Building Zone Industries

us apart.” In 2016, the company began to notice a shift away from big brick-and-mortar retail into e-commerce. “We were watching how everybody was no longer building the brick-and-mortar stores, and we could see this wave of very large buildings – a million square feet and up - all over the U.S.,” Barlow relates. “Up to that time, about 80 percent of our erection activity was in retail. So, we made a hard pivot into that space, and we put together a plan to take our panelizing systems into the warehouse and distribution market. “In 2017, that was our focus. We had to redefine the company, so we invested heavily into scaling up our panelizing process, and we established all new clientele in the warehouse/distribution space. In that year, we created from scratch, and launched, two new panel tables and we also started a little fabrication shop called Realine Steel to service some of our large fabricators with miscellaneous metals and expedited components. So, it was a big move for us.” “In 2018, we deployed a new piece of equipment called the MezzMaster. It’s a jib that attaches to a forklift. So, instead of having to use cranes, we can use forklifts to lift those panelized sections of roof into place. The reason it’s called MezzMaster, because it’s the first time that I know of, that a mezzanine in a building could be panelized. Nobody in the industry was doing anything like that, so it was a revolutionary shift. In the same year, we deployed two more panelizing systems and a bunch of MezzMasters. These are all proprietary, patented equipment – we’re the only ones in the industry with it.” Because BZI is able to do most of its work on the ground, which is very different than what the industry was used to, its crews are able to work much faster. “We’re cutting 40 percent of the time out of the building schedule,” Barlow notes. “A project might be ten weeks, and we’re putting it up in six. So, there’s been exponential growth.