2026.10.09 | GP | Housing | Gibraltar Roofing Accessories Distribution

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ROCK

Associated:

QXO

SGO:FP

CSL

ABC Supply Holding Corp.

LOW

HD

AMRZ:SW

Johns Manville

OC

KSP:ID

Leafguard, LLC

SRS Distribution, Inc.

Viewpoint:

Former Executive

Moderator: Edward Kelly (EK)

George Papuashvili (GP), Former Director of Strategy and Development - OmniMax

SUMMARY

Overview

The discussion examined a major roofing-accessories manufacturer’s acquisition of a former competitor, integration opportunities, distribution strategy, input-cost volatility, and the structural shift toward seamless gutters. The market combines national scale with highly localized competition because economical shipping distances are limited.

The expert previously led strategy and acquisitions at the acquired manufacturer, where the portfolio was simplified through five divestitures and three acquisitions. The expert believes the combined business can strengthen purchasing power, broaden product availability, improve delivery efficiency, and expand customer spending across its portfolio.

Key Insights

Seamless gutters should continue gaining share because homeowners prefer their appearance and durability, while contractors can fabricate them onsite and retain more margin. This shift is not considered a major structural threat to the combined company because gutters and downspouts are only part of its broader roofing-accessories portfolio. Expansion into machines, coils, financing, and difficult-to-fabricate components could position the company as a comprehensive supplier to seamless-gutter contractors. Reliable, complete delivery is more important than modest price differences. Missing a low-cost accessory can jeopardize an entire roofing-material sale. The integration’s greatest opportunity is unified ordering and delivery across brands, enabling meaningful cross-selling and lower service costs. Private-label production for major distributors is viewed as a net opportunity that can deepen partnerships and support sales of premium products. Local manufacturers remain a persistent pricing threat because they have lower overhead and can often undercut national suppliers.

Competitive Landscape

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

Participant

Positioning

Advantages

Risks or limitations

Combined manufacturer

Leading national roofing- accessories platform

Broad assortment, purchasing scale, cross- selling, national relationships

Integration complexity, corporate overhead, local price competition

Distributor-owned brand

Internal supplier to a major distributor

Established shelf access

Seamless-gutter specialists

Leaders in coil and onsite fabrication products

Higher-margin coil sales and contractor relationships

Individual branches may still select competing suppliers

Narrower product scope

Gutter-machine manufacturers

Supply machines for residential and commercial profiles

Benefit from low contractor entry barriers

Depend on contractor investment demand

Local manufacturers

Strong regional competitors

Large distributors

Key channel gatekeepers

Quantitative Insights

Metric

Detail

Flexible pricing and local service

Limited geographic reach and narrower assortments

Branch-level purchasing authority and private-label potential

Private-label expansion may pressure branded shelf space

Economical delivery radius

Approximately 200–250 miles, potentially less when diesel costs rise

Contractor startup investment

Roughly $40,000–$50,000 for a truck-based seamless-gutter operation

Roofing accessories share

About 5% of a typical roofing project

Illustrative project spending

Around $400 of accessories within an $8,000 roofing purchase

Distribution price-adjustment lag

Generally 30–60 days

Home-center price-adjustment lag

Generally 90–120 days

Recent aluminum inflation cited

Approximately 15%–16%

Portfolio activity

Five divestitures and three acquisitions during the expert’s tenure

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

EK: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Gibraltar teleconference, former OmniMax executive on portfolio integration, Rainware, and roofing accessories distribution dynamics. As a reminder, if you have any questions during the call, you can email us directly. That address, as always, is ask@guidepoint.com. With that, I'd like to welcome George, former Director of Strategy and Development with OmniMax. George, thank you so much for taking the time to join us this morning. It's a pleasure having you on the call.

GP: Hi, Ned. Thanks for having me. So a quick background about myself. I EK: Please.

GP: was with OmniMax since beginning of 2022 up until March of this year. I joined the team as a director in Corporate Development, mostly working on M&A and strategy during my time there. We cleaned up the portfolio, we divested non-core segments of the business. I think we did 5 sell-side transactions and then we also did 3 M&A, 3 buy- side transactions since I was here and they had also done 1 before I joined them. Last year, in 2025, we executed the sell-side deal for OmniMax and Gibraltar ended up being the buyer for the business. Since March, I have moved from OmniMax to a company called Alside, which is a distributor of building materials.

EK: Thanks so much, George. So I think just at the top here, it'd be helpful to get your perspective on the Rainware and roofing portfolios, roofing accessories industry, kind of the main players in that space and how you think about competitive dynamics across the space. Where does the OmniMax... Gibraltar deal place that portfolio among peers.

GP: So what I would say is before the transaction, before Gibraltar acquired OmniMax, those 2 used to be key competitors and the largest competitors. So in terms of M&A also, our key competitor used to be Gibraltar. So they used to take deals from us and they used to be our key competitors also in terms of the product and customers. The whole industry I would say is more local than national. There is only so much you can ship the product to. The sweet spot is 200 to 250 mile radius from the branch. If you are shipping, I would be guessing that the radius should be decreasing with the increasing diesel price, to be honest with you. I think that was true when the diesel was at $4; right now it being at $7, I think such a radius may not even make sense. So with that said, you need to be local in the market and you need to know the suppliers locally. So while being of size and while being across the nation is really helpful, especially on the home center side of the business, it's also a local market. So it's still steep competition with the local players. I would say outside of Gibraltar and OmniMax, the other key players in the industry are ACM, which is an in- house brand for ABC, and then I would guess Rollex, Alcoa, and a couple players on the West Coast market that compete with OmniMax and also Gibraltar. And if I missed anything, there No, we go.

EK: No, that's really helpful, George. I was hoping we could talk a bit about seamless gutter install and potential there to take structural share from preformed or seamed products and how you think about those competitive dynamics, especially folks that can fabricate those on site in a maybe softer demand environment, higher fuel cost environment today especially.

GP: Yeah, seamless gutter is a segment that has been taking share from the pre-cut or seamed gutter for some time already. The key here is there are 2 dynamics. One is the homeowner preference. People usually prefer seamless gutter versus seamed gutter. The other piece is, when you are doing seamless gutter, you are able to cut the middleman. If you look at the seamed gutter, OmniMax or some other manufacturer has to make the product, and the product needs to sit on the shelf, whether it's at ABC or Home Depot, and then somebody has to buy it and put it on the house. What's happening with seamless gutter, a contractor is going to drive the truck with a gutter machine inside the truck and roll the gutters there. It is cutting the middleman, so the contractor is able to have slightly higher margin, and also the homeowner wants to install those gutters. There are 2 largest players in that segment, Spectra and Senox. There is only so much gutter and rainwear products that you can make on the job site. You can make gutter, you can make downspout, but then there are components that are becoming a little bit too manual and too labor intensive to roll or to make on the spot, like miters, which was one of the reasons why we made an investment,

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

and by we I mean OmniMax, made an investment in a business called Hancock, which is a leading manufacturer of miters. Overall, what I would say is, seamless gutter is going to continue to take share from the box gutter or pre-cut gutter. Pre-cut gutter is mostly going on either really low-end homes or it's mostly going into cases where the house already has a seamless gutter. You are only replacing a section of it and the homeowner doesn't want to invest into replacing the whole gutter system, which is usually expensive. In terms of new construction or replacing the whole gutter system, most of the homeowners are going to get a seamless gutter. I think the other part of your question was how is this new cost dynamic going to impact that. I think the key impact that is coming is from homeowners' uncertainty and people trying to delay repair and remodel projects. I don't think the cost dynamics is impacting seamless gutter differently versus seamed gutter manufacturers.

EK: Right. Certainly some sensitivity there to on-demand and homeowner willingness to spend.

GP: Yep. Yep.

EK: Okay. One thing you and I chatted about offline was seamless gutter machines and coil economics for installers that have access to those machines on site. Talk to us a bit about how you think about that subsector of the market, and really, does that create some headwinds for stock product within distribution?

GP: Let's do a quick rundown through the seamless gutter manufacturers in the whole segment and if these side steps to what the interest for your net just told me. There are 2 key manufacturers, 1 is KWM and another is New Tech. These guys make gutter machines that range from 4 inch to up to 8 inch and some of them even make machines that can roll the commercial gutters. The way the industry works, you need to get a truck, put a gutter machine, and you need some tools, a generator, etc. I have done some research where for 40,000 to 50,000 you can be in the business of making gutter. And when the homeowners are putting gutters on their houses when they are replacing the gutter system, this industry is working pretty well because as I mentioned, it's much nicer. It's also more sturdy. If you imagine there are less seams on the wall, there are less places for the gutter to fail. In terms of what needs to happen, how this segment is competing with Onimax or with other similar manufacturers, the barriers to entry is pretty low. You need a guy or 2 who are technically inclined, who want to roll their sleeves, they need to either borrow or get 50,000 to get this whole thing rolling and then they can be independent contractors where they know people who are working on new construction or repairs and they just get calls and show up there and all the gutters they need. The interesting dynamic that comes into that play is the coil. There are players such as Spectra and also Senox where they are selling coil, not the whole roll which is usually sold in pounds, but they are selling coil in terms of the length, so feet. And they're selling the coil per feet at much higher margins than you would be selling the whole material in terms of pounds. There is dynamics where if you can get into a seamless gutter segment and basically have contractors on a subscription type of model or one-stop shop, you are basically selling them... so instead of selling them the gutter, you are selling them coil and then you're also selling them components of gutters that are hard to make on site. You can basically make as much margin or even higher than you used to make on the gutter that you used to sell. In terms of how the dynamic is going to continue, I think that the box or pre-cut or seam gutter is going to get squeezed more and more. As I mentioned, I think the only places that gutter is going to continue to be put are very low-end homes or old homes where, hey, you have an issue on one wall of the house, you don't really want to invest in the whole gutter replacement and you just go to Home Depot yourself or your contractor goes there and buys 2 pieces of 10 feet gutter. That's the overall view there. If there is bits and pieces where you want me to go deeper, let me know.

EK: Okay, so as Spectra and Coil Suppliers remain fairly aggressive on price, does that change dynamics for OmniMax or Berger through the distribution channel? I mean, can they still command a premium from contractors or do you view that low barrier to entry, say the $50,000 startup cost for a guy to put a seamless coil machine in a truck and then become an independent contractor? Do you view that as a real structural threat for growth opportunities through distribution to win contractor wallets?

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

GP: It's not a structural risk for OmniMax, and I would guess for Gibraltar, because as of this point, gutter or downspout, which can also be developed on the job site, doesn't really represent the lion's share of what OmniMax is selling in distribution. It holds some share, but it's not what a contractor goes to ABC, QXO, or SRS to buy roofing accessories. So, there are other products... trim edges, valley walls, roof vents, etc... that people go to distribution stores to buy when they're doing roofing jobs. Let's say, there is still some sales and a sizable number; it's not a change, but there is significant sales of gutters and downspouts, but it's not where, hey, that's a leading product or where a gradual validation of that sales by seamless is going to have a significant structural issue for either OmniMax or Gibraltar. And to be honest with you, I think we already made this step with Hancock acquisition. And once the organization is in shape to go into M&A again, that should be one of their top focuses to get deeper into seamless.

EK: Okay, I want to come back to distribution dynamics a bit later in the conversation, but I'm interested in your comments there about expanding presence within the seamless vertical. What opportunities do you see ahead, and I guess given maybe a bit of a shift toward seamless consumption with contractors, with homeowners, what opportunities do you see behind that shift?

GP: I think we... by we I mean OmniMax... already has 1 step into the segment with the Hancock acquisition. Hancock makes products such as miters, hangers, and outlets. Those are gutter accessories that are pretty hard to make on the job site. It doesn't mean that you cannot make it, but it's much easier to just order those from 1 of the distributors who is selling Hancock products and drop the box that has all the hangers, outlets, and miters rather than spending the time on rolling those. I think where that could go is they could try to do an acquisition, or they could try to do an in- house build of a seamless segment where, in addition to what Hancock is already selling, you try to sell other accessories, maybe even gutter machines. If you look at the websites of either New Tech or KWM, they allow resellers of all the types, so you could be selling gutter machines, other tools, and accessories that people need to get in the field. And then you could be selling all those hard-to-make-on-job-site accessories, which you already have through Hancock. And the other piece is, these contractors usually need some type of help in financing to get all these pieces. So, if you have options where you can help them get 0% financing, which isn't a hard thing to get, then you could basically become a place where a guy who wants to get in the business comes, gets financing, gets the gutter machine, gets all the pieces, and you are the one-stop shop for them. What that's gonna provide for the org is the org knows that over time, unless he's going to continue slow cannibalization, slow churn of box gutter, and you do it yourself rather than let others do it. That's the whole rationale there. Regarding the channel conflict, when you do this, you want to make sure that you address the biggest complication outside of technically executing something like this is making sure that you are not getting into channel conflict with distribution, or if you find a way to thread the needle and don't anger your distribution partners.

EK: Right, because you referenced earlier in the call that these were kind of the main 2 players in the Rainware space prior to the union. Obviously, there's some skew rationalization that has to happen within the channel and rationalizing, say, wallet within home centers. But the team seems fairly optimistic about growth within distribution. I think they referenced adding 600 plus locations this year for some products. How do you think about the combined wallet and the ability to command additional product lines, either within the big 3 or within home centers moving out into 2027?

GP: The combination of OmniMax and Gibraltar should definitely help them to command additional shares. So when OmniMax was trying to get new... So 1 thing that we need to establish a base about that is the way distribution works is you have your relationships at the top, it's like regional vice presidents, etc. But then most of the plant managers basically own the P&L, and not plant managers, but location managers, and they can decide who they are going to buy products from, etc. So there are different gradients of that, like ABCs. ABCs are basically very strict in the direction where, hey, the branch... so the location manager can decide what they are going to buy. They can't even decide not to buy products from ACM, which is their in-house brand, because the location manager is basically getting paid and

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

responsible for the margin that he or she earns and doesn't matter what they're going to buy. So this combined organization can have great relationships with higher ups and that can influence them becoming either preferred partner or a food partner or whatever, but you're going to be 1 of several there, and you still need to make sure that you have the products that the branch or location managers need to fill their shelves or that they know that the contractors have been looking, etc. So with that said, I think when OmniMax used to try to EK: Actually, George, just to jump in here 1 sec. You brought up an interesting point there where service is obviously a key part of the model, but also brand loyalty with installers. Do you think about maybe the key drivers of winning shelf space within distribution a bit differently for rainwear and accessory products versus, say, core shingles or core membrane for commercial roofing? Are the dynamics a bit different when it comes to maybe smaller ticket spend items?

GP: Dynamics are slightly different. There for shingles, people kind of like have more brand loyalty because they have to provide the warranty for a number of years. There is also preconceived ideas of: "Hey, what's better in this type of weather?" What's kind of like... what performs worse? Or kind of like, "Hey, like people have been praising XYZ brands' products," et cetera. And usually people know what brand of shingles they are getting. What's happening for rainwear and roofing accessories, quite often... not for all the products, but quite often... people don't really know whether the product they are getting was manufactured by OmniMax, was manufactured by Gibraltar, or somebody else. They're usually going to get what's available. So to win the shelf space, you need for most of the products... and kind of like, let's take roof vents, which are kind of like a high-touch item... you need to... it's not like you are only going to install like up to 5, maybe like 6 to 7, depending on the house size on the roof, and kind of like it takes a bit more time. Some are easy to install, some are hard; kind of like some manufacturers are going to make sure that the edges are not sharp, so you don't cut your fingers. So like, if you cut your finger on somebody's roof because they didn't make sure that the edges are not sharp, you're going to be like, "I don't want to buy that again," et cetera. So... For some of the products people are going to have a preference, but for most of the times contractors are going to show up and buy the drip edge, not really thinking whose drip edge that is. So for a manufacturer to make sure that you sell as much drip edge as you can, you need to make sure that your drip edge is sitting on the shelf. And the store manager or kind of like the store procurement person is kind of like your gatekeeper, not the contractor. So for the store manager, what's key is you need to kind of like have a decent quality so that when contractors buy it, they don't say that it's kind of like it's too thin or it's not. Sometimes like people say it's kind of like let's say it's 5 feet, but it's really 4.9 or 4.8. So like you need to make sure that it hits the key quality criteria. But outside of that, what's key for store managers is that you have good service and kind of like the product gets delivered in time, in full, and you don't end up losing more important sales than your product is. So one thing to keep here in mind, Ned, is that roofing accessories and rainwear products I would say is 5% of the overall roofing job. So if a contractor is coming in an ABC store and they're about to spend, let's say $8,000 for kind of like a roofing job, $400 out of that is going to be roofing accessories. So if you don't have some pieces that the contractor needs, you're angering them because they need to go to another location. So next time they may not come to you because hey, like they had to drive to 2 locations to get all the products that they needed for this roofing job. So what the location manager is going to learn here: they trusted the wrong manufacturer who may have ended up losing them the sale of $8,000 on the product that was worth $400. So what this does is like the... The location manager is really careful that you have a decent service and you deliver the product in time and you ship in full, and they're not going to chisel you down as much on the cost as they maybe would have done to manufacturers of shingles where, hey, like from the $8,000 job, it's $7,000, and kind of like every cent there brings so much more bucks than, let's say, 5% savings on a $400 cost ticket item.

EK: Right. And there's certainly some margin opportunity behind those smaller dollar value products that can typically be a larger margin driver, especially for a manufacturer.

GP: Yep. That means what's key there is usually your local competition is the one who is going to check you on margin. So if you have been a good partner for that location and if you have made their lives easy, that's going to help

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

you to not get replaced anytime somebody can offer a slightly lower price. But if you go too observant in terms of pricing, the local competition can usually replace you. And what you need to consider here is that, while you, when you are Gibraltar and OmniMax, especially the combined organization right now, you have this huge corporate overhead that a manufacturer who only has 5 people outside of the inside of the corporate office and has one location in that region does not have, so they are more nimble in terms of pricing; they can provide a lesser price. So, for you to compete with these type of guys, you need to make sure that you have the good service and you deliver on time and you have a better product selection than those local manufacturers have. So, those two pieces, which is better product selection and better service, are what's going to help you to earn higher margin because the smaller player is always going to be able to price something 5% cheaper because they don't have to carry guys like me. They don't have a corporate; they don't have strategies. It's just them and an office manager and, maybe, 2 other guys who are leaders who are managing the manufacturing and then everyone else is on the shop floor.

EK: Okay, you referenced ABC Supply and their own private label, rainwear line earlier in the conversation. We've done a handful of conversations across the roofing space and it seems that OmniMax, Gibraltar are predominantly stocked through SRS and QXO and there's a bit of a barrier there with ABC given the private label portfolio. Longer term, QXO has reference aspirations to expand their private label portfolio. Do you view that as a credible threat for opportunities for shelf space gains for the combined portfolio moving forward, or are there some opportunities here for partnership?

GP: I think there are opportunities here for partnership, especially for large players. When the Big 3 think about expanding their private label portfolios, they're not going to provide these private label opportunities to smaller players or make it super regional. They usually try to do it with 1 or 2, sometimes maybe 3 large manufacturers who are going to serve different regions for them. And so, this really helps you to get in deeper partnership with them on high moving products, maybe in slightly less margins. But what this gives you is you can get your higher margin, more premium products with those distributors that you may not have had with them. So, I think private label partnerships are a net benefit. Unless it gets to a point where roofing accessories becomes a field where most of the products become private label, which is not happening at this point. And I don't think that's the direction that Big 3 are going to take.

EK: Okay, any concerns later this year as the team does their SKU rationalization efforts predominantly in the Northwest and Southeast? I mean, there's some risks here that... say the reduction of overlapping plans creates some top line headwinds in the near term.

GP: I'm going to speak to what my knowledge allows. I think the biggest risk here, when you speak about SKU rationalization, is optimizing the delivery networks and allowing the customers to order different brands through one EDI or one system. So I don't think technically SKU rationalization is going to create an issue. I think those organizations, OmniMax and Gibraltar, are well experienced with this. Gibraltar may have never done a deal this size, but they have done a couple of deals where they had to do this type of exercise. OmniMax has done this type of exercise, so they know how to do it without disrupting their customers. I think the key thing that none of them have done is, hey, now we have so much more new brands. You have to decide which brand is going to be sold in which market. Maybe you need to change branding on some of the products, but what's most important, if you are keeping, whether you are... what brand you call something, people don't really care. What's really key of it is saying now you are a single organization. I used to buy roof edges from OmniMax, wall systems from OmniMax, and hey, like you guys have really nice products, can I buy them through the same truck? So if you can allow them doing this, that's helpful... that's going to make your life easier and your customer life easier. So doing EK: Right.

GP: this EK: It sounds like that can create some synergies on the cost of service as well.

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

GP: is going to create significant synergies on cost to service and cross-sell. So the whole idea of cross-sell is we are a single organization. You buy other products from this whole basket, they are going to come to you in 1 truck or a couple of trucks if it is more... it is going to come to you in a seamless way where you do not get bothered by number of EDIs, accounting, or number of different ways how you are going to order these products.

EK: Right. And then that just ties into typical M&A type considerations like streamlining ERP systems and tracking products across what is a relatively new production network when combining these 2 portfolios.

GP: Yep, yep. I think the other key piece in terms of the usual would be streamlining the supply chain and procurement. We, OmniMax, used to buy lots of metal, steel and aluminum. I guess the same volume would have been bought by the latter, and combining these two should provide... should give them significantly more significant purchasing power with manufacturers of these metals which are kind of like larger. But now we have become a much more significant customer of theirs, you can try to demand better terms, not just on price but in terms of how soon you can get the inventory or when you already get the inventory, or where you get the inventory, etc. So that part is going to be also important and streamlining the function is a key, especially in the markets where the cost is fluctuating. Running businesses like Gibraltar and OmniMax is relatively much more easy when your input costs are stable. When you don't have to communicate the price changes with your customers more than once a year, and you just keep chugging and making them the metal pieces that you know how to make and you deliver it. When your input costs are fluctuating, running this business in a stable way, in a way where you don't alienate your customers becomes much more hard.

EK: Right. And certainly this year we've seen metal prices fluctuate significantly. I'm looking back at some of the input costs earlier in the year and aluminum prices were up 15%, 16% in the first quarter and subsequently for OmniMax and Gibraltar, prices went up across 14 of their brands in March and April. Typically, when we think about pushing price down into the home center distribution channel, is there a lag associated with realizing those adjustments? And maybe a little higher level here, how do you think about the margin headwind that creates when you have fluctuating input prices?

GP: Yeah, you are short on metal, so it is kind of like the metals go up. Unless you have inventory that is ceding, that you have at lesser pricing that is going to impact your margins. So I would say there is a lag there, usually. So with distribution it is going to be 30 to 60 days. Certainly in Canada, the products that are not part of the private label, like 60, maybe slightly higher than 60 days for private label, and then you usually have significantly higher lag with home centers. I think 90 to 120 days is the lag if you are going to get here. So while this lag is going to hurt you while the prices are going up... I have been thinking and saying before for a long time... so while on the price up, it is going to hurt you. When the prices come down, it is going to work on your benefit, which I do not think I have seen prices come down since I have been in this industry. So hopefully, when that happens, they are going to benefit because that 90-day lag or 120-day lag is going to work the same way.

EK: Okay, and that 90 to 120-day lag, is that predominantly within the home center channel or is that for, say, GP: Yep.

EK: larger purchases within distribution?

GP: That is usually for home center. For distribution, it is usually 30 to 60 days. So the lag with distribution is much, much shorter. It is longer with home centers.

EK: Okay, great. I think for us, George, that is probably a good spot to wrap up the conversation this morning. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

GP: Thanks, Ned. Thank you. Appreciate your time.

EK: Absolutely. Take care and looking forward to catching up later this fall. Talk to you soon.

GP: Bye. Have a good day. Thank you.

EK: Bye now.

DISCLAIMER: The statements or opinions expressed today are those of the Advisor and not Guidepoint, who disclaims all liability for the content provided. The Advisor may not disclose material nonpublic or confidential information or any information that would cause the Advisor to breach any duty or obligations. Guidepoint is not a registered investment advisor and the information provided is not intended to constitute investment advice.

10/11/2026 at 11:34 AM UTC