A Year in Review
The last 12 months have been brilliant and chaotic. We have the best staff and the best dealers—they make magic happen every single day. My heartfelt thanks to every single person in this big network of shade-manufacturing awesomeness!
STATS
I’m a big fan of numbers, so let’s start here!
- We added 19 full-time employees to the staff, nearly tripling our head count.
- We added our 2nd factory! Texas has been a great environment for our newest expansion.
- We doubled the capacity at our Washington factory by adding a fully staffed nightshift.
- We tripled the count of active dealers.
- We tripled the count of dealers who qualified for our Premier Dealer status!!
- We added our first sales rep! Then we added a second!
- We finished the year with 99.4% delivered order accuracy.
- Our average screen was manufactured two and a half days after order entry.
- Our longest lead time, by far, was a 20-week nightmare with custom-matched metallic powder from Europe. (Still sorry about that one, Rodney!)
- Our fastest lead time was under three hours. It was installed on a house less than 6 hours after being ordered and was probably still warm from being powdercoated. (You’re welcome, Nate!)
Perhaps my favorite part of 2024 was seeing our strategy prove its value and its resilience in growth. We powdercoat and manufacture every screen, to order, at our US-based factories. We fabricate our own components and design our own solutions.
We’re a family-owned, US-based, thriving manufacturing company. That’s so awesome.
PROJECTS
We have no plans for slowing down! So, for all the growth that you have seen, there was even more work done in laying the foundation for the future.
- We migrated off of Quickbooks and over to NetSuite for our accounting and planning infrastructure. This is mostly behind-the-scenes stuff, but it’s important for the material planning that makes our multi-factory operation flow so smoothly.
- We launched the first iteration of OutQuotes! This proprietary software currently works as our order entry and dealer portal but will be built out into a full CPQ and install planning tool! Really proud of our in-house development team for the work and pivoting they did on this!
- We fell short on our goal of pushing one product improvement per week, but still managed to roll out 4 new aluminum extrusion designs, a couple dozen “quality of life” product improvements, a new fabric offering and an improved composite polymer.
- We did our first trade show at ATA in Anaheim. We followed that up by booking 4 more shows for 2025! We’re really excited for the IWCE show in Florida this spring!
WHAT'S NEXT?
First Dealer Conference!
Mark your calendars for February 26th in Grand Prairie, Texas! This is both an open-house for the new factory and a chance for all our dealers to get together. Please click here to RSVP or reach out to Arwen@TemplarScreens.com for more information.
Plant #3!
We’re laying the foundation for our next expansion. To reiterate, our goal is getting custom screens delivered anywhere in the US within 5 days. To accomplish this, we need a more national footprint of our manufacturing facilities.
Product!
For 2025, I’d like to allocate a bit more resources towards product development. We’ll roll out the leave-behind-packet and hand-crank screen in Q1. We’re finalizing development of the between jamb tracks and the guide tracks for release as well. We have a pretty healthy roadmap for this side of things, but it’s influenced heavily by dealer feedback. If you have something you’d like to see, please let us know!
New Teammates!
Lastly, I’d like to welcome the two newest faces to the Templar Team! In Texas, we have Tiera joining to take on the Dealer Ops role for that factory. We’ve also expanded our sales staff on the East Coast by welcoming Dan to the team!
