Generac is seeing a rise in interest for their home stand-by generators amid growing concerns over the coronavirus. Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld joins Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith to discuss.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Let's talk about Generac. Now it's a company that has been under a little bit of pressure since the start of the year, but of course, it's very much better than the broader market. It's a stock that typically does well when people seem to be worried, especially about natural disasters. But I'm wondering about any impact that the coronavirus pandemic could be having on this company.

So let's bring in Aaron Jagdfeld, Generac CEO. And, Aaron, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. Just in terms of a spike in demand, has there been an uptick in demand for generators since the coronavirus outbreak?

AARON JAGDFELD: We're definitely getting a lot of inquiries from people that are concerned about losing their power if they're now at home, working from home, learning from home. You know, generators have been a popular category for the last-- really, the last decade or so. A lot of power outages, especially if you go out to California.

The PG&E experience last year, I think, really took Californians by surprise. And now you have a lot of those same people working from home, so they're very concerned about what their life might be like if they don't have power.

SEANA SMITH: What has that penetration been like in some critical areas? So we've been hearing, obviously, there's lots of demand for hospitals, health care systems, nursing homes as well, to keep them up and running during these types of times. What is the penetration like in those areas?

AARON JAGDFELD: Yeah, in the health care industry, penetration rates are pretty high, because obviously, you know, a hospital, a clinic, you know, in a lot of cases, there's regulations that drive those types of penetration rates much, much higher. Telecommunications industry as well. A lot of the wireless teleco companies have made sure that they're hardening their networks to make sure that, you know, those networks are up and running if they have problems with power. But when you get into small businesses, or even, you know, larger businesses, homeowners for sure, penetration rates are still very, very low.

SEANA SMITH: What are you doing, just in terms of your company, in terms of personnel, people being able to work from home? Many companies at this point, if they haven't been mandated, have been trying to have the majority of their employees work from home. What is your company doing at this point?

AARON JAGDFELD: Today we have a mix of about 50% in the office, 50% out, because we have to be there to support our customers, those same hospitals and clinics that have our products installed. We have to take care of them. If there's a problem with those products, they have to be able to get a hold of somebody.

We also have our manufacturing facilities-- are still manufacturing products. There are a lot of customers that are looking for these types of products, again, whether they're homeowners or whether it's a-- it could be a temporary hospital that's being set up. Some of these hotels that are being converted to hospitals may not have had backup power. So we need to add generators to those facilities to make sure that they're operational should they lose power.

SEANA SMITH: Aaron, at a time like this when there's so much uncertainty, as the CEO of Generac, how are you navigating this type of environment?

AARON JAGDFELD: Yeah, I'll tell you, this is a-- it's clearly an unprecedented event. And I think one of the interesting things about Generac is we are used to responding to events, right, so whether it's a hurricane, or an ice storm, or some major power outage You know, unfortunately, natural disasters do drive interest in our products. And this is a form of a natural disaster.

So our team's ability to work with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose, knowing that we're out there trying to help people, makes my job a lot easier, because the team is doing all the work. But it does present some interesting things that we have to learn through in terms of working from home.

Our company was not-- probably like a lot of companies-- was not set up perfectly to work everybody from home. So managing from home and working from home are different skill sets that we've had to work through. We're getting there, but I think, you know, it's still to be refined. But it's difficult times.

You got a lot of people who are just worried, right, if they're on the front lines. People in our manufacturing plants making products are concerned. We're doing a lot of extra things to keep them safe, obviously, as much as we can. But still, it presents a very unique challenge in running a business in this time.

SEANA SMITH: All right, Aaron Jagdfeld, CEO of Generac. Thank you so much for joining me today.

AARON JAGDFELD: Thank you.