Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
The Company
Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (the "Company") is a leading manufacturer and provider of products and services for the renewable energy, residential, agtech and infrastructure markets. Our mission is to make life better for people and the planet, fueled by advancing the disciplines of engineering, science, and technology. We are innovating to reshape critical markets in sustainable power, comfortable living, and productive growing throughout North America. Furthermore, we strive to create compounding and sustainable value for our stockholders and stakeholders with strong and relevant leadership positions in higher growth, profitable end markets focused on addressing some of the world's most challenging opportunities. The foundation of the Company's strategy is built on three core pillars: Business System, Portfolio Management, and Organization Development.
1. Business System reflects the necessary systems, processes, and management tools required to deliver consistent and continuous performance improvement, every day. Our business system is a critical enabler to grow, scale, and deliver our plans. Our focus is on deploying effective tools to drive growth, improve operating performance, and develop the organization utilizing 80/20 and lean quote-to-cash initiatives along with digital systems for speed, agility and responsiveness. Our Business System challenges existing paradigms, drives day-to-day performance, forces prioritization of resources, tests our business models, and brings focus to new product and services development and innovation.
2. Portfolio Management is focused on optimizing the Company’s business portfolio in higher growth markets with leadership positions while ensuring our financial capital and human resources are effectively and efficiently deployed to deliver sustainable, profitable growth while increasing our relevance with customers and shaping our markets. In early 2021, the Company divested its non-core Industrial business and during 2020, the Company completed acquisitions primarily in the Renewables and Agtech markets to help achieve these objectives. Recent acquisitions include:
• Thermo Energy Systems ("Thermo) - January 2020 - Agtech
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• Delta Separations (“Delta”) - February 2020 – Agtech
• Architectural Mailboxes - October 2020 – Residential
• Sunfig Corporation - December 2020 – Renewables
• TerraSmart LLC ("TerraSmart") - December 2020 -Renewables
3. Organization Development drives the Company’s continuous focus on ensuring we have the right design and structure to scale the organization in order to execute the Company’s plans and meet commitments. The Company aspires to make our place of work the "Best Place to Work", where we focus on creating an environment for our people to have the best opportunity for success, continue to develop, grow, and learn. At core of this pillar is the Company’s development process focused on helping employees reach their potential, improve performance, develop career roadmaps, identify ongoing education requirements, and respective succession plans. We believe doing so helps us attract and retain the best people so we can execute our business plans.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic began to impact our operations late in the first quarter of 2020 as government authorities imposed mandatory closures, work from home orders and social distancing protocols, which resulted in temporary curtailment of some operations, increased costs to operate certain facilities, and has continued to impact our operations as new strains of the COVID-19 virus have been identified. Our top priority continues to be focused on our organization - keeping our team and their families as safe as possible, maintaining our supply chain and providing a high level of responsiveness to customer needs. We continue to proactively execute our pandemic “playbook” and make adjustments to our operating protocols as we navigate forward.
Throughout 2021, COVID-19, as well as broader market dynamics, have impacted our company, including accelerating material, labor and logistics cost inflation, and availability. In certain instances, these issues have resulted in project delays, margin pressures and order fulfillment time extension. We are partnering with our customers in an effort to better align pricing, project timing and delivery schedules in this dynamic environment. We are also working with our suppliers to understand the existing and potential future impacts to our supply chain and are taking actions in an effort to mitigate such impacts, however, we expect these supply chain, labor and logistics costs and availability pressures will continue in 2022.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Gibraltar is dedicated to making a positive impact through a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Our efforts continue to focus on:
• Our People: The safety, well-being, and success of our people is our top priority. We are dedicated to developing their potential as professionals and future leaders, drawing on the unique abilities of each team member to build a rich, inclusive culture of difference-makers.
• Our Communities: Sharing our success with the communities where we live and work is vital to our mission. By supporting local nonprofits and institutions as investors and volunteers, we help build resilience and strengthen the bonds that will help our communities thrive.
• The World: Our work is firmly rooted in making life better for people and the planet; we innovate in the service of possibility, acting responsibly to create positive, lasting change in our world. We promote sustainability across our value chain, developing products and services for our customers that reduce environmental impact and improve quality of life.
CSR is integral to our three pillars of business systems, portfolio management and organization development. We have accelerated our initiatives to create a safer work environment, expand the experience base and the diversity of our organization, and to identify opportunities to reduce environmental impact. We are committed to making a difference in the lives of the people who are touched by our business and to creating meaningful impact every day through our work and relationships.
Since 2014, we have transformed our business by deploying nearly half a billion dollars in capital for acquisitions in the renewables and agtech markets These investments position Gibraltar to take leadership roles in tackling some
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of the world’s largest challenges such as generating energy from renewable sources and growing fruits and vegetables sustainably.
Segments
The Company serves customers primarily in North America including renewable energy (solar) developers, home improvement retailers, wholesalers, distributors, institutional and commercial growers of food and plants, and contractors. At December 31, 2021, we operated 34 facilities, comprised of 25 manufacturing facilities, one distribution center, and eight offices, which are located in 16 states, Canada, China, and Japan. Our operational infrastructure provides the necessary scale to support regional and national customers in each of our markets.
The Company operates and reports its results in the following four reporting segments:
• Renewables;
• Residential;
• Agtech; and
• Infrastructure.
The following table summarizes the primary products, applications, and end markets for each segment:
Renewables Segment
Products & Services Applications End Users
Design, engineering, manufacturing and installation of solar racking and electrical balance of systems Commercial & distributed generation scale commercial solar installations on any type of terrain Solar developers; power companies; solar energy EPC contractors
Residential Segment
Product Applications End Market
Roof and foundation ventilation products Ventilation and whole-house air flow
Residential: new construction and repair and remodeling
Single point & centralized mail systems and electronic package solutions Secure storage for mail and package deliveries
Retractable awnings & gutter guards Sun protection; gutter protection
Rain dispersion, trims and flashings, other accessories Water & protection from natural elements
Agtech Segment
Products & Services Applications End Users
Provide growing and processing solutions including the designing, engineering, manufacturing, full scope construction, & maintenance & support of greenhouses & indoor growing operations, and botanical extraction systems Retail, fruits & vegetables, flowers, cannabis, commercial, institutional & conservatories, car wash structures, botanical oil extraction Large scale indoor produce growers; cannabis growers, retail garden centers; conservatories and botanical gardens; floriculture growers; agricultural research; car washes, botanical oil processors
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Infrastructure Segment
Product Applications End Market
Engineered solutions for bridges, highways & airfields, including structural bearings, expansion joints, pavement seals, elastomeric concrete, bridge cable protection systems
Preserve functionality under varying weight, wind, temperature and seismic conditions Bridge and elevated highway construction, airport pavements
The Company’s operating businesses have established strong positions in attractive end markets by building core capabilities in innovation, new products and services, manufacturing and field operations, business systems, quality performance, along with a healthy balance sheet and the strength of our people. We will continue our focus of time, talent, and energy on strengthening our position in each market we serve.
Attractive End Markets . Our businesses are focused on solving global challenges as it relates to accelerating renewable energy generation, increasing the supply of locally-grown and more sustainably-produced food and plants and efficient way maintaining healthy home environments, supporting mail and package delivery, and improving our country’s transportation infrastructure and ways of transporting people.
Value-Added Products and Services . We provide optimal solutions to our customers: racking, foundation, and electrical systems for photovoltaic (PV) solar systems, commercial growing greenhouses and processing extraction technology for biologically grown food, cannabis, and other plants; roof-related ventilation and weather protection to support healthy home environments; mail and package storage for home and retail and non-retail sites; and structural bearings, expansion joints and rubber products for bridges and other transportation structures. Our products and services are highly engineered, supported with intellectual property, and driven by effective business systems and IT infrastructure.
Commitment to Customer & Quality . We strive to be connected directly with our end customers, where we receive unfiltered feedback on performance, insight on customer problems and opportunities, and cooperation on ideas for new products, services, and business model optimization. The percentage of our total revenue generated from products and services that were sold directly to the end user was approximately 56% and we expect this to grow in future years. Our commitment to quality is a core operating tenet for the Company, and our quality management systems are designed to ensure we deliver to customer and stakeholder expectations while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to our products and services.
Strong liquidity profile . We strive to manage our cash resources to ensure sufficient liquidity to fund growth initiatives, support the seasonality of our businesses and manage effectively through economic cycles. As of December 31, 2021, our liquidity was $382 million, including $13 million of cash and $369 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. We believe our low leverage and ample borrowing capacity, along with enhanced flexibility in our Senior Credit Agreement, provides us with the financial capacity to fund our ongoing business requirements, strategic initiatives, and acquisition opportunities.
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Recent Acquisitions and Dispositions
During 2020, the Company transacted the following acquisitions:
Business Acquired Date of Acquisition in 2020 Purchase price
( in millions) 1
Description
TerraSmart LLC December 31 $ 223.9 Provider of screw-based, ground-mount solar racking technology, particularly used for solar projects installed on challenging terrain
Sunfig Corporation December 11 $ 3.8 Provider of software solutions that optimize solar energy investments through upstream design, performance and financial modeling
Architectural Mailboxes October 15 $ 26.9 Provider, designer, and developer of decorative residential mailboxes and related products
Delta Separations February 13 $ 47.1 Provider of ethanol-based extraction systems manufacturer and training and laboratory design and operations consultative partner
Thermo Energy Systems January 15 $ 7.3 Provider of commercial greenhouse solutions in North America supporting the biologically grown organic food market
Note 1: Except for TerraSmart, which was financed through a combination of cash on hand and borrowings under the Company's revolving credit facility, all of the above 2020 acquisitions were funded from cash on hand.
In the first quarter of 2021, the Company disposed of its Industrial business as a result of its portfolio management strategy to focus on participation in higher value and faster growing markets. The Industrial business, previously reported in the Company's former Industrial and Infrastructure Products segment, has been presented as a discontinued operation in the Company's consolidated financial statements.
Customers and Products
Our customers are located primarily throughout North America. One customer, a home improvement retailer which purchases from the Residential segment represented 13% of our consolidated net sales for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 14% for each of the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. No other customer in any segment or segments accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated net sales.
Our products are primarily distributed to our customers using common carriers. We generally ship directly from our manufacturing plants to ensure on-time delivery while maintaining efficiency. Our customers and product offerings by segment are described below.
Renewables
The Renewables segment is primarily a designer and manufacturer of fully-engineered solutions for solar mounting systems. This segment offers a fully integrated approach to the design, engineering, manufacturing and installation of solar racking systems, including electrical balance of systems, servicing customers, such as community solar owners and developers. We have three manufacturing facilities and one distribution center and operate in the United States and Japan.
An integral part of solar racking projects is the fabrication of specifically designed metal structures for highly-engineered applications including: racking and foundation for ground-mounted solar arrays on any type of terrain; single-axis solar tracker solutions; and carports that integrate solar PV panels. The solar racking projects involve securing glass to metal with steel being the key raw material used. Most of our production is completed using computer numerical control machines, roll forming machines, laser cutters and other fabrication tools. The structural metal components are designed, engineered, fabricated and installed in accordance with applicable building codes.
We strive to improve our offerings of products by introducing new products, enhancing existing products, adjusting product specifications to respond to commercial building codes and regulatory changes, and providing solutions to contractors and end users. New products introduced in recent years include screw-based racking solutions, software solutions to optimize solar energy investments, single-axis tracker systems, and solar racking systems for
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carports and canopies. Our screw-based racking solutions offer rapid installation on any terrain. Our new software solution enables our team to optimize solar project design, utilizing solar irradiance data and topography analysis to quickly and automatically generate multiple potential layouts for complex projects The single-axis tracker systems within our solar mounting solutions group provide flexibility to adapt to a variety of site conditions that impact tracker site designs when using other solutions in the market and can vastly reduce the costs associated with civil work on projects. The patented design eliminates complexities incorporated in the traditional systems, simplifying the operations and maintenance of the system, along with streamlining the installation process. Solar racking systems for carports serve as protection for cars from the effects of the sun and intense heat while providing a renewable energy source. Similarly, solar racking systems installed on idle land, such as solid waste landfills, or on challenging, rocky terrain, converts such land into a useful property by providing clean renewable power generating capabilities.
Residential
Our Residential segment services the residential repair and remodeling and to a lesser extent the new housing construction markets in North America with products including roof and foundation ventilation products, single point and centralized mail systems and electronic package solutions, outdoor living products (retractable sun-shades), rain dispersion products and other construction accessories. Our residential product offerings are sold through a number of sales channels including major retail home centers, building material wholesalers, building product distributors, buying groups, roofing distributors, residential contractors, property management companies and postal services distributors and providers. This segment operates 12 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, giving it a base of operations to provide manufacturing capability of high quality products, customer service, delivery and technical support to a broad network of regional and national customers across North America.
Our roof and foundation ventilation products and accessories include solar powered units. Our mail and electronic package solutions include single mailboxes, cluster style mail and parcel boxes for single and multi-family housing and electronic package locker systems. Our remaining residential product offerings consist of roof edging and flashing, soffits and trim, drywall corner bead, metal roofing and accessories, rain dispersion products, including gutters and accessories, and exterior retractable awnings. Each of these product offerings can be sold separately or as part of a system solution.
Within our Residential businesses, we are constantly striving to improve our product/solution offerings by introducing new products, enhancing existing products, adapting to building code and regulatory changes, and providing new and innovative solutions to homeowners and contractors. New products introduced in recent years include electronic parcel lockers, roof top safety kits, chimney caps, heat trace coils, exterior, remote-controlled deck awnings for sun protection, and high-efficiency and solar-powered ventilation products. Our electronic parcel lockers and parcel room systems provide residents in multi-family communities a secure storage receptacle to handle both package deliveries and receipt of other delivered goods, along with aiding retail businesses and their customers to transact via buy on line, pick up in store transactions. Our ventilation and roof flashing products provide protection and extend the life of structures while providing a safer, healthier environment for residents. Our cluster box mail delivery products provide delivery cost savings to the postal service while offering secure storage for delivered mail and packages. Our building products are manufactured primarily from galvanized and painted steel, anodized and painted aluminum, and various resins.
Within our manufacturing facilities, we leverage significant production capabilities which allow us to both assemble and process a wide range of metals and plastics for our residential products. Most of our production is completed using automatic roll forming machines, stamping presses, welding, paint lines, and injection molding equipment. We maintain our equipment according to a thorough preventive maintenance program allowing us to meet the demanding quality and delivery requirements of our customers. In some cases, the Company sources products from third-party vendors to optimize cost and quality in order to provide the very best and affordable solution for our customers.
Agtech
The Agtech segment consists of turnkey controlled environment agriculture solutions for growing fruits and vegetables, supplier of custom greenhouses for research, education, and retail, and provider of soil-to-oil cannabis ecosystems with technologies for the cultivation, extraction, and refinement of cannabinoids. We have six manufacturing facilities and operate in the United States and China.
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An integral part of greenhouse projects is the fabrication of specifically designed metal structures for highly-engineered applications including: commercial-scale greenhouses and other glass structures. The greenhouse projects involve securing glass and plastic to metal with steel and aluminum being the key raw materials used. Most of our production is completed using computer numerical control machines, roll forming machines, laser cutters and other fabrication tools. The structural metal components are designed, engineered, fabricated and installed in accordance with applicable building codes.
We strive to improve our offerings of products by introducing new products, enhancing existing products, adjusting product specifications to respond to commercial building codes and regulatory changes, and providing solutions to contractors and end users. New products introduced in recent years include botanical oil extraction systems and metal framed structures for car washes. Our botanical oil extraction systems provide equipment for extracting plant oils for hemp, cannabis, and nutraceutical processors. Our car washes serve a market preference for light- transparent structures.
Our partial dependence of this segment on the legalization of cannabis could impact demand for our products and services.
Infrastructure
Our Infrastructure segment primarily serves end markets such as highway and bridge construction and airports through commercial and transportation contractors. Our infrastructure product offerings include expansion joints, structural bearings, rubber pre-formed seals and other sealants, elastomeric concrete, and bridge cable protection systems. Our products are manufactured primarily from plate and structural steel along with various resin and rubber based materials. We operate two manufacturing facilities in the United States giving us a base of operations to provide customer support, delivery, service, and quality to a number of regional and national customers, and providing us with manufacturing and distribution efficiencies in North America.
We strive to improve our offerings of infrastructure products by introducing new products, enhancing existing products, adjusting product specifications to respond to regulatory changes, and providing additional solutions to contractors. New products have been introduced in recent years by extending our transportation infrastructure products into new markets. For example, our long-lasting pavement sealants for roadways are now being installed on airport runways internationally, our structural bearings for elevated highways and bridges have been installed on an offshore oil production platform, and our corrosion-protection products for cable-suspension bridges are now marketed and sold internationally.
Engineering and Technical Services
Our business segments employ engineers and other technical personnel to perform a variety of key tasks which include the identification and implementation of improvements to our manufacturing process, redesign of our products for better performance, the development of new products and identification and execution of cost reduction activities. In addition, our engineering staff employs a range of drafting software to design highly specialized and technically precise products. In our Renewables, Agtech, and Infrastructure segments, drawings are approved and stamped by state licensed professional engineers as required by individual projects. Technical service personnel also work in conjunction with our sales force in the new product development process to determine the types of products and services that suit the particular needs of our customers.
Suppliers and Raw Materials
Our business is required to maintain sufficient quantities of raw material inventory in order to accommodate our customers’ short lead times. Accordingly, we plan our purchases to maintain raw materials at sufficient levels to satisfy the anticipated needs of our customers. We have implemented enterprise resource planning systems along with a corporate wide SIOP (Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning process) to better manage our inventory, forecast customer orders, enable efficient supply chain management, and allow for more timely counter-measures to changing customer demand and market conditions. However, broader market dynamics in 2021 and continuing into 2022 related to COVID-19 have created supply chain challenges which have impacted ability to obtain sufficient quantities in a timely fashion, along with making it more difficult to forecast customer orders and plan purchases.
The primary raw materials we purchase are flat-rolled, structural and plate steel, aluminum coil and extrusions, and resins. We purchase flat-rolled and plate steel and aluminum at regular intervals on an as-needed basis, primarily from the major North American mills, as well as, a limited amount from domestic service centers and foreign steel importers. Substantially all of our resins are purchased from domestic vendors, primarily through distributors, with a
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small amount purchased directly from manufacturers. While supply has historically been adequate from these sources to fulfill our needs, the broader market dynamics in 2021 have recently impacted our ability to consistently source materials as needed. This sourcing constraint has impacted delivery times. Furthermore, supply chain disruptions impacting our customers have caused field project execution delays and affected the manner in which we purchase raw materials. To guard against further shortages, we have held higher than historical levels of inventory thus increasing our investment in working capital. Management continually evaluates improvements in our purchasing practices across our geographically dispersed facilities in order to streamline purchasing across similar commodities.
We purchase natural gas and electricity from suppliers in proximity to our operations.
Intellectual Property
We actively protect our proprietary rights by the use of trademark, copyright, and patent registrations. While we do not believe that any individual item of our intellectual property is material, we believe our trademarks, copyrights, and patents provide us with a competitive advantage when marketing our products to customers. We also believe our brands are well recognized in the markets we serve and we believe they stand for high-quality manufactured goods at a competitive price. These trademarks, copyrights, and patent registrations help us maintain product leadership positions for the goods we offer.
Sales and Marketing
In 2021, approximately 56% of our revenues were generated from products and services that were sold directly to the end user, with the remainder of revenues generated through retailers, wholesalers and distributors, slightly up from 54% in 2020. Our sales process regularly includes a competitive bid process, and our reputation for product and service quality and meeting delivery requirements make us a preferred provider for many customers.
Our marketing focus in 2021 was on building an enhanced cohesive brand strategy—ensuring that we have a defined purpose and values, and ensuring that our brand messages reflect the needs of the market and the capabilities of our businesses. The businesses in our Renewables segment were integrated and rebranded under the brand name Terrasmart and our businesses in our Agtech segment were consolidated under the brand name Prospiant. In their markets, both brands reflect our unique value to customers.
In 2021, we expanded and upgraded our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, improving our visibility into sales account status and enabling cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. The CRM also provides important aggregate market data.
Backlog
Backlog represents the value of the total confirmed orders at a point in time for which performance obligations have not yet been satisfied. This metric is useful as it reflects the committed amount we expect to recognize as revenue in the near-term.
While the majority of our products have short lead time order cycles, we had aggregated approximately $344 million of backlog from continuing operations at December 31, 2021 compared to $297 million at December 31, 2020. The backlog primarily relates to certain business units in our Renewables, Agtech, and Infrastructure segments. We believe that the performance obligations related to the majority of our backlog will be satisfied, and related revenue recognized during 2022.
Competition
The Company operates in highly competitive markets. We compete against several competitors in all four of our segments with different competitors in each major product category. We compete with competitors based on the range of products offered, quality, price, and delivery, as well as serving as a full-service provider for project management in certain segments. Although some of our competitors are large companies, the majority are small to medium-sized and do not offer the large range of products that we offer.
We believe our broad range of high quality products give us a competitive advantage over many of our competitors. While our ability to meet exacting customer delivery requirements was impacted during 2021 by COVID-19 related supply chain constraints, these same issues impacted our competitors, some to a greater extent than others. We were able to stay close to our customers, and in some cases, were able to increase market participation. We also
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believe that execution of our business strategy further differentiates us and allows us to capitalize on those areas that give us a competitive advantage over many of our competitors.
Seasonality
The Company’s business has historically been subjected to seasonal influences, with our first quarter being seasonally the slowest relative to sales. Levels of residential and commercial construction can be cyclical and depend on interest rates, availability of financing, inflation, employment, spending habits, consumer confidence and cost and availability of skilled labor. Further, general economic forces, such as tax credit expirations and imposed tariffs, along with changes in the Company’s products and customer mix have shifted traditional seasonal fluctuations in revenue over the past few years.
Governmental Regulation
Our production processes involve the use of environmentally regulated materials. We believe that we operate our business in material compliance with all federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations, and do not anticipate any material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations to maintain compliance with such laws and regulations. However, we could incur operating costs or capital expenditures in complying with new or more stringent environmental requirements in the future or with current requirements if they are applied to our manufacturing facilities or distribution centers in a way we do not anticipate. In addition, new or more stringent regulation of our energy suppliers could cause them to increase the price of energy.
Our operations are also governed by many other laws and regulations covering our labor relationships, the import and export of goods, the zoning of our facilities, taxes, our general business practices, and other matters. We believe that we are in material compliance with these laws and regulations and do not believe that future compliance with such laws and regulations will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
Human Capital - Organization Development
Gibraltar is built on three strategic pillars – a strong business system, the optimization of our portfolio of businesses, and continuous organizational development. Advancing each pillar is critical to ensuring we deliver our commitments to our people, our shareholders, our stakeholders, and our communities. The foundation for organizational development is built on two fundamental beliefs:
• Our ability to perform and deliver shareholder value is dependent on our people, and
• We strive to create an environment where our people can have the best chance for success and we refer to this internally as creating the "Best Place to Work."
Our "Best Place to Work" initiative is built on the following beliefs, and involves our entire organization:
1. Health and Safety
2. Education and Development
3. Diversity and Inclusion
4. Compensation and Employee Benefits
5. Communication and Employee Engagement
We employed 2,011 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees as of December 31, 2021. Of our 2,021 total employees, 832 were classified as salary and 1,189 classified as hourly. We also employed approximately 590 full-time equivalent temporary agency employees. Approximately 7% of our U.S. workforce was represented by unions through two collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) as of December 31, 2021. Both of our CBAs will expire and are expected to be renegotiated in 2024. The Company considers its employee relations to be good.
Health and Safety
We expect each member of Gibraltar to follow our safety standards and practices, support our key safety initiatives, be accountable to each other, and always be part of the solution. We believe all accidents and near-misses are preventable. Additionally, we measure and review our safety results continuously in each location.
We have a disciplined safety framework. Our CEO reviews safety performance, including recordable incidents, near misses, and first aid cases monthly with all business and human resource leaders. Safety performance and best practices are also reviewed quarterly with the entire organization during our organization-wide Town Hall live virtual
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meetings. In addition, as part of our annual budget and capital planning process, our businesses identify additional safety investments required for training, education, equipment, and processes.
Throughout 2021, our Company and employees continued to experience the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating our businesses during this time required focus, discipline, and diligence from our entire organization to maintain our COVID-19 health and safety protocols—while at work, home, and in the communities where we live and work. We continued to follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHS). Additionally, we tracked and implemented all federal, state and local mandates and made modifications in compliance with changes throughout the year. We continued operating protocols in our offices and production facilities including providing necessary PPE, social distancing requirements, zone and shift management, temperature checks, and enhanced cleaning and sanitization practices at our facilities. For our remote-working teams, we continued business continuity protocols with focus on reliable, consistent, and continuous connectivity along with additional cyber-security protection and our centralized help desk. These and other COVID-19 related protocols helped us provide a safe and productive environment for our teams and ensured that we were able to support our customers’ needs throughout the pandemic.
Education and Development
We support our employees in realizing their full potential with meaningful career development opportunities. Our focus is to build the best organization and an environment where our employees learn, are challenged, and have the tools to grow. We are also focused on building effective systems, tools and processes to enable the organization to continue to advance. With these initiatives, along with our formal education and development program, we will build competencies, drive more diversity of thought, challenge internal paradigms, and drive improved and consistent performance.
The development of our organization starts with consistent education and training. At the core of this effort is making sure our people have a foundation based in Ethics and Compliance, which is summarized as follows:
• Our commitment to high ethical standards is the best way to serve our people, customers, suppliers, and investors;
• We are all responsible to follow and uphold strong ethical principles;
• Ethical behavior is more than a policy and compliance with the law is mandatory—it is our responsibility to do business in the right and responsible way.
Our commitment to living our values includes providing education, training and development opportunities for everyone:
• Comprehensive education curriculum. Topics include Ethics – “Doing the Right Thing”; Compliance – “Doing It the Right and Responsible Way”; and Cyber Security. Completion of our training is required annually for our employees and members of the Board of Directors and is a condition of employment. Our CEO reviews the quarterly progress for our employees.
• Gibraltar University. Designed to develop our leadership across Gibraltar. The program is a two-year initiative utilizing classroom education, ongoing continuous learning, and team project implementation prior to graduation. The curriculum covers Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Operations, Innovation, Legal, Strategy Development and Deployment, and Mergers & Acquisitions, and is taught by Gibraltar’s leadership team.
• Organization Planning and Talent Review process. The annual process integrates discussions and metrics on organization design/structure, career development, diversity and inclusion, performance and potential assessment, and succession planning, along with key organizational priorities and results. It also drives our annual hiring, recruiting, and retention initiatives, and continues to be instrumental as we add talent across our organization.
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Talent acquisition is an important aspect of our business strategy and is guided by our desire to find the best team members to drive our business and build our “Best Place to Work” vision. It starts with understanding our organizational needs and developing diverse candidate “slates” for the positions we plan to hire.
Diversity and Inclusion
We support and encourage a culture where diversity of thought flourishes, and all employees feel appreciated, included, and know they have an equal opportunity to develop, grow, and succeed based on their performance. We believe demonstrating respect for our people and valuing them for who they are, their perspectives, and their contributions is critical to creating the best environment for our team to have success. This is foundational for our “Best Place to Work” initiative.
Below are key demographics of our workforce.
2021 Workforce Composition (Gender and Age)
Employee Age Groups Female Male Total by Age Group % by Age Group
< 30 years of age 72 283 355 17.6%
30 - 49 years of age 259 653 912 45.1%
50+ years of age 227 527 754 37.3%
Total 558 1,463 2,021
As a percentage 27.6% 72.4%
Number of 2021 Employees by Employment Type (by Gender)
Employee Type Female Male Total by Type % by Type
Salary 249 583 832 41.2%
Hourly 309 880 1,189 58.8%
Total 558 1,463 2,021
2021 Ethnic Background of Employees
Ethnic Background % of Employees
White 61.0%
Black or African American 15.3%
Hispanic or Latino 13.8%
Asian 5.2%
Not Specified 4.1%
American Indian/Alaska Native 0.6%
We are building a team with people who bring diversity of thought, experience, and perspective to our organization. We recognize our organization and the communities we operate in will continue to evolve and grow. We continue to develop our strategy to advance our diversity and inclusion (D&I) framework across our organization, including plans to ensure D&I is an integral part of our workplace and organization development, integrated into our interactions with shareholders, customers, and suppliers, and the development of process and metrics, education and communication tools to support our D&I initiatives.
Compensation and Employee Benefits
Our compensation and benefits package is a key factor in recruiting and retaining the best talent in our industry. Our employee health and welfare benefits program is designed to promote the overall health of our workforce. While specific benefits vary worldwide and are based on regional practices, benefits offered to our United States based employees, which at December 31, 2021 comprised approximately 95% of our employees, include paid time off, healthcare (medical, dental and vision), short and long term disability benefits, life and accidental insurance, a
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401(k) retirement plan with a Company match, access to our employee assistance program, wellness incentives, parental leave, and a target-based incentive plan that provides for annual bonus opportunity when certain company financial metrics are met. We review compensation at least annually for all employees and adjust it to ensure we reward exceptional performance and remain competitive in the market.
Communication and Employee Engagement
Gibraltar recognizes the importance of engaging employees through consistent and continuous communication such that the team clearly understands the Company's vision, strategy, and key priorities. Every quarter, our CEO conducts a live "Town Hall" meeting for the entire organization with a standard agenda reviewing ethics and compliance, safety performance, business performance, community service initiatives, employee recognition, and concludes with a live Questions & Answers session. In 2020, we also conducted an employee engagement survey to solicit input about our brand, company reputation, and culture which contributed to Gibraltar's brand assessment initiative in 2021 as well as further strengthened our internal communication process. In 2021 we solicited input from our employees as part of our Priority Assessment survey used to inform Gibraltar of key topics material to our CSR commitment and important to our stakeholders Ultimately, our goal to create a "Best Place to Work" environment requires continuous and effective engagement and communication with our employees, and it also creates a strong foundation for attracting and retaining our team.
Internet Information
Copies of the Company’s Proxy Statements on Schedule 14A filed pursuant to Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through the Company’s website (www.gibraltar1.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after the Company electronically files the material with, or furnishes it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.