California TrusFrame by North American Constructors Journal

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California TrusFrame LLC:

Rebounding With A Passion Structural Building Component Manufacturer California TrusFrame LLC with manufacturing facilities throughout California is a leading supplier of structural building component products, engineering & design services across California. Written by Kevin Doyle Produced by Stephen Marino

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stablished in 1982, California TrusFrame is a structural building component manufacturer in the truest sense, recognized today for their high level of engineering & design services coupled with their unparalleled product quality & high capacity manufacturing capability. CTF provides the highest level of SBC services to Framers & GC’s throughout the state of California. Ken Cloyd founded CalTruss in 1982. Today the company supplies an array of structural component products across the Tract Home, Multi-Family, Commercial, and Custom sectors; Product offerings include Roof and Floor Trusses, Wall Panels, and Smart Component solutions; they also provide Engineering and Design services to round out the full structural building component package. “CalTruss opened its doors for the first time in November of 1982 and did an outstanding job for 29 years under the leadership of its founder Ken Cloyd. Ken and his team did a great job with customer service and making it happen for their customers. This model left a lasting impression on the California construction market providing a very positive branding for the company,” said current President & CEO Steve Stroder, who joined the company as COO in late 2014 having 35 years of construction industry experience.

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California TrusFrame | 4 Stroder was brought on board to engineer a reversal of an extended downward spiral that dated back to the merger of CalTruss and TrusFrame in 2011 brought about as the companies sought to recover from The Great Recession. “All of 2015 was spent re-tooling the company with state-of-the-art equipment while also implementing sound manufacturing practices as well as efficiency metrics,” Stroder explained. Current numbers speak to the company’s rebound – it now has 700 associates across five California locations and, Stroder says, “we are in a definite growth mode.” Sales volume

The company’s core values – “People, Honor, Drive!” – are at the heart of every decision. “We preach, teach, and live by these values daily. We hire with them in mind and make our business decisions daily

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This complete turnaround in

company logic, coupled with the help of an outstanding team and the legacy reputation of CalTruss, is what has brought CTF back from the brink of disaster to become the clear leader in our structural building component space throughout California.

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has grown year over year since 2015 with 2018 being the strongest year yet. While sales dollars have waned a bit in 2019 due to lower lumber prices and significant rain in the first half of the year, the second half of 2019 is shaping up to provide a strong finish. Growing single family track builder interest in Wall Panels & Floor Trusses as well as Floor Cassettes indicate significant opportunity for growth in 2020 for the company”.

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- CEO/President Steve Stroder

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California TrusFrame | 7 based on our core values. If one truly follows that plan you can’t help but succeed in today’s business world. Our people are our most valuable assets and [we] integrate the principle that our word is our bond. Couple this with a passion to do things right, and one can’t fail. Follow this advice and always strive to “Do What You Say You Are Going to Do” and success will follow!” Stroder declares.

Roadmap to Recovery Upon taking over as CEO and President, Stroder first assembled a top-notch executive team of some of the best minds both in and outside the industry. “We started the process of breaking down silos and empowering our managers so they could lead, while also creating a company culture that supports our associates, providing a healthy atmosphere where people can excel in their careers creating great value for our customers,” Stroder explains. “This complete turnaround in company logic, coupled with the help of an outstanding team and the legacy reputation of CalTruss, is what has brought CTF back from the brink of disaster to become the clear leader in our structural building component space throughout California,” he adds. The company has emerged as the

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California TrusFrame | 8 largest and best positioned structural building component manufacturer on the West Coast by a wide margin; has the largest design capacity led by its premier Design Group; and, Stroder says, “We are committed to partnering with our framer and builder customers rather than competing against them for the end customer in a vertically integrated system such as some of our more formidable competition.”

Day to Day Stroder is clear that his role at CTF is to provide vision and inspiration. “I lead by example and with a passion for our people. This allows us to have a stable, safe, and comfortable

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working environment so we can create success together and for our valued customers,” he notes. CTF is a recognized leader in LEED accredited projects. The use of Structural Building Components provides a fully engineered structure while also reducing the amount of wood fiber used thus providing a significant reduction in waste producing more efficient structures that are safer than conventionally framed homes. All of the company’s raw materials come from the western United States and are managed as a renewable resource. CTF employs no onsite tradespeople and does not self-perform any onsite

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CONGRATULATIONS

CALIFORNIA TRUSFRAME We congratulate you on your ongoing business success and unwavering commitment to safety and excellence.

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framing work. Rather it partners with well-regarded framer customers and as a team, provides the very best construction experience a builder can hope to receive. “We believe cutting our customers out of the on-site building process by vertical integration is the wrong approach, so we embrace our customers and build long-lasting relationships that allow us to create a seamless construction process for the end-user,” Stroder says. “California TrusFrame isn’t for everyone. We work hard to build strong relationships throughout our customer base as well as our vendor

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base. We do business with good people. Life is too short to deal with people who don’t support a culture of doing the right thing. CTF is all about providing quality and service at the highest level for our customers. We support our customers’ needs while supporting our employees in the same way. We expect our vendors to do the same,” he adds. The company invests in the best available software, purchases raw materials from only the top suppliers, and embraces advanced manufacturing and programming processes that reduce manual labor resulting in a more efficient, safer, and a much more accurate working

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“We are living in a great time for the construction industry. I see the industry truly beginning to think out of the box today,” Stroder says. “We are starting to see some very effective equipment coming online. Even better than that, I am starting to see manufacturers and builders alike become much more open minded about implementing this

new equipment into their operations.” A commitment to giving back to its communities is ingrained in the company’s DNA. Among its many initiatives, CTF has: • Supported many local youth soccer, baseball and softball teams throughout

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We are living in a great time

for the construction industry. I see the industry truly beginning to think out of the box today.

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environment. The burgeoning innovation surge has been exciting across an industry that hadn’t changed much in the previous 100 years or so. Such developments have provided better working conditions and higher quality goods and services, along with enhanced speed to market.

- CEO/President Steve Stroder www.caltrusframe.com

California TrusFrame |12 the state mostly around each of its facilities • Performed special projects for a couple of local youth leagues including Perris Youth Soccer, which was provided the material and labor to build storage for the league’s gear • Participated in a big way in the Riverside Breast Cancer Walk for the last three years with upwards of 250 CTF associate participants taking part last year • Continued long-standing support of the work being done by the City of Hope Cancer Research Institute. • Partnered with one of our valued customers (BSA Framing) to provide the structural building components for four homes for Faith Baptist church that are being used as housing for worthy homeless families until they can get back on their feet. • Donated supplies to the local high schools and sponsored Spirit Week shirts every year. Stroder is a member of the Structural Building Components Association (SBCA), serving on the Board of Directors for the past 17 years and on the Executive Committee for the past six years. “SBCA is an outstanding organization comprised of the very best Structural Building Component Manufacturers

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California TrusFrame |14 in the United States. This organization has been an absolute Godsend to me and many of my peers around the country for the last 30 plus years. Over the years, through hard work and perseverance we have developed some of the most comprehensive support programs for our members that you could imagine. I can very honestly say that this organization has done more for my career development than anything else I have been exposed to,” Stroder says. He takes full advantage of the networking opportunities within the association. “The relationships one develops in the SBCA are invaluable. Over the last 30 years I have come to know and develop deep lasting friendships with some of the most talented business leaders in our country and they are out there for me to collaborate with daily,” Stroder notes.

Safety Protocol The company meshes its in-house safety program with the SBCA’s Operation Safety Program and behavior-based enhancements developed internally by its own Safety Team. Employees are trained to spot potential areas of concern, authorized to stop work anytime if unsafe working conditions are noticed, and

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California TrusFrame | 15 are rewarded when they do so. The company’s Vice President of HR and EH&S (Jason Ward) also serves as Chairman of the SBCA’s National Safety Committee. “We use leading indicators as our main proactive method to facilitate a safe working environment and we work hard to create a company culture of safety, as well as caring for our fellow co-worker’s well being. We are investing in our safety culture through education as well as providing strong safety leadership with an EH&S Specialist at each of our manufacturing facilities,” Stroder explains.

Employee Training and Retention To replenish an aging work force and handle an abundance of work, the company relies heavily on its CTF University Program, an annual 36-week training course that delves into all facets of the company’s business. Fifty associates graduated from the first class in January and the second class is scheduled to begin this October. High-level managers throughout the company teach the courses providing education on the company while also providing critical one-on-one interaction with mid-level managers to enhance a positive culture of open communication. CTF prefers to promote from within when possible and Stroder says “I would say we lean to that direction

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California TrusFrame | 17 on a regular basis as it creates great loyalty within our ranks.”

Looking Ahead Given its sterling reputation across the industry, its status as a market leader, and the abundance of available work, CTF seems set for continued success well into the future. As he guides the company toward its next phase of development, Stroder says CTF provides its services for all the right reasons. “Being able to look at the good we

do is an awesome feeling. Providing shelter over our fellow man and seeing the happiness that creates is a great feeling. We are meeting a legitimate human need. My biggest love of this industry is the people. Construction people are some of the most down-toearth good people I could ever hope to work with, and I count myself blessed to be able to do what I do for a living,” he says. “The future is bright for structural building components and CTF is committed to being at the vanguard of our industries development for many years to come,” Stroder concludes.