About Benjamin Butcher
Benjamin Butcher, chairman, president, and CEO of STAG Industrial, has discussed the company’s focus on using data analytics to improve underwriting and asset selection, stating that the industrial sector has historically lagged others in data use and that STAG aims to change that perception by demonstrating the positive impact of data. He has also highlighted the company’s charitable work through its Charitable Action Committee in Boston, describing the level of employee engagement as gratifying. Butcher has noted that while strong industrial fundamentals continue, supply is becoming an issue in a few large markets, and he cited potential demand impacts from tariffs and Washington policy.
Butcher has described STAG as a bottom-up investor focused on acquiring assets that produce strong cash flow, with a diversified portfolio across geography, industry, and tenant credit. He has expressed confidence in consumer-driven U.S. economic strength and noted that industrial demand closely tracks GDP, with e-commerce and supply chain shortening providing additional tailwinds. Butcher has also stated that the company’s acquisition pace may accelerate as its cost of capital improves and opportunities remain plentiful, and that STAG has built a platform capable of handling larger annual acquisition volumes.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Benjamin Butcher's recent appearances.
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Transcript (11 segments)
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Dian Rezzak Mollah0:05
I'm Dian Rezzak Mollah here at Third Week's 2019 Investor Conference. I'm here with Ben Butcher, Chairman, President, and CEO of Stag Industrial. Hi Ben, good morning. Can we start by talking about the overall industrial fundamentals and if things are as positive as the last time we spoke?
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Benjamin Butcher0:24
Well, we've certainly had the benefit of very strong fundamentals for a long time now, and they continue to be strong. Supply can is beginning to be an issue, and there are obviously demand issues from potential GDP impacts of tariffs and other things going on in Washington these days.
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Dian Rezzak Mollah0:41
And which markets or submarkets are you seeing concerns or positive oversupply?
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Benjamin Butcher0:46
The oversupply is really constrained to a few very large markets. The poster child is typically South Dallas, which everybody talks about, Lehigh Valley, some parts of Chicago, South Atlanta, places like that. But it's really constrained to just a few very large markets. We operate mostly in secondary markets where speculative supply is not an issue.
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Dian Rezzak Mollah1:06
And you've said before that the industrial sector has historically lagged other sectors in terms of using data analytics. How is Stag changing that perception?
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Benjamin Butcher1:18
Well, we hope to change it by showing the mean and being able to demonstrate the positive impact of data. We're working on both identifying assets to be acquired, better visibility into rent achieve, how hard we can push rents, and a variety of other factors that we use in underwriting. But certainly, it's a fertile field for us to explore, and we hope to be able to demonstrate the value of it.
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Dian Rezzak Mollah1:40
And lastly, the subject of your annual letter to shareholders was ESG — obviously this is a broad topic — but if you had to pick one aspect of your company's ESG platform that you are especially proud of, what would it be?
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Benjamin Butcher1:53
Well, we're proud of some of the things we've done in terms of energy conservation, etc. But I would have to say, without question, our CAC, another acronym we use — Charitable Action Committee. The level of engagement and the sort of positive feeling that's engendered within the company from the charitable work, the philanthropic work we do within the city of Boston, has really been gratifying. It's been really well adopted and well followed, and it produces a level of engagement within the company I think is very gratifying.
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Dian Rezzak Mollah2:23
Ben, thanks so much for sitting down with us.
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Benjamin Butcher2:25
Thank you for having me.
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Narrator2:27
Thank you. For more on Third Week, visit re.com.
