Faces of the Industry: Gene Frogale

What got you into this industry?

Annandale Millwork and Allied Systems is a family-owned company, and it really started in 1952 with my father. It was a good time to be in the industry. We (I was only seven years old then) were a full-service, typical mom-and-pop lumber yard. Basically, we just sold lumber and a lot of windows and doors.

We flourished and grew with Washington, DC. In the 1950s, Annandale was an uninhabited town. What we experienced in our region were these larger developers coming to town. They were the pioneer local developers who didn’t build just one or two houses but built whole subdivisions. So we gradually moved away from serving weekend warriors to serving professional builders.

It was in 1989 that my brother and I got interested in [the component] aspect of supply. We’d just been lumber supply—not roof trusses or floor trusses—so we were just kind of feeling our way. We bought some property in Winchester, Virginia that was actually a steel fabricating shop and we kind of went at it, I hate to say this, ass backwards.

Early on, we were one of the first to do wall panels. Most of the pioneers were already established in roof trusses and floor trusses, but nobody was really jumping at wall panels. We got into it with both feet and struggled with it the first year or so, but eventually we got pretty good at wall panelization. It was a short step for our customers to say, “gosh, if you’re selling us wall panels, why don’t you do the roof trusses?” And, low and behold, what we found in the roof truss side was that the software was a little further along and it was easier. And the rest is history.

That’s a roundabout way to get into the truss business.

We did it the hard way. We had an interior door machine (which my dad pioneered). It was a machine that you had to buy parts and pieces for, so the idea of manufacturing was not alien to us. Instead of a door machine, we needed two by fours to start building trusses.

I remember that first order that came in for roof trusses—it must have been ’96 or ’97—the customer had a contract with a competitor and the competitor said, “we’re seven weeks out.” We bid the job and did not get it, but because we were new, we didn’t have a backlog. The guy said, “I’ve got 40 houses, all sold,” and we took the job. Every week there was a package going out.

It was a good synergy with our millwork business, so we can really sell a pretty good package now. We can sell the components and all the windows and doors that go with the components. What we always knew we had was a loyal customer base, and we were lucky that those first few customers went along with the mistakes we made. It was good opportunity for us and we never looked back.

You’ve had a long relationship with SBCA that started with attending BCMC.

BCMC was absolutely necessary for us as we learned the technology and got on board with truss manufacturing. It was just a fabulous display of machinery and equipment. The show’s big enough that there’s a lot of stuff there but it’s small enough that you can talk to all the manufacturers, and we sure did!

It’s a great opportunity to learn from other people—you have people there from all different regions of the country. When you meet with your competitors, you don’t want to share too much; we have great relationships and work together, but at the show, you talk to people from Arizona, California, Ohio, Florida—people who are new to the industry as well as people who are well-established in the industry would be wise to send their people there to learn.

You also have a local SBCA chapter that’s picking up where BCMC Build left off.

The way it’s gone in the past, there was the Build, which is a separate entity [from BCMC]. Wherever the show was, we would try to find a recipient in that region and a local builder who was willing to donate his time and marshal his subcontractors, and then SBCA members would supply the building components. This past year, in Knoxville, we were unable to secure a recipient!

We have a strong chapter, and we certainly want to continue our relationship with Operation Finally Home, so we hope to find a local builder that will lead the initiative and we’ll be able, as a chapter, to donate the components. There are a few builders in this area who are quite enthusiastic about it. I’m president of SBCA Cap but I’m also a member of the local NAHB chapter, so we have good relationships with the builder community here. We’ve had good experience with the builders supporting a project like this.

It’s a little daunting because it’s a tremendous amount of work, but my chapter feels very strongly about continuing this charity. We’re probably going to stumble a little bit and make mistakes, but we’re leading with our hearts on this one. And we have enough clear thinkers in the chapter that I’m hoping we won’t get into too much trouble!

We have strong businesses that are charitable and are also good stewards of our industry. We have a good chapter, and I feel lucky that I’m in this position. It’s a tremendous responsibility—it takes a lot!—but I think that we are in exciting times.

You say the industry is facing two challenges: regulation and hiring.

Code compliance continues to challenge manufacturers. There’s lots of experimentation going on, staying up with the design, dealing with local shipping requirements (they’re always changing restrictions on where we can go and where we can’t go), and then safety! Properly installing roof trusses and floor trusses, safety on the jobsite is becoming more and more our responsibility. We continue to be challenged by more and more regulations, both from the OSHA side and the state side. Fall protection rules are very, very stringent now. I get that regulations are needed, and it’s there for safety, but sometimes it just seems like they’re overwhelming. As an industry, we have to be very careful. That’s a huge challenge.

We also have to continue to train our people well. Getting young people into the industry is a constant challenge. I think some regions do a great job, but we struggle a little with that in our firm. We’ve partnered with the local community colleges, but it’s still difficult.

What’s your favorite part about being in this industry?

I like making things. I really love when I drive around this region and I see a subdivision, and I know that my components are in that subdivision. It’s housing for people to live in—that’s a fundamental human need. It is a great source of pride. In this region, there’s a massive government presence and lots of professional services, but we’re still manufactures; we still make stuff.

When you’re not thinking about trusses, what keeps you busy?

I’m on the board of trustees of George Mason University. We’re big supporters of Mason. They’re located right here in Fairfax County. We have a scholarship, my brother and I, in my father’s name, in the business school. We’re really proud of that.