Item 1. Business

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Statements in this report and the schedules hereto that are not purely historical facts or that necessarily depend upon future events, including statements about expected market share gains, forecasted financial performance or other statements about anticipations, beliefs, expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. In addition, oral statements made by our directors, officers and employees to the investor and analyst communities, media representatives and others, depending upon their nature, may also constitute forward-looking statements. As with the forward-looking statements included in this report, these forward-looking statements are by nature inherently uncertain, and actual results may differ materially as a result of many factors. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to Builders FirstSource, Inc. on the date this report was submitted. Builders FirstSource, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements, including risks or uncertainties related to the Company’s growth strategies, including gaining market share, or the Company’s revenues and operating results being highly dependent on, among other things, the homebuilding industry, lumber prices and the economy. Builders FirstSource, Inc. may not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further information regarding the risk factors that could affect our financial and other results are included as Item 1A of this annual report on Form 10-K.

OVERVIEW

In this annual report, unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, references to the “company,” “we,” “our,” “ours” or “us” refer to Builders FirstSource, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, including ProBuild Holdings LLC (“ProBuild”), as of July 31, 2015.

We are a leading supplier and manufacturer of building materials, manufactured components and construction services to professional homebuilders, sub-contractors, remodelers and consumers. Following our acquisition of ProBuild in July 2015, the Company operates 400 locations in 40 states across the United States. We offer an integrated solution to our customers providing manufacturing, supply and installation of a full range of structural and related building products. Our manufactured products include our factory-built roof and floor trusses, wall panels and stairs, vinyl windows, custom millwork and trim, as well as engineered wood that we design, cut, and assemble for each home. We also assemble interior and exterior doors into pre-hung units. Additionally, we supply our customers with a broad offering of professional grade building products not manufactured by us, such as dimensional lumber and lumber sheet goods and various window, door and millwork lines. Our full range of construction-related services includes professional installation, turn-key framing and shell construction, and spans all our product categories.

Given the span and depth of our geographical reach, our locations are organized into nine geographical regions (Regions 1 through 9), which are also our operating segments, further aggregated into four reportable segments: Northeast, Southeast, South and West. All of our segments have similar customers, products and services, and distribution methods as discussed below. Our financial statements contain additional information regarding segment performance which is discussed in Note 15 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this annual report on Form 10-K.

Builders FirstSource, Inc. is a Delaware corporation formed in 1998 as BSL Holdings, Inc. On October 13, 1999, our name changed to Builders FirstSource, Inc. Our common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market LLC under the ticker symbol “BLDR”.

OUR INDUSTRY

We compete in the professional segment (“Pro Segment”) of the U.S. residential building products supply market. Suppliers in the Pro Segment primarily focus on serving professional customers such as homebuilders and remodeling contractors. The Pro Segment consists predominantly of small, privately owned suppliers, including framing and shell construction contractors, local and regional materials distributors, single or multi-site lumberyards, and truss manufacturing and millwork operations. Because of the predominance of smaller privately owned companies and the overall size and diversity of the target customer market, the Pro Segment remains fragmented. There were only five non-specialty building product suppliers in the Pro Segment that generated more than $500 million in sales, according to ProSales magazine’s 2015 ProSales 100 list. We were the largest non-specialty building product supplier on this list.

The residential building products industry is driven by the level of activity in both the U.S. residential new construction market and the U.S. residential repair and remodeling market. Growth within these markets is linked to a number of key factors, including demographic trends, housing demand, interest rates, employment levels, availability of credit, foreclosure rates, consumer confidence, the availability of qualified tradesmen, and the state of the economy in general.

The residential building products industry is characterized by several key trends, including greater utilization of manufactured components, an expanding role of the distributor in providing turn-key services and a consolidation of suppliers by homebuilders.

	•	Prefabricated components: Compared to conventional “stick-build” construction where builders cut and assemble lumber at the job site with their own labor, prefabricated components are engineered in an offsite location using specialized equipment and labor. This outsourced task allows for optimal material usage, lower overall labor costs and improved quality of structural elements. In addition, using prefabricated components typically results in faster construction because fabrication can be automated and performed more systematically. As such, we believe there is a long term trend towards increased use of prefabricated components by homebuilders.

	•	Turn-key services: Many homebuilders have taken a more limited role in the homebuilding process and have outsourced certain key elements of the construction process, including process management, product selection, order input, scheduling, framing and installation. As such, we believe that many homebuilders are increasingly looking to suppliers in the Pro Segment to perform these critical functions, resulting in greater demand for integrated project services; and

	•	Consolidation of suppliers by homebuilders: We believe that homebuilders are increasingly looking to consolidate their supplier base. Many homebuilders are seeking a more strategic relationship with suppliers that are able to offer a broad range of products and services and, as a result, are allocating a greater share of wallet to a select number of larger, full service suppliers. We believe this trend accelerated during the recent downturn and continues in the current housing market recovery.

The homebuilding industry experienced a significant downturn which began in 2006. During the downturn, many homebuilders significantly decreased their housing starts because of lower demand and a surplus of both existing and new home inventory. The weakness in the homebuilding industry resulted in a significant reduction in demand for our products and services. Beginning in late 2011, the industry began to stabilize and housing and remodeling activity has steadily strengthened since then. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the single-family residential construction market was an estimated $243.4 billion in 2016, which was 4.8% higher than 2015, though still down significantly from the historical high of $413.2 billion in 2006. Further, according to the Home Improvement Research institute (“HIRI”), the professional repair and remodel end market was an estimated $98.1 billion in 2016, which was 6.1% higher than 2015.

During the downturn mortgage financing and commercial credit for smaller homebuilders was severely constrained and continues to slow a recovery in our industry despite some recent improvement. However, we believe there are several meaningful trends that indicate U.S. housing demand will likely continue to recover to levels consistent with the historical average of the past fifty years. These trends include relatively low interest rates, the aging of housing stock, and population growth due to immigration and birthrate exceeding death rate. According to the U.S Census Bureau, U.S. single-family housing starts increased 9.4% in 2016 compared to 2015. A composite of third party sources, including the National Association of Homebuilders (“NAHB”), are predicting that U.S. single-family housing starts will increase to approximately 847,000 in 2017, which would represent an 8.4% increase from 2016 actual U.S. single-family housing starts of 781,500. In addition, the HIRI is forecasting sales in the professional repair and remodel end market to increase approximately 4.2% in 2017 compared to 2016.

OUR CUSTOMERS

We serve a broad customer base in 40 states across the United States. We have a diverse geographic footprint as we have operations in 75 of the top 100 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”), as ranked by single family housing permits based on 2016 U.S. Census data. In addition, approximately 83% of U.S. housing permits in 2016 were issued in MSAs in which we operate. Given the local nature of our business, we have historically and will continue to locate our facilities in close proximity to our key customers and co-locate multiple operations in one facility to improve efficiency.

We have a diversified customer base, ranging from large production builders to small custom homebuilders, as well as multi-family builders, repair and remodeling contractors and light commercial contractors. For the year ended December 31, 2016, our top 10 customers accounted for approximately 16.8% of sales, and no single customer accounted for more than 5% of sales. Our top 10 customers are comprised primarily of the largest production homebuilders, including publicly traded companies such as D.R. Horton, Inc., Pulte Homes, Inc., Lennar Corporation, Hovnanian Enterprises and CalAtlantic Group.

In addition to the largest production homebuilders, we also service and supply regional production and local custom homebuilders as well as repair and remodeling contractors. These customers require high levels of service and a broad product offering. Our sales team expects to work very closely with the designers on a day-to-day basis in order to ensure the appropriate products are identified, ordered or produced and delivered on time to the building site. To account for these increased service costs, pricing in the industry is tied to the level of service provided and the volumes purchased.

OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

We group our building products and services into six product categories:

Lumber & Lumber Sheet Goods. Lumber & lumber sheet goods include dimensional lumber, plywood and oriented strand board (“OSB”) products used in on-site house framing. Lumber & lumber sheet goods are our largest sales volume product category. The products in this category are highly sensitive to fluctuations in market prices for such commodities.

Windows, Doors & Millwork. Windows & doors are comprised of the manufacturing, assembly and distribution of windows, and the assembly and distribution of interior and exterior door units. We manufacture a portion of the vinyl windows that we distribute in our plant in Houston, Texas which allows us to supply builders, primarily in the Texas market, with cost-competitive products. Our pre-hung interior and exterior doors consist of a door slab with hinges and door jambs attached, reducing on-site installation time and providing higher quality finished door units than those constructed on site. These products typically require a high degree of product knowledge and training to sell. Millwork includes interior trim and custom features that we manufacture under the Synboard ® brand name. Synboard is produced from extruded PVC and offers several advantages over traditional wood features, such as greater durability and no ongoing maintenance such as periodic caulking and painting.

Manufactured Products. Manufactured products are factory-built substitutes for job-site framing and include wood floor and roof trusses, steel roof trusses, wall panels, stairs, and engineered wood that we design, cut, and assemble for each home. Our manufactured products allow builders to build higher quality homes more efficiently. Roof trusses, floor trusses, wall panels and stair units are built in a factory controlled environment. Engineered floors and beams are cut to the required size and packaged for the given application at many of our locations. Without manufactured products, builders construct these items on site, where weather and variable labor quality can negatively impact construction cost, quality and installation time. In addition, engineered wood beams have greater structural strength than conventional framing materials, allowing builders to frame houses with more open space creating a wider variety of house designs. Engineered wood floors are also stronger and straighter than conventionally framed floors.

Gypsum, Roofing & Insulation. Gypsum, roofing, and insulation include wallboard, ceilings, joint treatment and finishes.

Siding, Metal, and Concrete. Siding, metal, and concrete includes vinyl, composite, and wood siding, exterior trim, other exteriors, metal studs and cement.

Other Building Products & Services. Other building products & services consist of various products, including cabinets and hardware. This category also includes services such as turn-key framing, shell construction, design assistance and professional installation of products spanning all our product categories. We provide professional installation and turn-key services as a solution for our homebuilder customers. Through our installation services program, we help homebuilders realize efficiencies through improved scheduling, resulting in reduced cycle time and better cost controls. By utilizing an energy efficiency software program, we also assist homebuilders in designing energy efficient homes in order to meet increasingly stringent energy rating requirements. Upgrading to our premium windows, doors, and insulating products reduces overall cost to the homebuilder by minimizing costs of the required heating/cooling system. We work closely with the homebuilder to select the appropriate mix of our products in order to meet current and forthcoming energy codes. We believe these services require scale, capital and sophistication that smaller competitors do not possess. We will continue to pursue profitable business in this category.

We compete in a fragmented marketplace. We believe our integrated approach and scale allow us to compete effectively through our comprehensive product lines, prefabricated components, and value-added services combined with the knowledge of our integrated sales forces to enable our homebuilder customers to complete construction more quickly, with higher quality and at a lower cost. While we expect these benefits to be particularly valuable to our customers in market environments characterized by labor shortages, sourcing challenges or sharply rising demand for new homes, we expect such benefits will also be increasingly valued and demanded by our customers operating under normal market conditions.

MANUFACTURING

Our manufacturing facilities utilize the latest industry leading technology and the highest quality materials to improve product quality, increase efficiency, reduce lead times and minimize production errors. We manufacture products within two of our product categories: manufactured products, and windows, doors & millwork.

Manufactured Products — Trusses and Wall Panels. Truss and wall panel production has two steps — design and fabrication. Each house requires its own set of designed shop drawings, which vary by builder type: production versus custom builders. Production builders use prototype house plans as they replicate houses. These house plans may be minimally modified to suit individual customer demand. The number of changes made to a given prototype house, and the number of prototype houses used, varies by builder and their construction and sales philosophy. We maintain an electronic master file of trusses and wall panels for each builder’s prototype houses. There are three primary benefits to master filing. First, master filing is cost effective as the electronic master file is used rather than designing the components individually each time the prototype house is built. Second, it improves design quality as a house’s design is based on the proven prototype except for any minor builder modifications. Third, master filing allows us to change one file and update all related prototype house designs automatically as we improve the design over time or as the builder modifies the base prototype house. We do not maintain a master file for custom builders who do not replicate houses, as it is not cost effective. For these builders, the components are designed individually for each house.

After we design shop drawings for a given house, we download the shop drawings into a proprietary software system to review the design for potential errors and to schedule the job for production. The fabrication process begins by cutting individual pieces of lumber to required lengths in accordance with the shop drawings. We download the shop drawings from our design department to computerized saws. We assemble the cut lumber to form roof trusses, floor trusses or wall panels, and store the finished components by house awaiting shipment to the job site.

We generate fabrication time standards for each component during the design step. We use these standards to measure efficiency by comparing actual production time with the calculated standard. Each plant’s performance is benchmarked by comparing efficiency across plants.

Manufactured Products — Engineered Wood. As with trusses and wall panels, engineered wood components have a design and fabrication step. We design engineered wood floors using a master filing system similar to the truss and wall panel system. Engineered wood beams are designed to ensure the beam will be structurally sound in the given application. After the design phase, a printed layout is generated. We use this layout to cut the engineered wood to the required length and assemble all of the components into a house package. We design and fabricate engineered wood at many of our distribution locations.

Manufactured Products — Stairs. We manufacture box stairs at some of our locations. After a house is framed, our salesman takes measurements at the job site prior to manufacturing to account for any variation between the blueprints and the actual framed house. We fabricate box stairs based on these measurements.

Custom Millwork. Our manufactured custom millwork consists primarily of synthetic exterior trim, custom windows, features and box columns that we sell under our Synboard brand name and throughout our company.

We sand, cut, and shape sheets of 4 foot by 18 or 20 foot Celuka-blown, extruded PVC, or Synboard, to produce the desired product. We produce exterior trim boards by cutting the Synboard into the same industry-standard dimensions used for wood-based exterior trim boards. We form exterior features by assembling pieces of Synboard and other PVC-based moldings that have been cut, heated and bent over forms to achieve the desired shape. For custom windows, we build the frame from Synboard and glaze the glass into place. We fabricate box columns from sections of PVC that are cut on a 45 degree angle and mitered together.

Windows. We manufacture a full line of traditional vinyl windows at an approximately 200,000 square foot manufacturing facility located in Houston, Texas. The process begins by purchasing vinyl lineal extrusions. We cut these extrusions to size and join them together to form the window frame and sash. We then purchase sheet glass and cut it to size. We combine two pieces of identically shaped glass with a sealing compound to create a glass unit with improved insulating capability. We then insert the sealed glass unit and glaze it into the window frame and sash. The unit is completed when we install a balance to operate the window and add a lock to secure the window in a closed position.

Pre-hung Doors. We pre-hang interior and exterior doors at many of our locations. We insert door slabs and pre-cut door jambs into a door machine, which bores holes into the doors for the door hardware and applies the jambs and hinges to the door slab. We then apply the casing that frames interior doors at a separate station. Exterior doors do not have a casing, and instead may have sidelights applied to the sides of the door, a transom attached over the top of the door unit and a door sill applied to the threshold.

OUR STRATEGY

We intend to build on our strong market positions and increase our sales and profits by pursuing the following strategies:

Utilize our competitive strengths to capitalize on housing market recovery and growth

As the U.S. housing market recovery continues, we intend to increase sales through our scale, product portfolio and structural efficiencies. Our Pro Segment homebuilding customers continue to emphasize the importance of competitive pricing, a broad product portfolio, sales force knowledge, on-site services and overall “ease of use” of their building products suppliers. Our comprehensive product offering, experienced sales force and tenured senior management team position us well to capitalize on strong demand in the new home construction market as well as the repair and remodel segment. Our acquisition of ProBuild further developed the suite of products and services we provide to our customers, in addition to substantially expanding our national footprint. This comprehensive network of products, services and facilities provides a platform which we believe enhances our “one-stop-shop” strategy and more evenly distributes and promotes additional “pull through” of our value added products. We believe that homebuilders will continue to place an increased value on these capabilities, which will further differentiate us from our competitors.

Execute on identified cost saving strategies

Our management has shown the capability to effectively and efficiently integrate newly acquired businesses, ramping up productivity and driving value. Prior to the ProBuild acquisition, we successfully integrated 33 acquisitions since 1998. These integration capabilities should enable us to achieve annual run rate cost savings of $100 to $120 million within two years of the close date of the ProBuild acquisition. We have realized approximately $74 million in 2016 and $10 million in 2015 of the anticipated synergy cost savings. One-time costs to achieve these cost savings is estimated to be $90-$100 million, of which we incurred approximately $28 million and $43 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively. The remainder of these costs are expected to be incurred in 2017.

Maximize our share of wallet with individual customers across our service areas

We believe that Pro Segment customers will continue to consolidate the number of supplier relationships they utilize in the future. As a result, this will create the opportunity to win a greater share of wallet for remaining suppliers. By focusing on and developing our differentiated “one-stop-shop” strategy, which includes broadening our product mix, we will be able to offer a complete array of products and services that would otherwise need to be sourced from various distributors. Additionally, as the largest non-specialty distributor of building products, we will be capable of providing customers with a consistent partner on projects regardless of where they are located. This operational platform often will make us a preferred distributor relationship for large scale national homebuilders while still providing value to local and custom homebuilders looking for assistance with product selection, on-site installation and project management.

Continue to leverage strategic vendor relationships

Our acquisition of ProBuild made us the largest non-specialty distributor in the Pro Segment. We believe we will be able to leverage this size and our strong homebuilder relationships to provide our vendors access to a large customer base. We believe that our size, purchasing power, and strong financial position allows us to negotiate favorable pricing (including back-end rebates), savings in procurement costs and to receive a higher priority with our vendors when product supply is limited. We strive to continually enhance our role as a preferred partner for vendors and our size, strong liquidity position, and access to capital markets is expected to mitigate natural credit concerns. Furthermore, our broad product portfolio includes a variety of higher-margin products, which we believe will enhance our preferred partner status. This preferred status enables us to participate in mutually beneficial joint marketing programs with our vendors. These incremental efficiencies in procurement provide an opportunity to pass on additional value to our customers.

Optimize cash flow with highly scalable cost structure

Through the downturn we focused on standardizing processes and technology-based workflows to minimize costs, streamline our operations and enhance working capital efficiency. Significant investments in our technology infrastructure and reengineering of our business processes enabled us to centralize many corporate and field tasks. This standardization helps us to optimize our cost structure, allows our centralized operating team to make better purchasing and pricing decisions based on an accurate, up-to-the-minute understanding of costs and trends, and enables us to redeploy capital more strategically. We believe that these efficiencies will drive enhanced profit margins and cash flow conversion across our entire platform as we continue to grow with improving market conditions.

SALES AND MARKETING

We seek to attract and retain customers through exceptional customer service, leading product quality, broad product and service offerings, and competitive pricing. This strategy is centered on building and maintaining strong customer relationships rather than traditional marketing and advertising. We strive to add value for the homebuilders through shorter lead times, lower material costs, faster project completion and higher quality. By executing this strategy, we believe we will continue to generate new business.

Our experienced, locally focused sales force is at the core of our sales effort. This sales effort involves deploying salespeople who are skilled in housing construction to meet with a homebuilder’s construction superintendent, local purchasing agent, or local executive with the goal of becoming their primary product supplier. If selected by the homebuilder, the salesperson and his or her team review blueprints for the contracted homes and advise the homebuilder in areas such as opportunities for cost reduction, increased energy efficiencies, and regional aesthetic preferences. Next, the team determines the specific package of products that are needed to complete the project and schedules a sequence of site deliveries. Our large delivery fleet and comprehensive inventory management systems enable us to provide “just-in-time” product delivery, ensuring a smoother and faster production cycle for the homebuilder. Throughout the construction process, the salesperson makes frequent site visits to ensure timely delivery and proper installation and to make suggestions for efficiency improvements. We believe this level of service is highly valued by our customers and generates significant customer loyalty. At December 31, 2016, we employed approximately 1,700 sales representatives, who are typically paid a commission based on gross margin dollars collected and work with approximately 1,400 sales coordinators and product specialists.

BACKLOG

Due to the nature of our business, backlog information is not meaningful. While our customers may provide an estimate of their future needs, in most cases we do not receive a firm order from them until just prior to the anticipated delivery dates. Accordingly, in many cases the time frame from receipt of a firm order to shipment does not exceed a few days.

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS

We purchase inventory primarily for distribution, some of which is also utilized in our manufacturing plants. The key materials we purchase include dimensional lumber, plywood, OSB, engineered wood, windows, doors, and millwork. Our largest suppliers are national companies such as Weyerhaeuser Company, Boise Cascade Company, Canfor Corporation, Norbord, Inc., James Hardie Industries plc, National Gypsum Company, PlyGem Holdings, Inc., M I Windows and Doors, Inc., Andersen Corporation, Masonite International Corporation and JELD-WEN Inc. We believe there is sufficient supply in the marketplace to competitively source most of our requirements without reliance on any particular supplier and that our diversity of suppliers affords us purchasing flexibility. Due to our centralized procurement platform for commodity wood products and corporate oversight of purchasing programs we believe we are better able to maximize the advantages of both our and our suppliers’ broad geographic footprints and negotiate purchases across multiple markets to achieve more favorable contracts with respect to price, terms of sale, and supply than our regional competitors. Additionally, for certain customers, we institute purchasing programs on commodity wood products such as OSB and lumber to align portions of our procurement costs with our customer pricing commitments. We balance our OSB and lumber purchases with a mix of contract and spot market purchases to ensure consistent supply of product necessary to fulfill customer contracts, to source products at the lowest possible cost, and to minimize our exposure to the volatility of commodity lumber prices.

We currently source products from approximately 6,000 suppliers in order to reduce our dependence on any single company and to maximize purchasing leverage. Although no purchases from any single supplier represented more than 7% of our total materials purchases for the year ended December 31, 2016, we believe we are one of the largest customers for many suppliers, and therefore have significant purchasing leverage. We have found that using multiple suppliers ensures a stable source of products and the best purchasing terms as the suppliers compete to gain and maintain our business.

We maintain strong relationships with our suppliers, and we believe opportunities exist to improve purchasing terms in the future, including inventory storage or “just-in-time” delivery to reduce our inventory carrying costs. We will continue to pursue additional procurement cost savings and purchasing synergies which would further enhance our margins and cash flow.

COMPETITION

We compete in the Pro Segment of the U.S. residential building products supply market. We have and will continue to experience competition for homebuilder business due to the highly fragmented nature of the Pro Segment. Most of our competitors in the Pro Segment are small, privately held local businesses. Most of these companies have limited access to capital and lack sophisticated information technology systems and large-scale procurement capabilities. We believe we have substantial competitive advantages over these smaller competitors due to our long-standing customer relationships, local market knowledge and competitive pricing. Our largest competitors in our markets include 84 Lumber Co., which is privately held, as well as BMC Stock Holdings, Inc., which is publicly held.

Our customers primarily consist of professional homebuilders and those that provide construction services to them, with whom we focus on developing strong relationships. The principal methods of competition in the Pro Segment are the development of long-term relationships with professional builders and retaining such customers by (i) delivering a full range of high-quality products on time, and (ii) offering trade credit, competitive pricing, flexibility in transaction processing, and integrated service and product packages, such as turn-key framing and shell construction, as well as manufactured components and installation. Our leading market positions in the highly competitive Pro Segment create economies of scale that allow us to cost-effectively supply our customers, which both enhances profitability and reduces the risk of losing customers to competitors.

EMPLOYEES

At December 31, 2016, we had approximately 14,000 full-time equivalent employees. Approximately 2% of the workforce at our company are members of ten different unions. We believe that we have good relations with our employees.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS

Our operations are dependent upon our information technology systems, which encompass all of our major business functions. Our primary enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system, which we currently use for approximately half of our operations, is a proprietary system that has been highly customized by our computer programmers. The materials required for thousands of standard builder plans are stored by the system for rapid quoting or order entry. Hundreds of price lists are maintained on thousands of SKUs, facilitating rapid price changes in a changing product cost environment. A customer’s order can be tracked at each stage of the process and billing can be customized to reduce a customer’s administrative costs and speed payment.

We have a customized financial reporting system which consolidates financial, sales and workforce data from our ERP systems and our human resource information system (“HRIS”). This technology platform provides management with robust corporate and location level performance management by leveraging standardized metrics and analytics allowing us to plan, track and report performance and compensation measures.

We have developed a proprietary program for use in our component plants. This software reviews product designs for errors, schedules the plants and provides the data used to measure plant efficiency. In addition, we have purchased several software products that have been integrated with our primary ERP system. These programs assist in analyzing blueprints to generate material lists and in purchasing lumber products at the lowest cost.

ProBuild maintained multiple ERP systems to manage its operations. We are in the process of integrating the legacy ProBuild information technology systems with ours, which we expect will be a multi-year process. Our initial area of focus has been where we have operations within the same geographic market. Once overlapping markets have been addressed, we will begin integration of the broader geographic footprint of our company.

SEASONALITY AND OTHER FACTORS

Our first and fourth quarters have historically been, and are generally expected to continue to be, adversely affected by weather causing reduced construction activity during these quarters. In addition, quarterly results historically have reflected, and are expected to continue to reflect, fluctuations from period to period arising from the following:

	•	The volatility of lumber prices;

	•	The cyclical nature of the homebuilding industry;

	•	General economic conditions in the markets in which we compete;

	•	The pricing policies of our competitors;

	•	The production schedules of our customers; and

	•	The effects of weather.

The composition and level of working capital typically change during periods of increasing sales as we carry more inventory and receivables. Working capital levels typically increase in the second and third quarters of the year due to higher sales during the peak residential construction season. These increases have in the past resulted in negative operating cash flows during this peak season, which historically have been financed through available cash and our borrowing availability under credit facilities. Collection of receivables and reduction in inventory levels following the peak building and construction season have in the past positively impacted cash flow.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION

We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and in accordance therewith, we file reports, proxy and information statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy and information statements and other information and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available through the investor relations section of our website under the links to “Financial Information.” Our Internet address is www.bldr.com. Reports are available on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. In addition, our officers and directors file with the SEC initial statements of beneficial ownership and statements of change in beneficial ownership of our securities, which are also available on our website at the same location. We are not including this or any other information on our website as a part of, nor incorporating it by reference into, this Form 10-K or any of our other SEC filings.

In addition to our website, you may read and copy public reports we file with or furnish to the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains our reports, proxy and information statements, and other information that we electronically file with, or furnish to, the SEC at www.sec.gov.

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Floyd F. Sherman, Chief Executive Officer and Director, age 77. Mr. Sherman has been our Chief Executive Officer and a director since 2001, when he joined the Company. He served as President of the Company from 2001 until October 2006 and also served from February 2008 until November 2014. Prior to joining the Company, he spent 28 years at Triangle Pacific/Armstrong Flooring, the last nine of which he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sherman is currently a director of PGT, Inc. Mr. Sherman has over 40 years of experience in the building products industry. A native of Kerhonkson, New York and a veteran of the U.S. Army, Mr. Sherman is a graduate of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. He also holds an M.B.A. degree from Georgia State University.

M. Chad Crow, President and Chief Operating Officer, age 48. Mr. Crow joined the Company in September 1999 as Assistant Controller. He served as Vice President – Controller of the Company from May 2000 and was promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in November 2009. In November 2014, he was appointed to the position of President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Crow continued in his position as President and Chief Operating Officer when Mr. Jackson joined the Company as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in November 2016. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Crow served in a variety of positions at Pier One Imports. Mr. Crow also has five years of public accounting experience with Price Waterhouse LLP. Mr. Crow is a C.P.A. and received his B.B.A. degree from Texas Tech University.

Donald F. McAleenan, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, age 62. Mr. McAleenan has served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Company since 1998. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. McAleenan served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Fibreboard Corporation from 1992 to 1997. Mr. McAleenan was also Assistant General Counsel of AT&E Corporation and spent nine years as a securities lawyer at two New York City law firms. Mr. McAleenan has a B.S. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from New York University Law School.

Morris E. Tolly, Senior Vice President — Operations, age 73. Mr. Tolly has served as Senior Vice President — Operations of the Company since January 25, 2007. Mr. Tolly has been with Builders FirstSource since 1998 when the Company acquired Pelican Companies, Inc. (“Pelican”) and has over 40 years of experience in the building products industry. He served in a myriad of roles at Pelican, including sales, Sales Manager and General Manager. Mr. Tolly was an Area Vice President responsible for 12 locations at the time of Pelican’s acquisition. In 2000, he was promoted to President of the company’s Southeast Group, with responsibility for 48 locations.

Peter M. Jackson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, age 45. Mr. Jackson joined the Company on November 4, 2016 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Jackson was employed by Lennox International, Inc. (“Lennox”), which manufactures and markets a broad range of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration products. Since July 2014, Mr. Jackson had served as Vice President and CFO of Lennox’s Refrigeration Segment. From March 2013 to June 2014, he was Vice President, Finance - Financial Planning and Analysis and Mergers and Acquisitions for Lennox. He also served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Lennox’s Residential Heating and Cooling Segment from 2007 until 2013. Before joining Lennox, Mr. Jackson served in multiple financial leadership positions at SPX Corporation, General Electric, and Gerber Scientific. Mr. Jackson is a certified public accountant and a graduate of General Electric’s Experienced Financial Leadership program. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. from Bryant University.