The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 4

Adrian Downes: And Matt, if you’re going to do the math on that real quick, we do have more cars going on to the balance sheet kind of in the first half of the year than on the second half. So it is that normal kind of quarter to quarter production scheduling timing thing.

Matt Elkott: Got it. Got it. And Justin, does all the refurbishment revenue, does it all go into manufacturing, or is it some of it in the maintenance of the repair business?

Lorie Tekorius: It does go in both places. It’s more the way that we manage it. It’s based on the primary activity that goes on in that facility. So to the extent, let’s say in Arkansas that we’re doing some of these, this program work, it would still show up in manufacturing revenue, even though it’s more refurbishment work, because we’re managing it as a manufacturing facility.

Matt Elkott: Okay. I was just trying to gauge, reconcile how deliveries are going to be down in ’24 and revenues, I guess manufacturing revenue from deliveries, but manufacturing margin is going to expand unless you guys were talking about these holiday margins. But I thought you said manufacturing margin might expand?

Lorie Tekorius: We do expect, I do expect manufacturing margins to grow. We are not satisfied with where they are. We do expect that to continue to grow. And that is part of, to the extent that you remember back when Bill Krueger was presenting at Investor Day, and we were talking about our insourcing program, which we expect to reduce or create a benefit of somewhere in $50 million to $55 million by 2025. We are constant, we are not satisfied with where our margins are, and we will continue to be a combination of investing to be in control of our own destiny, as well as to think through how can we operate our facilities more efficiently, whether it’s for program work or new rail car manufacturing.

Matt Elkott: Yes, go ahead, Justin.

Justin Roberts: If I could just emphasize, so we are guiding to a about a 200 basis point increase in aggregate margins with a good chunk of that is coming out of our manufacturing business just on a full year 2024 versus full year 2023 activity.

Matt Elkott: Okay, got it. But just like theoretically, just to help me understand it, the reason manufacturing margins would expand on down deliveries is because of the structural improvements you guys are making as part of the bigger plans, as well as a higher portion of refurbishment revenue, which is higher margin.

Brian Comstock: In addition to, I mean, if you remember back to this year, we had some operating challenges earlier in the year. We are seeing more steady, stable activity and just better operating efficiencies as we kind of continue to recover from the pandemic.

Matt Elkott: Got it. Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Lorie Tekorius: Thanks, Matt.

Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Lorie Tekorius: Thank you, Sarah. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today on our call to discuss our fiscal 2023 results, as well as our outlook for 2024. We’re excited to get after all of the opportunities that we laid out today, as well as at our investor day back in April. Thank you very much.

Operator: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

Follow Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE:GBX)

Page 4 of 4