Trex CEO Bryan Fairbanks speaks with Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman about the company's origins turning bread bags and sawdust into board, and how Trex now makes decking from more than 95% recycled and reclaimed material. He explains the manufacturing culture required to absorb the variability of recycled inputs, plus recent product innovation and long warranty life.
00:00:02:26 - 00:00:16:13
Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutterman, CEO of Green Builder Media, and I'm here today with Brian Fairbanks, CEO of Trex. So Trex has a wonderful origin story. Will you tell us about the company's history and how you came to be?
00:00:16:14 - 00:00:46:04
Bryan Fairbanks: Trex has a extensive history with sustainability. Some of our founding principles were based on our ability to use recycled and reclaimed inputs to manufacture high value products. If we go back over 35 years ago, one of our original founders, a very technical gentleman, had to throw anything away and found a situation where he had a lot of bread bags available and sawdust.
00:00:46:04 - 00:01:18:00
Bryan Fairbanks: And I'm simplifying the story quite a bit here, but in essence, took those materials, extruded it into basically a flooring type board, which would go in the bottom of a barn or a factory or something like that, and realized very quickly that this is something that will last a long time. As things started to move forward, began to realize this may be an opportunity to reinvent the way Americans do their overall decking product.
00:01:18:03 - 00:01:44:22
Bryan Fairbanks: Shortly thereafter, Mobile Corporation purchased it and brought on additional expertise with the organization and another genius who was involved with it was on the branding side of things. Back then, building products really weren't branded to the end consumer, and Andy Ferrari brought the Trex brand to the company at that time frame and started marketing directly to that end, consumer who was building a deck.
00:01:44:23 - 00:01:59:03
Bryan Fairbanks: So now you've got two great things together. You've got a sustainable product that's made with 95% plus recycled and reclaimed materials, and you have a strong consumer brand. We've continued on with that legacy for over 30 years now.
00:01:59:05 - 00:02:16:07
Sara Gutterman: Trex clearly has an authentic sustainability story. You've been selected as one of Green Builder Media, sustainable brand leaders in the decking category for an unprecedented 15 years in a row now. So what are you most proud of with respect to your sustainability practices today?
00:02:16:10 - 00:02:47:17
Bryan Fairbanks: We appreciate that recognition from Green Builder. It does drive us to move forward. What I'm most proud of is we have an organization here at Trex that is very flexible. You cannot use materials like this consistently without having a culture that understands. There's going to be a lot of variability coming into the manufacturing floor. The vast majority of manufacturers, you're going to give them a highly consistent input, and they will develop a highly consistent output for you.
00:02:47:19 - 00:03:09:00
Bryan Fairbanks: In our case, we've developed a culture where they understand what comes in that receiving door. There's going to be a lot of variability, especially on the plastic that we use. We need to develop processes and the capability for our team to manage that variability so that we can create a high value, very consistent dashboard or railing product at the end of the line.
00:03:09:07 - 00:03:22:07
Bryan Fairbanks: That's not something that happens overnight in an organization and why we've not seen many other organizations copy that and have the ability to run the levels of those recycled materials like we do.
00:03:22:09 - 00:03:35:06
Sara Gutterman: Now, innovation is a core value. Tracks I know that you've launched 19 products in about as many months. So talk to me about your culture of innovation and how that's really helped you transform the decking category.
00:03:35:09 - 00:03:55:22
Bryan Fairbanks: Yeah, the past couple years have really been a shift for the company in new products coming to the market. Like many organizations, through the pandemic, as there were demand surges, we were sold out. We couldn't really launch those products. But I continuously told people, our R\&D team, our marketing team, we've got a lot of things in the wings ready to come out.
00:03:55:25 - 00:04:31:22
Bryan Fairbanks: So starting in late 2022, we started launching those products and really came into a large number of launches at the end of the 2024 timeframe. A lot of those on the trailing side of the business, but one of the things I'm most proud of, the technical innovation that we call sun comfortable technology. It's something that we're starting to add on all of the new dashboards that we launch, and this allows for a dashboard that's under direct sunlight, especially in some of those southern environments where you start getting high heat and direct sun, and it reduces the temperature of that dashboard.
00:04:31:24 - 00:04:43:03
Bryan Fairbanks: So that's more comfortable underfoot. That's something our consumers are looking for from composite decking industry and something we're providing them. And we continue to roll that out with new launches.
00:04:43:10 - 00:04:58:00
Sara Gutterman: With the increasing intensity and frequency of weather and climate events. Resiliency is top of mind for so many people right now, both building professionals and consumers. So how do Trex products provide resiliency solutions?
00:04:58:03 - 00:05:23:00
Bryan Fairbanks: We offer warranties on our product anywhere from 25 up to 50 years, depending upon the level of product that's being purchased. And even if we think about our entry level product, they will last well beyond that. 25 year warranty timeframe. But within that 25 years, if you were to install it, they would pressure treated deck. You're probably looking at two replacements during that timeframe.
00:05:23:06 - 00:05:37:24
Bryan Fairbanks: Whereas with Trex you've got one deck that's going to last you for that long period of time. So I think we fit well into the resiliency side of things and definitely fit that trend. Consumers are looking for for low maintenance options with their homes.
00:05:37:27 - 00:05:40:08
Sara Gutterman: What sustainability trends are you tracking?
00:05:40:15 - 00:06:01:28
Bryan Fairbanks: Yeah, the most important sustainability trend that we see is that next generation of consumers that are coming through the marketplace, those that are the 25 to 40 year old who have grown up with more of an eye toward sustainability. It's something that they're looking for in the products that they're purchasing. It's not the top thing they're looking for.
00:06:02:04 - 00:06:19:25
Bryan Fairbanks: You have to be a sustainable product, but you also have to deliver the appropriate value. The esthetics, the durability along the way. But being sustainable on top of those things becomes a deciding factor for those consumers. And I think that will continue to increase as we move forward over the next ten years.