Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So, when I look at the implicit $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion in revenue that you are putting out there, I can do my own math but it implies to me that you got trailers coming down about 10% on the Transportation Solutions business. Is that a fair way to think about it? Or am I thinking about something wrong? And then, how do you look at ’24 and think about, okay, well, I got 10,000 trailer capacity units newly made that I’m going to bring back and I’ve got reefers I’m going to bring back and how do you think about bringing that capacity back to the market?

Brent Yeagy: Yes. Jeff, I would say your — I’d say the thesis you’re presenting is, we’d call it, in the ballpark of correctness. We absolutely are growing market share as we sit here today in 2024, as we keep our relative trailer production in line with our existing headcount. And we’re able to do that, maintaining a price leading position in the market which is a very nice place to be. At the same time, bringing on, we’d call it, 10,000 units of, we’d call it, capacity gain in the dry van business. And so, we are doing the work today to build a backlog and a set of customer relationships that you didn’t think about across the entire dry van manufacturing system. The ability of taking that demand in — I think the demand itself will allow — will be there without putting real strain on the pricing environment in ’25 which is a big deal, right?

So we’re leading price. We think there’s going to be a market that allows that price to sustain, maybe even grow a little bit and able to do it in an efficient way in ’25. And so, we see that capacity being able to be utilized very efficiently. And we want — our manufacturing strategy here is not to run the business at 105%, 115% of straight time capacity. We want to run it at a much more efficient place going forward, while maintaining a pricing environment that is most advantageous and meeting the strategic needs of those core customers that call Wabash home. So there’s a lot of things going together there but it sets up for — sets up well for 2025 and beyond.

Jeff Kauffman: Okay. And when do you think we start to see the push on the refrigerated trailer side with the new product?

Brent Yeagy: Great question. I think it’s still materializing over the next 24 to 36 months. We are, again, adding additional capacity and that capacity seems to be being utilized well based off of the backlog we see in 2024 which is going to pressure us to add additional capacity. But that capacity is going to require some new manufacturing technology that’s in the process of being developed. So those 2 things have to coincide. But we are absolutely establishing more and more every day the value proposition for the pricing that we believe that, that product deserves. And as long as that continues to go down that path, again, we’ll be pressured to add capacity in outgoing years.

Mike Pettit: And just a reminder, it’s not just trailers. We’re seeing it in truck bodies and we’re seeing some growth in the truck body space. And we think there’s other segments of truck body that EcoNex will play well in, that we hope to bring to market soon.

Brent Yeagy: Yes. And I’m glad Mike said that because I’m remiss, because even internally, we want to frame it as it’s really about Cold Chain technology scaling. It’s not really about reefer vans per se. And to Mike’s point, we’re seeing opportunities that compete for capacity now in terms of total return to the business. That makes for interesting capacity allocation discussions right now.

Jeff Kauffman: Okay. And then, one last one, if I can. So separate from the manufacturing business, you have the Parts and Service business. You’ve brought on some partners to help push growth in that area. Is that a business that you think should grow in an industry environment that may be taking a respite in ’24 before it moves forward in ’25, ’26? Or is this more of an investment year in Parts and Service capability before we go back to higher industry volumes?

Mike Pettit: Yes. We believe we can continue to grow this year, Jeff, in Parts and Services and we remain very confident in our Investor Day target of $300 million of revenue by 2025 in that business. So we just finished at $222 million, $221 million in 2023. So that glide path to $300 million would require us to grow in ’24 and then grow again ’25. We believe we’ve got quite a bit of runway just to capture some market that really — Wabash has a rightful place to play in the trailer aftermarket space and we’re bringing that to bear in 2024 which we believe we can — one of the reasons we can grow in an otherwise softer demand environment.