Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. (‘Simpson’) through its subsidiaries, including, Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc. (‘SST’), designs, engineers and manufactures structural solutions for wood, concrete, and steel connections.
The company’s solutions help customers design and build safer and stronger structures. The company is relentlessly focused on providing customers with best-in-class field support, technical expertise, digital tools, and training. The company’s research, rigorous testing, and f...
Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. (‘Simpson’) through its subsidiaries, including, Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc. (‘SST’), designs, engineers and manufactures structural solutions for wood, concrete, and steel connections.
The company’s solutions help customers design and build safer and stronger structures. The company is relentlessly focused on providing customers with best-in-class field support, technical expertise, digital tools, and training. The company’s research, rigorous testing, and focus on innovation enable it to design cost-effective, high-performing, and easy-to-install solutions for a multitude of applications in wood, steel, and concrete structures. The company’s products for wood construction are used in light-frame building applications and include connectors, truss plates, screw fastening systems, fasteners, and pre-fabricated lateral-force resisting systems. The company’s products for concrete construction are used in concrete, masonry, and steel building applications, and include adhesives, chemicals, mechanical anchors, carbide drill bits, powder-actuated tools, fiber-reinforced materials, and other repair products used for protecting and strengthening structures. The company markets its products to the residential construction, light industrial, commercial construction, original equipment manufacturer (‘OEM’), component manufacturers, and national retail markets domestically in North America, primarily in the United States, and internationally, predominantly in Europe. The company’s European operations include its subsidiary FIXCO, Invest S.A.S. (together with its subsidiaries, ‘ETANCO’). ETANCO is a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of fixing and fastening solutions for the European building and construction market. ETANCO's primary product applications directly align with the addressable markets in which the company operates, expand its portfolio of solutions, including mechanical anchors, fasteners, and commercial building envelope solutions, and significantly increase its market presence across Europe. The company also provides engineering services to support and enhance products and their specifications while growing its offering of digital tools and design, planning, and estimating software to facilitate the specification, selection, and use of its products.
Sales
The company attracts and retains customers by designing, manufacturing, and selling high-quality, high-performing products that are cost-effective and easy for its customers to install. The company manufactures and warehouses its products in geographic proximity to its markets to help ensure availability and facilitate timely delivery to customers, which enables it to promptly respond to customer requests for specially designed products and services. The company maintains levels of inventory intended to operate with minimum backlog and fill most customer orders within 24-48 hours. High levels of manufacturing automation and flexibility allow the company to maintain its high-quality standards while continuing to provide prompt delivery to meet its customers' needs.
The company intends to continue efforts to increase market share in its geographic markets of North America, Europe, and the Asia/Pacific, as well as across its broad product range through: an increasingly diverse portfolio of products and software, and a commitment to developing complete solutions for the markets it serves; the company’s long-standing reputation, relationships, and engagement with engineers, building officials, and contractors to design safer, stronger structures, and improve construction standards and practices; a dedication to innovation and extensive product engineering, along with rigorous research and testing in the company’s nine state-of-the-art labs; striving for best-in-class field support, technical expertise, digital tools, and training to make it easy to select, specify, install, and purchase its products; industry-leading product availability and delivery standards on the company’s vast product offering across multiple distribution channels, with typical delivery within 24-48 hours, and high fill rates; a deep commitment to trades education and partnering with organizations that provide training and career opportunities to attract more people to the construction industry and alleviate labor shortages; and expanding the company’s solutions and offerings to its end-market customers in the residential, commercial, OEM, component manufacturer, and national retail areas.
Products and Services
Historically, the company’s product lines have encompassed connectors, anchors, fasteners, lateral-force resisting systems, and truss plates, as well as repair and strengthening product lines for the industrial and transportation markets. The company has established a presence in Europe through the acquisition of companies with existing customer bases and through servicing the U.S.-based customers operating in Europe. The company also distributes connector, anchor, and adhesive products in Canada, Mexico, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. Additionally, with the acquisition of ETANCO, the company expanded its product portfolio to include commercial building envelope solutions and significantly increased its market presence across Europe.
Many of the company’s products are code-listed and approved by building code evaluation agencies. To achieve these approvals, the company conducts extensive product testing, which is witnessed and certified by independent testing laboratories. These tests also provide the basis of load ratings for the company’s structural products. This test and load information is used by architects, engineers, contractors, building officials, and homeowners in selecting the company’s products and comparing them to those of competitors, and is useful across all applications of the company’s products, ranging from the wood deck constructed by a homeowner to a multi-story steel structure designed by an architect or engineer.
Structural Products for Wood Construction: The company produces and markets over 15,000 standard and custom products for wood construction applications. These products are used primarily to strengthen, support, and connect wood applications in residential and commercial construction, and do-it-yourself (‘DIY’) projects. The company’s wood construction products contribute to structural integrity and resistance to seismic, wind, and gravitational forces. The company’s wood construction products include:
Connectors - Connectors are prefabricated metal products designed to join wood, concrete, masonry, or steel together and are essential for tying wood construction elements together and creating safer and stronger buildings. Included in this category are connectors, holddowns, and truss connector plates.
Fasteners - The fastening line includes a variety of nails, screws, and staples, which are complemented by the company's multiple screw fastening systems, which are used exclusively in numerous applications, such as building envelope applications, decking, subfloors, drywall, and roofing; and
Lateral-Force Resisting Systems - Lateral-force resisting systems are assemblies used to resist earthquake or wind forces and include pre-fabricated steel and wood shear walls, Anchor Tiedown Systems (ATS), and Yield-Link connections for steel moment and braced frames.
Structural Products for Concrete Construction: The company produces and markets over 3,000 standard and custom products for concrete construction applications. These products are composed of various materials, including steel, chemicals, and carbon fiber. They are used primarily to anchor, protect, and strengthen concrete, brick, and masonry applications in industrial, infrastructure, residential, commercial, and DIY projects. The company’s product solutions for concrete construction applications contribute to structural integrity and resistance to seismic, wind, and gravitational forces. These products are sold in all segments of the company. The company’s concrete construction products include:
Anchor Products - Anchor products include adhesives, mechanical anchors, carbide drill bits, and powder-actuated pins and tools used for numerous applications of anchoring or attaching elements onto concrete, brick, masonry, and steel; and
Repair, Protection, and Strengthening Products - Concrete construction repair, protection, and strengthening products include grouts, coatings, sealers, mortars, fiberglass, and fiber-reinforced polymer systems, and asphalt products.
Engineering and Design Services: The company’s engineers not only design and test products, but also provide customers with engineering support for a number of products manufactured and sold by the company. This support might range from the discussion of a load value in a catalog to testing the suitability of an existing product in a unique application. For the truss product line, the company’s engineers review the output of the company’s software to assist customers in ensuring that trusses are properly designed and specified, and in some instances seal design diagrams. Generally, in connection with any engineering services the company provides, the company’s engineers serve as a point of reference and support for the customer’s engineers and other design and construction professionals, who ultimately determine and are responsible for the engineering approach and design loads for any project.
The growth of the company’s business, as well as many of its current growth initiatives, have been and are currently facilitated by its technology and software solutions, as well as its ongoing digital development initiatives. The company has an ever-growing suite of advanced technology tools, including software, to improve operational efficiencies in the building industry. The company’s early software solutions started by supporting engineers and designers with product selection and specification applications, as well as estimating solutions for builders and retailers. The company strategically expanded its software offerings to enhance collaboration with building industry partners in an effort to streamline workflows, reduce labor time and costs, improve accuracy, support scalability, and increase its profitability. The company has grown its software solutions to support the growth of many customer groups, such as component manufacturers, builders, and lumber yards. The company has also introduced software applications for the DIY and repair and remodel markets. Whether focusing on residential, commercial, or outdoor structures, the company’s technology and digital solutions are designed to solve challenges, simplify tasks, and provide cost-effective product and design recommendations that ultimately enhance customer efficiency and business success. The company’s customer-facing software and other technology solutions are anticipated to expand over time to address the growing needs of its end-markets, to become a larger portion of the company’s overall value-added offerings.
Distribution Channels and Markets
The company seeks to expand existing and identify new distribution channels in the markets it serves, and expand into new adjacent markets. Presently, the company primarily serves in three geographic markets, which are also its operating segments, consisting of the North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific segments. The North America segment includes operations primarily in the U.S. and Canada. The Europe segment includes operations primarily in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Italy. The Asia/Pacific segment includes operations primarily in Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. These segments are similar in several ways, including similarities in the products manufactured and distributed, the types of materials used, the production processes, the distribution channels, and the product applications.
The company sells its products through multiple channels, including the following:
Dealers: The company intends to increase penetration of the residential market by expanding to markets in which it sells products directly to lumber dealers and cooperatives. The company's sales force maintains ongoing contact with these customers and supports the inventory levels, resets, and displays.
Home Centers: The company intends to increase penetration of the DIY and contractor customer markets by continuing to expand its product offerings through home centers. The company’s sales force maintains ongoing contact with home centers to work with them in a broad range of areas, including inventory levels, retail display maintenance, and product knowledge training. The company’s strategy is to ensure that the home center retail stores are fully stocked with adequate supplies of the company’s products carried by those stores. The company has further developed extensive barcoding and merchandising aids and has devoted a portion of its research and development efforts to DIY products.
Wood Component Manufacturers: The company works directly with wood component manufacturer customers. The company continues to develop its software solutions, equipment offerings, and provide better technology solutions, increasing its truss connector plate sales, as well as other Simpson Strong-Tie core product sales within the component industry.
OEM Relationships: The company works closely with manufacturers of engineered wood, composite laminated timber, and OEMs for off-site construction to develop and expand the application and sales of its engineered wood connector, fastener, anchor, and truss products. The company has relationships with many of the leaders in these industries. The company also intends to expand opportunities with other OEMs where its products complement their offerings.
Distributors: The company regularly evaluates its distribution coverage and the service level provided by its distributors, and from time to time implements changes. The company evaluates distributors' product mix and conducts promotions to encourage them to add the company's products that complement the mix of their product offerings in their markets.
Contractors: In some markets, the company sells to a wide range of end customers (contractors) mainly through direct sales.
New Products
In order to innovate, advance, and diversify the company’s product offerings, the company commits substantial resources to new product development. The majority of the company’s products have been developed through its internal research and development team. The company’s engineering, sales, product management, and marketing teams work together with architects, engineers, building inspectors, code officials, builders, and customers in the new product development process.
The company’s product research and development are based largely on products or solutions that are identified within the company, feedback or requests from customers for new or specialty products, or in connection with the company’s strategic initiatives to expand into new markets and/or develop new product lines. The company’s strategy is to develop new products on a proprietary basis, to seek patents when appropriate, and to rely on trade secret protection for others. Depending on availability and circumstances, the company will acquire products or solutions meeting its strategic initiatives.
In 2024, through the company’s research and development efforts, the company developed over 65 new products, expanding its product offerings by adding: new connectors and lateral products for wood framing applications; new connectors and fasteners for mass timber and offsite constructions; connections for structural steel construction; new connectors for cold-formed steel applications; new fastener products and tools for wood construction; new mechanical and adhesive anchors for concrete and masonry construction; and new repair and strengthening systems for concrete and masonry applications.
By executing on the company’s research and development strategy, the company intends to continue to expand its product offerings.
The company provides expertise and resources to offer software solutions and services to builders and lumber building material dealers, and supports efforts to further develop integrated software component solutions for the building industry. The company also continues to focus on the development of truss software for the design, modeling, and truss plate selection for its integrated component manufacturing customers.
Seasonality
Although the company’s sales have been seasonal and cyclical, with operating results varying from quarter to quarter, as a result of its European operations, primarily ETANCO, overall sales are becoming less seasonal. The company’s sales and income have historically been lower in the first and fourth quarters (year ended December 31, 2024) than in the second and third quarters of a fiscal year, as the company's customers tend to purchase construction materials in the late spring and summer months for the construction season. Although the company’s sales are also dependent, to a degree, on the U.S. residential home construction industry, the North America segment accounted for approximately 77.8% of its net sales for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development and other engineering expenses were $93.6 million in 2024.
History
Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. was founded in 1956. The company was incorporated in 1999.