QuickBOLT is QuickScrew’s answer for asphalt roof. The company became involved in the solar industry after the recession.
Greg Wiener started out by selling nails and staples to furniture and cabinet makers. He realized that if he added some other supplies, he could make it a business. And so he founded QuickScrews, first working out of his garage.
After a few years, Wiener noticed a lack of fasteners specifically made for woodworkers. He partnered with an importer and was taught how to obtain quality products from Taiwan quickly.
Wiener noticed cabinet makers required especially particular screws. They wanted them with the coarse grip of dry wall screws, which often break in wood, and the strength of a sheet-metal screw, which spin out or split the wood.
Wiener developed an ideal combination of features, and over 15 years, QuickScrews grew to be one of the largest providers of woodworking screws in the United States, boasting an inventory of more than 900 products.
The company’s large selection of high-quality products preferred by woodworkers, combined with its ability to work with the best factories in Taiwan, allowed it to grow.
In 2009, however, the recession hit. A well-documented result was the halt of new home construction. The need for cabinets plummeted, and QuickScrews lost 40% of its business.
Simultaneously, Wiener’s wife, Debbie, had become interested in the emerging market for green technology. She encouraged her husband to take an interest in it.
Located down the road from QuickScrews was Solar Universe, a solar franchise network founded in 2008. Rick Gentry, vice president at QuickScrews, decided to pay them a visit.
“I told them, ‘We want to supply a great product to solar,’” Gentry says. “I asked, ‘What do you use a lot of, and what do you have a hard time getting?’”
Solar Universe showed Gentry a mounting bracket from a local manufacturer. They used it often, but had concerns about quality and were looking for a supplier that could keep stock for them.
“We worked with Solar Universe, made some prototypes and tested them,” Gentry says. Solar Universe immediately produced an order for a year’s supply.
The installer was QuickScrew’s only customer that whole year. But soon CED Greentek became a distributor and started to sell the QuickScrew’s bracket. Product began to move.
“We realized that if we really wanted to stay in the solar business, we needed more product,” Gentry says. “We repeated the same steps that we used to create our QuickScrews line: Ask the customer what their problems are, and find the solution.”
QuickScrews has gone on to add 14 new products and were awarded a patent on their QuickBOLT. It’s quadrupled its solar business in two years, and it continues to grow.
The solar products provided by QuickScrews can be seen at SolarRoofHook.com. While the inventory focuses mainly on tile-roof products, the company is looking to expand into solutions for asphalt shingles.
“I think we’re just scratching the surface,” Gentry says. “We have so many different roof styles to tackle, but we will go at them one by one until we have the same deep variety that we have with our wood screw line.” SPW