Unlocking Value in Multifamily: The Pfister Advantage in Design and Utility

As part of our Multifamily Women® Summit, we share time with innovative brands as part of our "Meet the Sponsors" series that showcases those brands that are supporting the platform to advance technology, innovation, leadership, and investments.

This episode features a discussion with Shannon Irby, the National Account Manager for New Construction at Pfister Faucets. Pfister is a brand that actively supports the platform, promoting technology and innovation within the industry.

Renowned globally for their product innovation, design, and value, Pfister's designers are based in California, surrounded by forward-thinking designs from various industries such as automotive, aeronautics, computers, and fashion. By following trends in fashion, home design, and car manufacturing, among others, Pfister crafts new and exciting products.

Pfister also prioritizes practical innovation, ensuring their multifamily products are easy to install, clean, and use in everyday life. Working closely with multifamily developers and owners, Pfister tailors their offerings to each customer's needs, whether that means providing a wide range of options or simplifying the selection process. In essence, Pfister is a full-service manufacturer that offers a diverse range of products, from entry-level to designer custom products for multifamily developers and owners.

Timestamps:
[00:05:13] Push and Seal drain innovation for multifamily properties.
[00:06:03] Practical innovation for everyday life using Pfister Faucets and other multifamily products.
[00:10:02] Pfister's origin story.
[00:13:14] American Plumber Stories - Pfister's Web Series.
[00:17:55] Inspiring the next generation of leaders.

Connect:
Shannon Irby Email: shannon.irby@spectrumbrands.com
Shannon Irby LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-irby-9a1039a/
Pfister Faucets: https://www.pfisterfaucets.com/
American Plumber Series: https://www.americanplumberstories.com/

Connect with Multifamily Women®:

Multifamily Women® Summit: https://multifamilywomen.com/
Carrie Antrim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieantrim/
Be a Guest on the Podcast or at the Summit: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/speakingrequest
Multifamily Women® Leadership Series: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/join

Transcript

0:19

welcome to the multifamily women podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Antrim. We're having candid conversations with some of the most successful women in the multifamily industry. But before I introduce my guest, I want to remind you that the multifamily women's summit is coming up. And this is something you do not want to miss. So take a moment, visit multifamilywomen. com and get your ticket today. This is just such a great opportunity to meet industry experts. One on one you'll gather practical insights, and you're going to boost your business's success and your own performance, your own career. So it's just an amazing opportunity. And if you're gaining value from these podcast episodes, of course, we ask you to support us by subscribing, rating, reviewing, you know how all of that works. And we truly appreciate your thoughts and your comments and whenever you write in and you tell us that you like something that is amazing and it helps us to curate better content and make sure we're providing value for you. So that is very important and very appreciated. Now, listen, as part of our multifamily women's summit, we are sharing time with innovative brands as part of our meet the sponsor series. And this series showcases those brands that are supporting the platform to advance technology, innovation, leadership, and investments. Today, I'm excited. I'm speaking with Shannon Irby. Shannon is the national account manager for new construction with Pfister Faucets. Now listen, Pfister is part of ASSA ABLOY, and I was Prompted on how to say that correctly. And I'm may or may not have, we'll check in with Shannon in a moment, but they are globally renowned for product innovation, design and value. And I thought it was really interesting in my research that their designers are based out of California. So they're surrounded by forward thinking design from all industries, like from automotive to aeronautics, computers, fashion. So they're getting inspiration from all kinds of industries, including current trends in interior design, architecture, lighting, fashion. It's just really interesting. And I think this is going to be a really great conversation. Shannon has been with this company for over six years, and I'm excited to talk to her today. Shannon, welcome to the show. Hi, Keri. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to the Women's Summit. That's awesome. So now first things first, Assa Abloy. Did I say it right? You did. You're right there. So Assa Abloy is a Swedish company based in Sweden. But it's a global company. They have offices everywhere all over the world. And their America's office is actually located in Connecticut. We're right here local in the Americas as well. That's really cool. So listen, give us a high level overview of Pfister Faucets. What should people know? Yes as you mentioned in the opening Pfister is actually based in Lake Forest, California. We have been part of the hardware and home improvement division for 20 years now. That division includes Kwikset door locks, Baldwin hardware national hardware, as well as a few small brands. And so we are all 1 big group at our headquarters building. We do lots of industrial design work. We have full testing facility with lots of capability there and we're a full service manufacturer all the way from entry level opening product all the way up to designer custom product that you would use in a custom home build. Wow, that's cool. So as the economy shifts and various design trends come and go, what is FISTER doing to stay on top of what consumers want and need and are talking about? So we follow all trends. That come from everything from fashion to home design to car manufacturing entry systems all various types of design and trending to crack together what we're going to look at as new and exciting products. Then we also focus on practical innovation. So we always like things that make the product easier to install for the plumber or the consumer. We like things that are easy to clean or easy to just make your day-to-day lives better and more efficient. So it's really fun to take that design and that inspiration, but then combine it with just every day. Functional innovation for your home. Yeah. I like what you said there with practical innovation. So you're not just innovating for the sake of innovation, right? Oh, we could do this. Let's make it cool. But you're actually taking in to consideration, what people need in order to make their lives better, right? Yes. And it can be so simple. It's really funny. One of our probably most popular products that, that everyone gets so excited about is we created a push and seal drain. For your bathroom faucet, and instead of having a pop up rod in the back and all the linkage underneath, it's very difficult to maintain and clean and install and keep functioning properly. You actually screw this strain in it clicks and clicks to open and close and then you can. Unscrew the pop up piece from the center and pull it out and the hair catch comes out with it. For any females out there, or any husbands of females, or dads of daughters really appreciate that feature because it helps with the snaking of the drain in all of our hair. It's such a basic, easy, simple thing, but it really is life changing, and it's become one of our most popular products. That's so funny. And I feel like, I've got a big family. And as I get older, these simple things, like you just said that sounds amazing. And there's so many things out there where we want everything to talk to us and do all these crazy technological type innovations. But it's so funny that the everyday practical things probably have the biggest impact on our lives. Absolutely. So what is it like for a developer or an owner to work with Pfister? Can you take us through what that looks like? Sure. Yes. So we really like to work closely on identifying what the best path is for that customer. So in some cases, they need a plethora of options and lots of opportunity to create new different specifications. And then in some cases. Maybe simplification is what they need most and they need something clean and simple. When we meet with a new developer or new customer, one of the things that we do first is get to know them and then identify their needs as a company. And once we do that, we can make great specification recommendations on what things will work for them going forward. Maybe what technologies are important in their in their brand. And then we take that and help to develop pricing structures and. From there, we want to make sure that pricing or that specification translates down into the field. So we work very closely with. Their distributors or their plumbers or whatever subcontractors, they're following and make sure that translates all the way down from the bottom all the way to the top. Yeah, that's great. And so you mentioned, you're working on making your products easier, for plumbers or handyman, things like that. And I think that's really interesting in the multifamily. Industry and in that arena increasing efficiency and productivity is so important and it sounds like you guys are keeping that in mind from top to bottom for sure. There's so much cost these days associated with the time it takes to do things and. If you look at change orders and things that come in later on a job or later on a project or down the road where changes have to be made and approved, there's just so much time consuming manpower spent on that. So the more we can simplify it and the more we can deliver on it, the better off they are. Yeah, now, do you work with only new developments or do you work with established communities as well? Yes, we actually so myself personally, I work with our new construction. Multifamily new developments as well as, build for rent has become part of that segment. And then we have a secondary division that handles renovation and property management turns and all those things. And so they can support that side as well. So we have somebody who's a professional in that arena on each side. That's great. What is something people might not know about FISTER? A funny, original story. I think sometimes Fister is very quiet and we'll get lost as a brand. But just the original, if you guys all remember we used to be called Price Fister and we changed our name to Fister it's probably been 10 years now. So it's been a little while. But everybody thinks price is associated with, pricing or dollars and it was actually the 2 gentlemen who started the company. They started the company in the early 1900s. It was Emile Price and William Visser, and they needed to get water to their crops. To make it easier and more efficient to water their crops. So their original faucet was actually the garden faucet, and all it was a modern day hose bib that allowed them to open and close water out into their crop area. It's been quite the evolution to today's gold faucets that go in your bathroom from the original hose bin far back in the early 1900s. But that's the origination of where we came from. Wow. That's really interesting. I did not know that. So what inspired excitement about supporting the Multifamily Women's Summit as a sponsor? I believe this will be your first time attending. Is that right? Yes. This is my first time attending. I'm very excited about being able to be with a group of women. I actually know someone who attended last year and when I saw all of the wonderful social media posts and the excitement surrounding it I just felt really called to go be a part of it and, you can, as you can imagine for a female in the plumbing industry we tend to be surrounded by a significant amount of males in our profession. And that kind of carries over into construction as well. The opportunity to connect with other women and I think we share. A lot of similarities in just. How we approach situations or how we, handle the day to day of our lives. And being able not just to talk about work, but just how we get through our day to day. I'm really excited about that part. Yeah, that's great. That's one thing that I love about the Women's Summit is that we get to connect on not only the business level and talk about the industry and ways to make our businesses better, but also on a personal level as well. I'm so excited you'll get to experience that this year. What should I have asked you that I didn't ask you about FISTER? One great thing about Fister that probably many people don't don't, aren't aware of yet, but I'm hoping that they are aware of it soon is about two years ago when we were in the thick of COVID we created a web series television show called American Plumber Stories. And we are actually just about to launch season four. The teaser just dropped last week. So we're quite a ways into it. We have an absolutely incredible production team that helps to produce the series. And the purpose of the series is to just give everyone insight into the plumbing trade and all of the things that the plumbing trade brings to people, both from their families and their business aspect, but also the wonderful things that to. Spread the message and encourage young people to get involved in trade professions. Because I'm sure you hear this a lot and I'm sure all the audience hears this quite a bit and is involved in it where we're just our trade populations really aging out and trying to replace it. We're really struggling in that aspect. This is a very positive and motivational series that. Hopefully it gets all of our youth inspired to try this as an option. That's really neat. So you said it's a web series. Is it like documentary style? Is it reality TV? What's it like? So it's funny. It's, I guess you could say it's a combination. I guess it's more a documentary but each episode basically covers one plumber or one plumbing company within each episode and. takes you through maybe how the company started or what their history is or what things they're doing to promote and help the trade. And each one has a unique story. We even have several episodes that address female plumbers. We have one story with a female owner. We have one where the company was passed down from a father and the father passed away and his daughter. She had no prior plumbing experience, but she came into the business. She earned her plumbing license and has taken over the company and is doing just amazing. So there's so many. inspirational stories of all the things that all of these people, including females are doing to promote the profession and show what an amazing career it can be. So I just, I love the positive message behind it. And then it really you really fall in love with the people. That's so cool. Where can we watch it? You can actually find us if you just go to www. americanplumberstories. com that'll take you to our website and then from there you can watch videos. They're all on YouTube. You'll be able to link to the episodes there. And then we actually have a store with merchandise and all kinds of thing. We have a really. Very cool looking tattoo ish looking logo that has a water droplet, an American flag and wrenches. So if you get really excited and you want to wear the shirt or the hat, you can buy your merchandise there as well. I love it. We'll be sure to link that in the show notes for this episode. That's really cool. What is something you're excited about for what's next with Pfister? Do you have anything exciting on the horizon? So we're always launching and coming out with new products. And I actually, we launched a brand new collection this past year at CABEZ called the Colfax Collection. It's extremely unique to the multifamily industry. In that it has some unique and different finishes that wouldn't normally be offered or haven't been available in the past. It also takes some design elements from both traditional and modern design and brings them together. So it's a very unique design. It's very exciting. It got huge rave reviews at the Kitchen and Bath show last year. And then we do have another new collection that we'll be launching this year at CAPES. If you're there, I hope you'll stop by our booth and check it out. Because we'll have some new exciting goodies coming. Wow, that's exciting for sure. Is there anything you want to say? We're coming up on our time. Do you have any final thoughts for our audience? I just want to thank everyone. Thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to come together and, be able to talk about what's going on with us but also inspire the next generation. I have a 9 year old daughter and all I want to do for her is make sure that women like us are paving the way for the next generation of females to come in and. Do things that maybe people wouldn't realize are an option. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so important as you mentioned, too, and in the trade industries, with the education, being disrupted with COVID and all that. I think there's a huge opportunity for that. Many people don't know what multifamily is until somehow they fall into it. They meet someone or their sister becomes a leasing agent or something like that, right? It's the same with these trade industries as well. You just don't even know what you don't know. You don't know what's out there yet. It's true. I actually, it's funny. I didn't grow up thinking that I wanted to be in the plumbing industry. I fell into it. Back straight out of college, fell into it. And then that has led me through more custom home. And when I found this multifamily industry, I absolutely fell in love with it. And I've loved it ever since. And I think you're exactly right. It's you just may not realize it's out there until it's introduced. So I love the idea that we're spreading the message. Not just about multifamily, but a wonderful message about women in the multifamily profession, whether it's on the trade side or the construction side or the property management side, there's so many different paths that you can take and be involved in this wonderful industry. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You said it perfectly. What's the best way for our audience to get in touch with you? Yes. So you can go to our website, which is Pfisterfaucets. com. From there, there's a contact page. And then the other thing you can do is you can email me at shannon. erby at spectrumbrands. com. And then from there, we can get you where you need to go. Perfect. And are you on LinkedIn? I'm assuming you are. I am, yes. I have a LinkedIn. It's a great place to check out all the wonderful things. I love to share beautiful projects that we were involved in and new products that are coming up. Awesome. Perfect. Listen, before we say goodbye, I want to just remind everyone that in the show notes for this episode, we'll have everything we talked about. We'll link to Shannon's LinkedIn. We'll link to the website the web series as well. We'll include all of that in the show notes. So be sure to check those out. And as we wrap up today's episode, I also want to extend an invitation for you to join our women's leadership series. By becoming a part of this initiative, you'll gain access to our private group and we have over 5, 000 members now. It's a fantastic platform to inspire each other, exchange ideas, get advice, wisdom, and just grow together. And you can find that on multifamilywomen. com. Just click on the little tab that says join. Thank you for listening and we will see you in the next show.