The owners of G5 Enterprises Inc. have been on a buying spree to bolster their building products companies’ market share.
Since October, Britt and Maribeth Gardner have acquired two insulation companies – one that widens its footprint in Arkansas and another that enhances the company’s presence in mid-Missouri. The latest purchase, Ballards Insulation LLC in Sedalia, connects its crews in branches between Bolivar and Columbia.
G5 President Maribeth Gardner says Ballards was a draw for its strength in spray foam and cellulose insulation.
“That was something we wanted to build on,” she says.
Nixa-based G5 Enterprises already worked in the insulation space as well as with exterior products, such as gutters, siding and windows.
Now, its holdings comprise six brands and a dozen branch offices. The centerpiece is Bolivar Insulation, which is responsible for seven of the locations.
“Each branch is really very different in its own market,” Gardner says. “As we’ve learned since we bought the Bolivar companies, there is not two that are identical. That’s one of the challenges of running a business with multiple locations in multiple markets – it’s learning the market and the product mix to support them to grow.”In the mix
The Gardners – who named G5 after their family of five – bought Bolivar Insulation in 2012 and with it came Arkansas Insulation LLC and Southwestern Professional Exteriors.
Created as a business consulting company, G5 kept the individually organized branches in place and have brought new ones under the G5 umbrella.
One of those is an insulation installer it started in 2013. InsulUSA LLC handles spray foam insulation for other branches.
Gardner says the workload is evenly split between insulation and the exterior products, but company leaders have identified spray foam as a growth opportunity. Gardner says it’s only about 20 percent of G5’s undisclosed sales volumes.
“It’s definitely a growth area. Customers are learning more about energy efficiency and what they can do to decrease cost and decrease usage,” she says.
While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates average energy savings of 15 percent with additional home insulation and sealing, insulation companies face some stiff competition.
“Our biggest competition in spray foam is granite countertops and custom closets – nobody really wants to put money behind the walls or in the attic because you don’t see it,” Gardner says. “But it will pay you back.”
The average cost for professionally installed spray-foam insulation is $1,900, according to a HomeAdvisor Inc. national survey. The jobs typically cost around $500 more per home than blown-in or batt and roll insulation.
She estimates a 30 percent energy savings with the newer spray foam compared with traditional insulation. G5 crews are licensed Icynene contractors. The spray polyurethane foam manufacturer based in Canada works with 635 contractors, who have installed the insulation in over 425,000 homes and businesses, according to company materials.
G5 is investing in the new technology.
“We put a rig in Arkansas,” she says of the trailer-pulled equipment to mix the foam on-site. “Labor is tough. Spraying foam is pretty skilled and not everybody has a knack for it. That takes a little more time to train somebody or find somebody.”
Bolivar on the move
Next up is relocating Bolivar Insulation from a large, aging building on Trafficway in center city Springfield.
“The main thing was efficiencies and we didn’t need that big of space,” Gardner says of the 2050 E. Trafficway St. property on 7 acres. “It will bring sales and warehouse all under one roof.”
Crews are scheduled to move Feb. 1 to 1935 E. Florida St.
After three decades on Trafficway – 100,000 square feet of commercial space and branded by the small, yellow water tower imprinted with Bolivar Insulation – the corporate offices relocated to Nixa in the fall creating unused space, says Doug Morrow, branch manager.
With 20 Bolivar Insulation employees, primarily installers, he says hundreds of jobs are completed through the branch each month. Regular clients are homebuilders Ramsey Building Co., Farhlander Custom Homes and Bailey Co.
“Gutter on a house might take half a day. And the crew might do a couple a day,” Morrow says.
Companywide, G5’s 150 employees perform work in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Gardner says there is a perk to the breadth and depth of the subsidiaries: “We have resources in the other companies to help each other out when we have a big push somewhere.”
