Hardi Siding Going A New Way

Mike Finley

I just saw how Hardi Siding is starting a pilot program here in Denver to be rolled out nationwide. They are opening 3 retail Hardi stores where consumers can get information on their product and get it installed by factory trained installers. They will continue to sell their products directly to the consumer through home centers but not through their retail stores, the product will only be available there with installation included. They were quoted as saying that their research shows that consumers want qualified and warrantied installations of their products and this seems to be the best way to do it.

Wonder what the ramifications of this will be if any to those in the siding installation business?

copusbuilder

Hmmm. I don't personally like the sounds of this. Of course in a real open market other siding installers should be able to purchase the products at the same rate?
Kinda like competing against the big lumber companies that are building homes. Slightly unfair.

On the other hand management will likely make the cost of their installation too high??? I guess we shall see.

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AkA Richard Cranium

go dart

use andersen's renewel as a pilot. although some stores are franchised others are factory owned. the installed sales numbers become too great to ignore. retail cost vs independents? who wouldn't pay a little more for the confidence of working direct w/ manufacture. the only constant is change.

Grumpy

I'm worried and not worried. Well the way I look at this, it will be just like Home Depot, or any of the Big Box stores selling home improvements. It seems like they will just be selling and subbing.

Do they make a dent? Yes they do, but we all know how that works out.

I'm only worried if they exercise a new strategy and become some kind of referral service, then I might want to stop selling weatherboards and start selling Hardie for their referrals. Otherwise my competitors will have a huge advantage over me... BUT I don't see this happening, I really think they will go the route of the paper contractor and just sell and sub.

The Anderson Renewal is around here also, but same thing... Sell and Sub. Their pricing is extremely high like the big boxes. Heck, nothing wrong with that, but when you have share holders they want to see profit! Making $200 gross on a window may be good for me or you, but for them they wouldn't break even what with their huge warehouses and as Copus said huge management.

ApgarNJ

IMO. I don't think this is a good move.

Grumpy

Good for who?

Contractors or hardie?

ApgarNJ

contractors. sorry, i had to leave this mornign and couldnt' type much more.
i just think they should sell to people even if they aren't their licensed installer.
it's not rocket science to install this stuff.

Mike Finley

There might be some similarities in the process, but it won't be the same perception at all to the consumer. It's going to be more like buying a new Cadillac and taking it to the Cadillac dealer for service instead of a 3rd party garage.

Hardi appears to be already setting up a tiered system according to their website for recruiting installers.

http://www.jameshardie.com/remodeler...ogramlevel.php

Here is the website for the Denver area stores already up and running.

http://www.jameshardiesidingcenter.com/index.shtml

Sider' Brian

FWIW we install Hardie as well as vinyl, however we have covered three Hardie sided home with Polar Wall this year.

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jblati

Mike, I think they have been kicking this idea around for a while, but keep getting pushback and postpone it.

The fact is, when they do it, which I am sure they will eventually do, the business model is one where they will price in a fashion that does little impact to their core business, which is folks like us.

It will be costly for a HO to go direct. However, if they go with the plan of making cons be "Hardi certified," then plan on referring that business out, they will see a lot of pushback. They have been talking for years about it, though.

Grumpy

What would you say the reason is for covering this stuff? Product failure or improper installation technique?