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James Beale
CEO and Co-
NGS
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO Magazine
Published – August 26, 2024
CEOCFO: Mr. Beale, what is the idea behind NGS?
Mr. Beale: NGS was founded in 2009. I moved to Atlanta around the Olympics because I played professionally in a rock band for a long time. However, I was doing odd jobs before the band started making money. I was working for a plantation shutter company called Peach Tree Blinds which were the biggest in the southeast at the time. I found back in the housing boom that all of the sales reps where going after these residential projects and nobody was going after the commercial projects which were bigger and had less competition. I approached the owner and said I would go after the commercial projects because they had no commercial business, but I said I would need a draw. He said “sure we have this window film company that I work with that shares some of the same accounts; we will share your draw.” I went and did some training with them and realized that window film comes on a roll unlike a plantation shutter or blind, and it was custom fabricated to each window. I realized that this product could be shipped all over the US and installed by a national network of willing subcontractors. The first deal I pitched was to Budget Blinds franchises. I pitched them a deal on a turnkey window film program because the last mile of the installation is the toughest. They agreed and within the next six months they wanted us to come out to present and roll out this program to our 2000 franchisees. The window film company that I was working with had to spin off a new company and raise some capital; they made me a partner in that company.
In 2006 I hit #10 on the billboard charts single sales US for our single. Then 2008 happened and the economy crashed and I went back to the owner of that company because I sold my shares back in a no-
We started NGS in 2009 on the principle of there being a big market of technology that nobody knew anything about and there is an incredible amount of technology in this tiny film that is solving a lot of real world problems every day. All it needed was a professional organization to go and market, understand what these products are and connect the manufacturers and contractors to the end user. That is essentially the genesis of NGS.
CEOCFO: What is security window film?
Mr. Beale: Window film is a product that is designed to improve the performance of any glass that you put it on. Any piece of glass that you apply film to whether that is solar film or security film, you are going to change the properties. You are going to take a clear piece of glass and if you apply high-
Think of it in terms of sunglasses for your windows. It is not tinted but it is clear, and the applied films today have a lot of technology inside of them. We have gotten in the GSA’s Green Proving Ground as a finalist for carbon emissions technologies to help the federal government meet their 50% carbon emissions reduction goal by 2030 and it is in the final stages of verification, which is very exciting.
CEOCFO: What material is the film?
Mr. Beale: It is made from polyester, some of it. There are some new products on the security side that are now made out of polyurethane which absorbs more energy. All the solar films are made out of PET polyester as the base substrate that then has a sputter coating or a construction that allows them to transmit visible light and either absorb or reflect infrared which is the cause of heat, and absorb or reflect ultraviolet.
The security films are designed to keep glass in place, fragmentation retention, so if a piece of window gets hit by a brick or a storm with airborne debris or rioters, it will keep that glass in place from becoming fragmented or airborne.
CEOCFO: What is the effectiveness of the film?
Mr. Beale: Film is not going to stop glass from breaking. Glass is going to break if something hits it. What it does is it keeps the glass in place with the adhesive and the polyester and stops it from falling out of the window. With the Nashville incident with the shooter, when the shooter shot that glass it fell out of the window and they were in that building in under ten seconds.
The film that we install today is designed to keep that glass in place and then we structurally anchor it to the frame with a structural adhesive like a caulk. That creates a membrane. Think about a car windshield, that is laminated glass. Essentially security film is a retrofitted laminate; it takes regular glass up to a laminated glass type of performance.
CEOCFO: Who is using this today?
Mr. Beale: K-
CEOCFO: How much of it belongs to NGS and what is the competitive landscape?
Mr. Beale: We are a national dealer installer. We are the biggest flat glass installer probably globally based on the information that I have, and certainly in the United States and install approximately eleven thousand projects a year. We are a huge piece of the flat glass market in the US relatively speaking. I am not entirely sure what that number is but we moved the market from our purchases and education piece and practices that we have established as standards.
The main big manufacturers in the space are 3M, Solar Guard, Madico and Eastman Chemical. I believe our business may potentially be larger in terms of dollars than most of the main flat glass manufacturers’ architectural film sales revenue in the United States. Not 3M as a global company but their sub-
CEOCFO: What do you understand about the installation and the whole process that less knowledgeable installers or people in general do not know?
Mr. Beale: It is not that we know how to install it better; we understand the value proposition and how to build a business case for the product. That is the difference. For example we are the only company in the US that I know of that has in-
We build the business case for it; their engineers agree, and they create real dollar incentives. We then take those incentives to building owners and say we can offset your project costs by 50%. Now your payback is two years rather than four years, and that is the difference. We are giving them the tools they need to go back to their board decision-
We are talking to security professionals, facility professionals, sustainability, engineers, the government, so we are working at a very high level.
CEOCFO: Do you get a foot in the door easily these days? What has changed over the years?
Mr. Beale: We are seeing a large number of projects and leads come to us because now there is legislation. In the state of Texas they mandated security film, all public schools have to have retrofitted fragmentation film. They funded it with $1.4 billion and that work is ongoing. We are talking about the largest regulatory & funding driver that our industry has seen since 911. Tennessee just came out with regulations requiring safety film on entrances on all new schools moving forward and it is going around the United States. Georgia has provided funding and other states have provided funding. You can go down the list where dozens of states have provided funding. You can apply for a grant to get that done and other states are saying it is mandated but they will give you the money. It is the carrot and the stick. That is driving people calling us.
We are also out there providing online webinars, so we are driving a lot of engagement. In addition, we know a lot of what we do is driving opportunity for other dealers around the country; which is fine with us. There is enough work to go around.
Today, there is more awareness of our products than there has ever been because of the regulatory environment and because of the funding environment.
CEOCFO: How do you deal with the installers? How do you know when you are working with company that knows what they are doing?
Mr. Beale: That is a good question. We have a prequalification process when we sign up subcontractors. We also self perform a large chunk of our work. Therefore, we have offices around the United States with hubs, with their own guys in trucks. They come onboard and train, and go through an apprenticeship period on our business. We also get qualified installers that are recommended come and apply for work with us.
A great many subcontractors come to us that were either installers for other companies and wanted to start their own businesses. They go through a vetting process and our prequalification packet, and sign a contract that we enter into with them. We will align them with projects that are overseen by our employees, until we are comfortable that they are qualified. Then we will look at opening up other projects for them to participate in.
CEOCFO: We came across NGS from your recognition in the Inc. 5000 for the fifth time. Clearly business is good. What is ahead for you? How do you maintain what you are doing and what do you look out for as you grow?
Mr. Beale: We are on the lookout for disruptive technologies, regulatory drivers, and funding. We are constantly looking at ways that we can meet the needs and the demands of building owners. The other thing that is a potential challenge for us is that the commercial office space is distressed; I do not think that is a secret, and in the next couple of years there could be a wave of defaults on office space around the country with higher interest rates and low occupancy. That is a perfect storm, as those buildings are less profitable, which means they are not worth as much. This leads to a lot of the private equity groups turning the keys in.
In addition, those distressed properties are less likely to invest capital into projects. That is a potential risk to our sustainability efforts. However, we do believe that those properties will convert into mixed use or other applications, such as residential, medical, long-
CEOCFO: Are you seeking funding?
Mr. Beale: We have a private equity partnership right now and they generally have a life cycle that they are comfortable with. We will be entering the mature term of the preferred life cycle of their investment. Therefore, we will be looking for other capital partners, strategic partners, finance partners; whatever makes the most sense in the next two years.
CEOCFO: What did you learn from the music part of your life that is helping you at NGS?
Mr. Beale: That is a good question and no one has ever asked me that before. If I had learned anything in the music industry, it is that nothing is easy. Everyone likes to point to the musicians that have made it, but the reality is that those individual musicians have had to work hard to get where they are. Some have had to work decades before they were recognized or able to start making money. I think that toughness, the resilience because I played for years with no financial benefit speak of, yet digging in, rolling up my sleeves and doing the hard work. It is the work ethic side that I got out of being a musician.
CEOCFO: What might people miss about NGS that they should understand?
Mr. Beale: What they should take away is that we are a people organization, and we pride ourselves in making America and the world a better place. We are for protecting people and properties, and reducing carbon emissions. My wife teases me when I say, “I’m off to save the world, one window at a time”. And I really mean it. We have real life situations where we have put security film up on schools or ballistic protection and found out that we have stopped an intruder from breaking into a school or retail establishment. That is a win for the good guys.
We are the biggest company in the United States doing what we do, driving the bus in staying one step ahead of the bad guys. We keep connecting end users to manufactures on new technology and how it can impact them in a positive way. That is the difference that we are making every day.r