There’s no ceiling to this business model
by Glenn RittRussell Cazeault faced a true challenge for a successful business. No matter how much he excelled, no matter how many more skilled employees he could hire, he always would face a gauntlet to growth beyond his control – the weather.
Rain, sleet, wind, short days of sunlight – in other words, normal Cape Cod conditions – meant that he could not finish a roofing job as fast as he would prefer. That meant lost productivity and a perpetual brake on growth.
What to do?
The answer for Cazeault was to be found in vertical integration – he has leveraged roofing into a vertically integrated company.
Vertical integration is the process in which several steps in the production and/or distribution of a product or service are controlled by a single company or entity, in order to increase that company’s or entity’s power in the marketplace. The advantages of vertical integration include the ability to secure supplies and future orders. Vertical integration is most often justifiable where it leads to either operational efficiencies or some other source of strategic advantage. In Cazeault’s case, it allowed him to diversify while also extending his customer base. This helps protect him from fluctuations in any one business sector.
First, he expanded by launching the Copper Gutter Shop and BendTek Inc., which fabricates flashing and valleys for roofs. Most recently, he started the Cape Cod Weathervane Company, which specializes in scores of home products – especially, yes, copper weathervanes.
As a further hedge to both the weather and Cape Cod’s seasonal customer base, Cazeault has built these three businesses with an Internet-first strategy. As a result, he has become a global sales company with customers across the nation. That has cut costs substantially – from retail sales help to storefront rents.
The Internet also lets him manage his company’s infrastructure and communications from anywhere – as long as there is a broadband connection. That’s a critical advantage for someone not only traveling between many sites, but also intent on connecting his different staffs to each other.
Now, as a roofer, he buys products from all three of his other companies – but always at the market price, never discounted because of “connections.”
At each juncture of his ever-expanding and vertical model, Cazeault never loses sight of the core business – roofing – or of the history and values that built the family business.
The Cazeault name in roofing goes back 1927 – and to the 1960s on Cape Cod, when Russell’s grandfather bought property in Osterville.
“Roofing gets in your blood,” he noted, explaining that his father and five other brothers all entered the industry. Russell worked with his father and brother Paul Jr. through high school. But with a father that wanted his son to experience “different things,” Russell went to Bridgewater State College to study business. During that time, the family business added the Orleans location while remaining in Osterville.
Today, Russell operates a roofing company with two estimators, two administrators, 20 roofers and a dozen vehicles.
“We grew very fast,” he said, “but roofing has its frustrations. You can sell all day long, but can only install when weather allows you – and that includes daylight hours only on the nicest day. You can’t even open up a house if you suspect rain. It’s not like many other businesses where there are no limits.
“So roofing, by definition, has to plateau,” explained Cazeault. “And customers don’t want to hear that their job is pushed back because of three days of rain. Nor do we."
What to do next?
Copper flashings became Cazeault’s first ‘Aha!’ About eight years ago, he realized that many builders were asking for copper flashings and valleys. There was stock metal, but one size wasn’t fitting all – especially as more second-home owners arrived on the Cape and demanded more custom appointments. Moreover, builders were seeking copper for more durability in the Cape’s bad weather.
“We realized we could custom-bend metal for the builder; soon, we decided to pursue this venture as its own entity,” explained Cazeault. But there was a catch. Would other roofers hesitate to buy copper flashings from a competitor? To avoid this possibility, he named the new company BendTek Inc.
The timing was perfect. The company was formed just as the housing boom began in the late 1990s. Ironically, Cazeault built the new business on an e-commerce platform – even as the Internet bubble was bursting all around him.
“BendTek was my first Web business. It was amazing. We would have people from all over the country calling for what we featured on the Web page. That was when I realized I was on to something.
“With computerized bending equipment, we had few limits time-wise. Nor were we bound by geography. If needed, we could do multiple shifts. People started calling from the Carolinas and Texas asking for quotes on fabricating, crating and shipping. That is the beauty of the Internet. Our Web page made us look bigger than we really were. Suddenly, I was as big as the biggest manufacturers.”
But unlike an Internet-only company, Cazeault applied the experience he garnered from years of face-to-face relationships with customers.
“People contacting us on the Web also had to trust us. That requires a live person by the phone,” he emphasized. “No getting voice mail and complicated menus. A live person is key for taking messages, answering questions and helping people as much as they can.”
While his roofing company continues to thrive, weather allowing, the Copper Gutter Company and BendTek Inc. are experiencing “steady” annual growth. Rising fuel prices are adding to shipping costs – which are a critical expense component. The recent slowdown in housing hasn’t affected the constant need for re-roofing projects, but it does put a certain crimp on custom products associated with new home building.
The Weathervane Company, on the other hand, may have the greatest potential of all his businesses.
How’s the wind blowing? Check out the Weathervane
The Cape Cod Weathervane Company is a direct outgrowth of the Copper Gutter Shop, which started selling copper weathervanes and finials for the top of cupolas. From that basic line of products, Cazeault rapidly added doorknockers, sundials, address plaques and most recently copper lanterns.
Intent on growing without debt, Cazeault has only two employees plus himself attached to the Weathervane. But he believes it has the most potential.
“Not only does it address my target contractors, but it appeals directly to homeowners. It is something people come to for wedding gifts and housewarmings. Realtors use it for thank-you gifts. It appeals to a very broad audience, more than anything else I have done.”
The biggest strategic decision facing Cazeault is just how to expand Weathervane. He already has turned his Hyannis warehouse into a retail store. Now, you walk directly into the Weathervane’s administrative office before entering a showroom in the back. Soon, he will remodel the space and reverse that sequence.
“We ended up here basically because there was an empty bay; we planned to be just an Internet company, letting customers order online, with products shipped either from Hyannis or directly from manufacturers.”
“Then we started getting calls. ‘Can I come to your place and look? We want to see a cupola.’”
Now, Cazeault is contemplating an actual retail store, but that is uncharted territory for him. However, new adventures are what keep him motivated.
He’s also working on a catalog for the Weathervane Company, populating it with local photographs Cazeault culled from a contest he organized on the Web. Despite the Internet, he encounters many customers who still want something on paper – reinforcing the wisdom of a multimedia approach to marketing.
“I envision a combination of the Internet, walk-in traffic and catalog orders comprising the company, and I see it growing pretty big.”
For the moment, he is caught between two business consultants he trusts – one saying go slow with a store; the other encouraging a retail operation to be more visible.
It is just one more tipping point in a continual growth model by a long-time Cape Codder not afraid of trial and error.
Published in Cape Business Sept/Oct 2007
Glenn Ritt Glenn Ritt is editor and co-publisher of Cape Business Publishing LLC. He is the former publisher of Cape Cod Community Newspapers and editor of The Bergen Record in New Jersey. 
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