Morrow reflects on shifting strategy
The top 16 products in the third annual “Coolest Things Made in Nebraska” have been announced with Aurora’s own BonnaVilla Homes making the list.
Public voting for the top 16 products in the bracket-style competition started Sept. 11 and continues through Sept. 22, with advanced rounds to follow. (See related bracket with voting information) The contest, hosted by the NE Manufacturing Alliance and powered by the NE Chamber, celebrates the state’s thriving manufacturing industry with Nebraska residents, students, educators, community leaders, manufacturers and especially the more than 100,000 Nebraskans working in manufacturing every day.
Mike Morrow, plant manager at BonnaVilla Homes, said he was pleased but not surprised to see his company make this year’s list.
“I think that over the course of the last couple years that in terms of our market footprint and our activities there has been a big shift,” he explained when asked why BonnaVilla might have been selected for the competition. “A lot of what we are doing now is more local in terms of central Nebraska, so we have a lot more brand awareness because of the things we’re doing.”
Morrow reported, for example, that Eagle Crest in Grand Island, which is also a Chief Industries company, has recently experienced exponential sales growth.
“I think we’ve seen a three-fold increase in projects in a year-and-a-half timeframe,” he noted. “We’ve seen a huge increase in western Nebraska and we have a lot of activity and a lot of projects we are involved with here, up in the Columbus and Norfolk area, and also east toward Omaha and Lincoln.”
BonnaVilla has benefitted, Morrow said, from some of that increased brand awareness.
“I think people have always known BonnaVilla as a company that manufactures and ships all over the Midwest, but I think now as far as actual home building and being in the market with building activity and residential homes, we are seeing more brand awareness for us in Nebraska,” he continued. “That’s probably been the story of our last year and a half.”
Morrow noted that BonnaVilla did experience a reduction in volume in some of its traditionally strong western markets when interest rates jumped, thus the boost in Nebraska-based sales has provided a timely boost.
“When it’s all said and done, I think everybody saw that there was a bit of a pause there, but after the short-term kind of pause button thing hit we’re back to where sales are at the level they had been prior to that,” he said. “What we’re seeing now is the potential for that to grow beyond where we had been.”
Both at BonnaVilla and at the Chief Industries parent company, Morrow said there has been a commitment to get more involved in the local communities.
“So we’ve been more engaged like with the Rural Workforce Housing grants, not just here but in other communities where we know that they’re actively seeking partners for that sort of work,” he explained. “We’re actively engaged in conversations all over the state, visiting at conferences and working with NIFA (Nebraska Investment Finance Authority) to try to figure out how we can partner in a variety of different ways.”
Morrow shared what he called a top-down commitment over the last few years with a strategy focused on growing business close to home.
“The reality is we see, long-term, our opportunity to expand beyond where we’re ever been right here in our backyard,” he said.
The reality of the situation about affordable housing and how that affects economic growth, he continued, is that it’s a BonnaVilla/Chief issue as well as a statewide challenge.
“Ultimately, we’re hoping that commitment and that strategy is something we can do that will solve our own problem, which is getting more supply of entry level houses out all over the market,” Morrow said.
As for its local workforce, Morrow reported that BonnaVilla has remained steady at the Aurora plant with about 160 employees, though based on steady if not growing demand he thinks that by the end of the year the company may need to grow its workforce to match sales.
On a final note, asked if BonnaVilla has made changes to its core product in recent years while coming out of the pandemic, Morrow said quite the opposite is true.
“What we tried to do during the pandemic and all those supply-chain problems was stay true to what we do,” he said. “A lot of people went out of their way to narrow down what they were offering, simplify, eliminate things, but we tried to stay consistent and stay true to the core mission, and that is that this is what we build, we’re good at it, and we try not to make dramatic changes. We try to evolve and be progressive to match market needs on certain things, but outside of that we tried to stay fairly true to what we do best. I think that served us well and I think people have appreciated the consistency.”