Brad Beldon on Persevering Through Labor and Supply Chain Crisis

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.  

CEO of Beldon Roofing talks about Ozbee, the supply chain breakdown, and labor shortages in the construction industry.

“It’s a perfect storm,” CEO of Beldon Roofing Company, Brad Beldon, told the San Antonio Express News. He is talking of course of the double whammy combination of the labor shortage and broken supply chain the construction industry is currently experiencing.  

“You have the supply chain crisis hitting at the exact same time that labor became a crisis,” says Brad. “COVID took more labor out of the equation and then it shut down factories. When they shut down factories, they can’t get capacity back up.” 

The labor shortage is not new to the industry. For decades, construction has struggled to look for new workers, and the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated this issue. “The labor force is on the higher end — they’re closer to my age, in the late 50s. You don’t see the 20 year old’s wanting to enter the construction industry,” says Brad. “We still can’t fill every position. I mean, our backlog is the largest backlog we’ve had in the history of our company, and we can’t do the work.” 

Now, with broken supply chains many construction companies are having difficulties getting the materials they need or the materials come at inflated prices. “It’s unprecedented. We have zero transparency. The inflation is just outpacing everything,” says Brad. “So you have a double whammy. That product that we used to see for $300 is now $1,400 and a lot of the MDI is still stuck out in the Pacific and can’t get into here. There are five truckers per every 100 truckloads of demand.” 

Brad has done near everything he can to help alleviate this problem, sending letters to President Biden and members of Congress suggesting measures to alleviate the crisis, like expanding the H-2B temporary worker program. However, it is Brad and his co-worker Jodie McCue’s software business Ozbee Team Software that is providing the biggest answer to these issues.  

Ozbee Team Software aims to be a one-stop shop for construction companies to do their scheduling, inspections and communicate with employees and customers, among other things. While the software was developed for Beldon Roofing specifically, Brad and Jodie recognized the value of this platform for other contractors. 

“(Before developing Ozbee) we were using five (customer relationship management platforms). And entering the data in manually, in multiple systems that couldn’t talk to each other,” says Brad. He explains that it has been helpful to regain back some efficiency, especially in times like these, by working smarter.  

Learn more about Beldon Roofing Company in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.beldon.com.