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Transcript

Prefab Review

Hi, my name is Michael Frank and this is the Prefab Pod presented by Prefab Review where we interview leading people and companies in the prefab and modular housing industry. Today, we're speaking with Jason Webster, owner of Huntington Homes. Welcome, Jason.

Huntington Homes

Hey, Michael. Thanks for having me.

Prefab Review

To start, can you tell me a little bit about the history of Huntington Homes and how it got started?

Huntington Homes

Sure. So, Huntington Homes, we are a modular manufacturing company. We're based in Vermont. We were founded in 1978 and we build throughout New England. The company started, Huntington comes from the original owner a man named Hank Huntington who was a dealer in the 70s for one of the original modular home companies in New England called Continental Homes. And he built, I don't know, a bunch of houses in Vermont and then decided you know, towards the late 70s that he thought that they could build them themselves. And so he rounded up a group of builders in the area and then figured out and built Huntington Homes. One of the people that was part of that group and my connection to it and how I ended up here is that one of the people in that original group of people putting the company together was my father, who has been there since 1978.

Prefab Review

That’s great. And could you provide with a little bit of a fast forward to where you are today?

Huntington Homes

Sure. So in ‘78 when we started and through the early 90’s we were very much like all of the other manufacturers and some of the manufacturers today where, you know, we were a kind of a wholesale manufacturing company that sold through a dealer network. We operated that way definitely through the 80s. In the mid to late 80‘s opened a manufacturing plant in Massachusetts and we operated out of one of those plants. That plant was only operational for a couple of years. All manufacturing moved back to Vermont. In the early 90’s my father had an opportunity to purchase the company from the group that owned us through the 80s. And he really started transitioning the company. Then, in the early 90s to what we are today, I mean, we are still a manufacturing facility. Currently, I'm sitting inside our 100,000 square foot shop here. But we started transitioning away from you know, a kind of traditional dealer-based system to where we are today, where we sell everything directly to consumers.

Prefab Review

Yeah.

Huntington Homes

And we have packages that we offer to that client depending on where they're located. If they're close to us - meaning they're within forty miles of our headquarters, we offer what we call full turnkey packages, where we offer full general contracting services for the whole project. So obviously, we oversee the plant stuff and all the on-site construction as well. If they are in the rest of our service territory, which is the rest of New England but outside of that forty miles, then we offer what we call a modules with set crew package, which is where we provide the modules, we provide the delivery of those modules, and we provide the set crew to physically set them and make them structurally secure, airtight, and watertight; including a shingled roof or a finished roof. And then, the client then works with their, we've developed a really good set of documents to define the scope of work, the client then works with their own contractor for the button up work from that point on.

Prefab Review

That makes sense. It's funny, you're kind of close to Vermont sort of scope of services where you do everything, I would say when we have people come to us, it's basically what clients ask for. And what you’e able to deliver. I mean even you guys are able to deliver a very small minority of services just because it seems like the local aspect of construction means it's really hard to be vertically integrated across a project. Do you find that? I assume you find it's probably a little smoother and a little better on the projects where you can do the site work as well?

Huntington Homes

Yeah, I mean clients certainly prefer when we offer the full package, right? And you know, I kind of joke that it's one neck to squeeze.

Prefab Review

Right? Because then you don't have multiple contracts and stuff like that.

Huntington Homes

Yeah, it's certainly an easier project for a client to put together when we're managing the whole thing. Everything from preconstruction to the end because they ask one set of questions and they get one answer right? So then when they ask what does it cost? I answer their question. 

Prefab Review

Right. You don't say, “hey, here's the module price. Go find some money and the answer for the site work”, right?

Huntington Homes

Versus yeah, go find the builder. And you know, you don't even know what questions to ask them because you don't know what they have to do and they've never done it before so they don't know either. So it's definitely evidenced by backlog, right? Now you know we're in weird times right now. Everybody's backed up. But, you know, our turnkey services are right now in Vermont we have a 24-month backlog for those.

Prefab Review

Oh Wow, so does that mean that for people who want, is that true on your line in-house as well?

Huntington Homes

The