pollack. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Welcome to MetalCast, the podcast where we're turning up the heat on all things metal. Roofing? On this show, we'll explore the world of metal roofing from its durability to design, expert insights and more. Join us as we bang out the details on the toughest roofs in the game. Get ready to unleash the power of metal roofing. 

Karen Edwards: My name's Karen Edwards and today's episode, I'm welcoming Ronnie Pollock from CIDAN Machinery Group. Ronnie, welcome. 

Ronnie Pollock: Karen, thanks. Appreciate you guys having us on. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah. Well, we're going to be talking today about tariff-free machinery. And there's a lot of crazy stuff going on, it changes day to day, there's pauses, then there's reinstatements, so we just don't really know what the next month or week is going to bring. So it's important to think about, now might be a good time to secure yourself a machine from CIDAN. So Ronnie, before we dive into the conversation, just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you. 

Ronnie Pollock: Sure. So my position here at CIDAN is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for North America. I've been with CIDAN about a year now and my background is in automotive automation. So I was doing that for about 10 to 12 years, which is exciting, because as I joined this industry, I'm noticing that we're at the beginning of a lot of automation potential. And you see that in some of our machinery today and in the market and I think it's only going to grow from there. So excited to be here with CIDAN and in the industry. It's a great organization to be a part of. And thank you again for having us on. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah, you bring a great background when you say automotive automation, because that's an industry that really has automated a lot. And the roofing industry always seems to be a little bit behind everybody else, but I tell you, the machines that CIDAN offers, when you talk about automation... I'm stuck on my word, there. When you talk about automation, the machines really make it easy for the contractors to get their work done. 

Ronnie Pollock: And that's what we want to focus on, is solutions for our customers where they're going to be two to three years from now and how to make their output as optimal as possible and as few of touches as possible when making their parts and their trim, so that their staff can be doing other things like selling or getting the orders ready to ship, things of that nature. And we have a lot of the automization today can be customized, so on the tariff-free machines, we don't have a lot of that inventory sitting in stock, but we have some elements of that automation that are on the tariff-free side. 

Ronnie Pollock: And so what we're doing right now is, you're spot on. We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. I do think in the next couple of months we're going to land on what I will call the new normal. So whatever that tariff fee is, that will be just the new standard. And it's all based on country. So China tariffs are different than Sweden tariffs or Switzerland or wherever. So I think there'll be a various of new normals, not just for our industry, but for all industries ordering machinery internationally. 

Ronnie Pollock: So what we did is, prior to the tariffs, luckily what we wanted to do is provide a little quicker turnaround time for our customers and we housed some inventory. And we were lucky enough to get those machines out before the April 5th midnight deadline. And once those machines hit the water before the deadline, those are the quote-unquote, "tariff-free." Obviously there are historical tariffs that have been on those machines for forever, but the new tariffs. So we're new tariff-free. And once those hit the water, we were in the clear. So we have machinery from shears and folders, new and used, that are tariff-free. And we have a little north of, I think, 15 or so machines in inventory. We had a little bit more, but a lot of customers have already jumped on that opportunity to take some of that tariff-free inventory out of our hands, so it's dwindling down, but we still have some machines that are prime for customers looking for, what is now, you would consider a discount machine in today's current market. 

Karen Edwards: Right, yeah. I mean, when you think about it, it's an investment in machinery for a contractor. And take a 10%, 20%, 30%, whatever that tariff may be, that adds a lot of additional cost to the machine. So if you have the opportunity to purchase before that tariff is applied, then it just makes sense. Right, Ronnie? 

Ronnie Pollock: A hundred percent. And something to think of, we have a variety of customers and they all buy differently. Some have capital expenditure, they buy directly from their company's bank account, if you will. They're cutting checks internally. Some go the finance route. But it's important to know that on the finance side, the banks are not financing the tariffs. So what we've learned, with the organization we work with on finance, is that most or all banks are not going to calculate that tariff into that loan. So when you're financing, it makes it a lot easier, you just lump it all together and you finance it and here's your monthly payment. But it's important to know that each financial institution could be different, but it's important to ask the question, "Hey, what about the tariff? Is that going to be out of pocket, as me as a customer, out of my own pocket? Or can I finance that?" 

Ronnie Pollock: So I'm not a financial expert, so I'm telling our customers and our team to advise our customers, "Wherever you're getting financing from, make sure you ask that question." But the feedback so far is that it's not something that they're willing to finance right now. 

Karen Edwards: That's really interesting. So not only does it add cost to the machine, it's taking it out of your pocket. You can't even finance it. 

Ronnie Pollock: Correct. 

Karen Edwards: Surprising. Wow. Okay. So what's the process look like for a contractor that, maybe they're on the fence and maybe this is that little incentive they need to finally take that step? What does that process look like? 

Ronnie Pollock: So if you already know your CIDAN regional sales manager, reach out to them. And essentially what they'll do is, they'll consult on what machine is best for the process you're trying to achieve. And hopefully, hopefully, one of those machines that we have in inventory that are not tariffed are going to fit your needs. And obviously if it doesn't fit your needs, we're going to work with you to find the most affordable and quickest turnaround solution we can. We're not here to push machines just because they're cheaper. We want to make sure because as you mentioned, Karen, it's such an investment that you the customer get the right machine that you can grow with. So I want to put that out there. Just because it's a cheaper machine doesn't mean it's for you. We want to make sure you're getting the right one. 

Ronnie Pollock: If you don't know your regional sales manager, you can go to cidanmachinery.com and you can click on our staff link and you can see which RSM has your region. If not, if you're still unsure, you can just call the number that is our Peachtree City office and our team up front will direct you to the right person. 

Karen Edwards: And what kind of time, if the machines are available, you've got them in inventory, it's probably not a huge wait time until they're set up. 

Ronnie Pollock: Correct. So all of our machines ship from our factory, whether it's Austria, Sweden or Switzerland. FAT approved, meaning, we've done a factory acceptance test at that location. And when they arrive here, we're also reevaluating the machines, just to make sure there's no damage on the ride over and we make sure they're set up and ready to go. So what we would do is, if you put in an order today, it's in the afternoon on Friday. Probably Monday morning, we would evaluate the machine to make sure everything is good to go. Power it on, to make sure all the functionality is right. So I'd say seven to 10 business days is kind of what we're looking at, to get it out the door. And depending on where you are in the country, it could be two full weeks or meaning 21 days max. Really, that's the most I could see, but it's drastically quicker than three, six, nine month turnaround time. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Wow. That's impressive, because it is a big piece of equipment and it takes a lot to get it from point A to point B and get set up in the contractor's shop. Wow. So what does the training and support look like for a contractor? Maybe this is their first machine, maybe they've been using smaller equipment, maybe hand brakes. What's that learning curve like? 

Ronnie Pollock: Well, compared to if you're looking at a manual folding process, power and air are critical. Our machines are pneumatic, so you got to have air to it. And we send a pre-install package out to the customer to say, "Here are the requirements that you need to make sure your shop has." And not just for one machine, if we're shipping you two or three machines, we give you the total consumption of everything that's needed per machine. And then, we're about anywhere from two to four weeks out. So we schedule this in advance. So let's say we have a arrival date of your machine of August 1. It's not four weeks out from there. So whenever you return your pre-install packet, that just confirms that you are ready or are not ready, once you're ready, the packet confirms it. We start scheduling at that point. So we put you on the calendar right away. We don't wait until it delivers and then we put you on a calendar. 

Ronnie Pollock: Once we get there, it's really a two-part, I'll say a three-part process. It's the physical installation, so we got to install the machine, bolt it to the ground and make sure it's level. That's super critical. Leveling is kind of under-looked sometimes on the importance of it. Once that's done, we just make sure the basic functionality is working. Is it powering on, does the control work? Is the folding beam going up and down? Are the pneumatics, which is in our brake system, is that working to drive the folding beam up and down? And then we start to identify, "Okay," and we like to do two, two material tables. So the customer identifies like, "Okay, I want you to essentially train our machine and the operator will be watching, how to make a material table for this profile and that profile." And then we do that, so that you're learning how to create materials tables on your own for any additional materials you might want to add or additional profiles. Or if you want to change the length or the gauge of the material, you know how to do that. 

Ronnie Pollock: And then it's pretty much good on the install. And the training can be two parts. I'd say there's introduction training and advanced training. So training on how to work the machine mechanically and how to navigate the software on our controller, that's one thing. But then, learning how to make some of these parts or learn how to make them in different ways, that's more of our applications training that we can also do on site. And if you're looking for further advanced applications training or like a refresh, obviously please reach out to our after sales team and we can set you up with that. But that's a high level overview of what you're going to get. 

Ronnie Pollock: I'd say in the next few months, the customers are going to see perhaps some new checklists and some new structure to this, especially in their initial quote from sales. We want to make sure that we have a set expectation before we arrive. So when we're selling this machinery, we want to make sure sales is communicating to the customer, "Here's what we're going to do," so that the customer has an understanding and has the same expectations from the time we quote, the same expectation is set when the machine arrives. Because the last thing we want to do is have a miscommunication or we have an expectation and the customer has a different one. We want to make sure we're aligned, here. 

Karen Edwards: Right. Yeah, communication, no matter what you're doing, communication is so important. Whether that's buying, investing in a machine, whether that's just sales talking to finance, talking to... Throughout the process, we need good communication. Wow. So let's talk a little bit about, maybe somebody's still kind of, "Hm, I'm not sure, I want to come and talk with you and see you." You guys are pretty much at all the big trade shows, right? 

Ronnie Pollock: Yes. METALCON, IRE, FRSA, FABTECH on the industrial side and some of the sign shows out West and a lot of the regional shows too. And obviously, we have our location in Peachtree City, Georgia, where customers are welcome at any time, but we know we're not where everyone is. So what we're trying to focus on too, going forward, is doing a lot more video meetings via Teams or whatever the platform our customers may have, to do demos. To show them machinery, because we want to show them its capabilities. 

Ronnie Pollock: But definitely, like METALCON's coming up in October, in Vegas and we're super excited about this one because it's going to be a unique METALCON for us. We're really changing the approach of how we go to the shows. We're going to take more of a consultive, educational approach this year and you're still going to see a lot of machinery from us. I'll say, you're going to see a couple of new launches- 

Karen Edwards: Cool. 

Ronnie Pollock: ... and that's all I'll say about that. 

Karen Edwards: That's exciting. 

Ronnie Pollock: Yep, it is. It's a teaser. 

Karen Edwards: No preview? Come on. 

Ronnie Pollock: No, no, no. No. You have to be there to see it. Obviously, we're going to have it there live, running parts. You're going to see some new mechanical gear from us, but also some new software elements as well. So we're trying to incorporate maybe a little bit of a refresh from what you've seen from CIDAN Machinery Group. I will say it's really focused on, let's say, the user interface and the customer experience or the user experience. We don't want to have things designed by an engineer for an engineer, only. We need to make this as simple for everyone to use as possible. Because the goal is, it's as an intuitive as your iPhone, so that we can just easily walk through this and not take a lot of downtime out of your production. Or, we want to get you up to speed as quick as possible. And that's what we have in mind now when we're designing, whether it's mechanical function or a software function. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. So I'm sure when you're rolling things out or changes, what's driving that? Is it feedback from the users, from the customers? And then you kind of listen, you kind of roll it around and think, "Yeah, we could probably do that." 

Ronnie Pollock: Yeah. When you're doing something new, it can be two things. You can make a custom feature for a specific organization or a specific region. When we're designing new equipment, it's like a modularization concept. We need to make sure that this is applicable, not just for one customer, but many customers. That feedback does come from the market. Whether it's industrial or the industry organizations like MCA or customers specifically. Because we do, our team collectively, brings a lot of data back from the market to us and to product management and to R&D. And we filter through that. Now, we can't say yes to everything, but we find essentially, you're trying to connect the dots is, "Where are some common requests coming in?" 

Ronnie Pollock: And we also look at it from a global approach. We're not just CIDAN Machinery here in the United States or North America. We have European locations as well and various customers around the world and some of our US customers are even in that global market. So we have to consider that as well, in the design. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Wow. You got to think big, for sure. Okay. So you mentioned to me earlier that you're doing some education at METALCON? 

Ronnie Pollock: Yes. 

Karen Edwards: Tell me what that is. 

Ronnie Pollock: It's a bit of a teaser, too, so we're still working on some of the content. But in general, what we want to do when you're at the shows with us, we want to... Yeah, we want to show you our machinery. We definitely do. We want to show you all the value that it can bring. But we want to educate you on the process, not just, "Here's the machine you need to make the part. How can you make this part quicker? How can your fold sequencing be more efficient? How can you reduce the number of touches in each of your trim parts to get more parts out the door, to have quicker turnaround time to your customers?" Things like that. And again, this year you're going to see us take a larger platform in educating our customer base, not on CIDAN Machinery, specifically, but it's going to be just architectural education on how you can make your shops better. 

Karen Edwards: Nice. I like that. Yeah, because I mean, you guys, you're doing it every day, all the time. And you see contractors with shops across the country. And so when someone's got it down, well, why not share that information with others and help them find success too? 

Ronnie Pollock: Agreed. And there's going to be, every region, I've noticed in traveling with my sales team, has a unique way of what they do that is... It could be the same profile, it could be the same process, but it's different in the Northeast than it is in the Southeast or the West Coast. And there's so many factors that impact that. But you're going to be, regardless of where you live in the United States, whether you're commercial, residential, industrial, you'll be able to be educated, at least take one thing from our session at METALCON. 

Karen Edwards: Nice. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so that's end of October in Las Vegas and registration's open. And just a quick plug, a MetalCoffeeShop is giving away passes, so. Yeah, I think we've got eight or 10. Or something. So just go on the site, fill out the form. We won't cover your travel costs, but we'll get you into the show. 

Karen Edwards: Wow, Ronnie, this was really a great conversation. Thank you so much for sharing and for letting everybody know that you do have those pre-new tariff machines in inventory. All right. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah, so if you want to reach out to CIDAN, like Ronnie said, you can visit their website, you can find them on MetalCoffeeShop. They've got a full directory with links and contact information. And take that step, get yourself started with a nice new piece of equipment or used because you've got those too. Awesome. 

Karen Edwards: Thank you everybody out there for listening, we're glad you're here. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow us on social media and we hope to see you on a future episode. Bye. 

Outro: Ready to raise the metal roof? Subscribe to MetalCast now and stay tuned for all things metal roofing. Go to metalcoffeeshop.com to learn more. Rock on and we'll catch you on the next episode.