John Lovallo: The first, really, it’s focused on the divergence in the OC’s roofing volume versus the industry. I know you mentioned that demand for the product remained very strong. I guess the question really is, how are inventory levels right now in the channel? And do you expect any destocking as we move forward?
Brian Chambers: Yes. Thanks, John. What we saw in Q4, I would characterize as really kind of a continuation of what we saw in Q3 from a standpoint of distributors becoming much more selective on the products and brands they were buying based on local demand trends and more available product to them. So we saw these trends emerging in Q3. We talked about that. In Q4, we saw it much more acutely as I think all distributors were looking to rightsize their inventories. And outside of a couple of storm markets, particularly Florida, upper Midwest, we saw manufacturing shipment volumes down considerably in that area. So I think there is a big push from distributors to rightsize their inventories to what they’re seeing in terms of local demand.
And certainly, product availability is more available widespread than we were a few quarters ago. So I think that’s impacted Q3, Q4. I would say just to characterize, though, the fourth quarter volumes, even though they stepped down considerably, if you look over the last 7, 8 years kind of average volumes in the fourth quarter, they were more in line with the average volume. So I think still good purchasing activity, just a pretty significant step-down from the last couple of years. And I would characterize that’s what we’re seeing in Q1. So we’re guiding to a step-down in inventory or in manufacturer purchases in the market in Q1, again, as distributors keep rightsizing their inventory. I think the divergence is really the continued strong demand for our products based on our strength of our contractor network.
So this is a key part of our strategy in our Roofing business. The team has been executing incredibly well for the last several years which is to focus on converting contractors and helping to build their business through our unique products, our brand, our commercial skills and capabilities and digital tools. And so I think we just continue to see that in terms of drawing great strength in our product. And so while we were seeing some markets getting softer and some of those step-down in purchases overall from a distributor standpoint, demand for our products remained strong through the quarter. And I think that was a bit of the disconnect and divergence that you talked about in Q4. And we think that strength for our products is going to continue here into Q1.
And we think we’re set up for a good year in Roofing.
Operator: Our next question comes from Joseph Ahlersmeyer from Deutsche Bank.
Joseph Ahlersmeyer: Congrats on the residential business results, guys.
Brian Chambers: Thank you.
Joseph Ahlersmeyer: My question is if you could just talk about the resilience in the volumes in North America. I think some might be surprised that — with what starts have done since last summer that your 4Q volumes were flat and your 1Q volumes are expected to be flat. I guess my question really is, I know you tend to only talk a quarter ahead just based on visibility. But if you could just help us hypothetically think about, if we are seeing starts — single-family starts bottoming in the first quarter, how might that shape up for the rest of the year for your North America resi volumes?
