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| Statement |
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| I always talk about this is a high-class problem to have because our orders continue to remain strong, while our production rates are increasing and our aftermarket business continues to remain strong, which is an important driver of use of those particular products |
| We believe this renewed initiative will provide multiyear benefits to shareholders and customers in the form of reduced lead times and cost savings |
| And then I would conclude with the capacity expansions that we've invested in, particularly at Vactor and some of our dump truck businesses, we're very well positioned with improving supply chain conditions to be able to leverage those investments |
| Demand for our products remains rock solid with fourth quarter order intake of $465 million, representing a 5% increase compared to last year |
| And we're continuing to see sequential improvement, which is encouraging |
| In closing, I want to express my profound thanks to all of our employees, suppliers and stakeholders for a tremendous 2023 with an active M&A pipeline, ongoing investment in new product development, available capacity, good access to skilled labor and anticipated multiyear tailwinds from infrastructure legislation, our businesses are well positioned for long-term sustainable growth |
| Our outlook does not include an anticipated tax benefit of approximately $14 million that we expect to realize in Q1 and also assumes continued improvement in production output and a robust aftermarket activity in Q2 through Q4 |
| Orders for the year were $1.87 billion, another company record and an increase of $178 million or 11% from the prior year, with a strong momentum in customer demand, consolidated backlog at the end of the year was at an all-time high level of $1.03 billion, an increase of $146 million or 17% from last year |
| Lastly, we are particularly pleased with our cash conversion in the quarter, having generated $103 million of cash from operations, up 162% from last year |
| We also currently expect to report adjusted EPS of between $2.85 and $3.05 per share for the year, which would represent a year-over-year increase of between 10% and 18% and the highest EPS level in the company's history |
| For the full year, we are expecting net sales of between $1.85 billion and $1.9 billion, double-digit improvement in pre-tax earnings and EBITDA margin performance in the upper half of our new target range |
| Conditions in our end markets remain healthy and with ongoing execution against our strategic initiatives and opportunities to drive improved efficiencies, we are confident that we will have another record year in 2024 |
| Lastly, as our teams continue to navigate and improving but still fluid supply chain backdrop, we believe we have ample capacity to further scale our output after having completed major facility expansions in recent years |
| While we believe Trackless remains in the early stages of a multiyear growth opportunity, we thought it proved an excellent example of the value we are able to extract after completing acquisitions and integrating businesses into our Federal Signal family |
| In 2024, we plan to further integrate Trackless into our aftermarket platform by scaling rental opportunities, initiative we believe, should yield incremental earnings growth in coming years |
| As we have indicated previously, we still expect the addition of a third printed circuit board line to yield further benefits into this year through a combination of cost savings, reduced reliance on offshore suppliers and increased production volumes of public safety equipment |
| And so the teams have done a really nice job in terms of the installation |
| Top line strength was broad-based across our SSG businesses throughout 2023, with sales of public safety equipment, industrial signaling equipment and warning systems each up organically by more than 15% this year |
| Our Safety and Security Systems Group again delivered impressive results during the quarter with 14% top line growth and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.2%, slightly above the high end of our new SSG margin target range and a 130 basis point improvement compared to last year |
| In addition to strong organic growth, our recent acquisitions also contributed with Trackless, our most recent acquisition, continuing its strong start |
| Net sales for the year were approximately $1.72 billion, a record high for the company and an increase of $288 million or 20% compared to the prior year |
| Looking ahead, we see several internal and external tailwinds continuing to positively impact demand for our products and services |
| Our aftermarkets team had another standout quarter, with revenues up 24% over last year with notable strength in used equipment and parts sales |
| We believe our targeted end market diversification efforts are yielding order strength across both our publicly funded and industrial end markets |
| We are particularly pleased about the sequential improvement in production compared to Q3 and continue to believe that our large-scale capacity expansions completed in recent years, including our 40% capacity expansion at our Vactor TRUVAC–Gosler [ph] facility in Streator, Illinois, position us well to absorb incremental volumes as supply chains continue to improve |
| The goal of this continuous improvement initiative is to drive incremental efficiency gains, cost savings and process simplification across the organization |
| Similarly, we believe the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill to be a substantial opportunity for many of our Federal Signal products and aftermarket offerings as projects begin to come online in the upcoming years |
| Despite continued intermittent supply chain issues, we are encouraged by ongoing production improvements across our business units with fourth quarter production at our two largest ESG facilities, up a combined 11% year-over-year and up 6% compared to Q3 |
| With our financial position remaining strong, we have significant flexibility to invest in organic growth initiatives, pursue strategic acquisitions and return cash to stockholders through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases |
| On the internal front, we remain energized by the market reception of our new product development initiatives, such as our MicroPulse lighting product within our SSG segment, our recently introduced Elgin RegenX Street Sweeper and our growing aftermarket offerings |
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| Lastly, although seasonal effects typically result in Q1 earnings being lower than subsequent quarters given less aftermarket revenue capture and more production slots earmarked for our internal rental fleet, we are expecting Q1 to represent between 19% and 20% of our full year earnings |
| And again, we live in a very uncertain world and the need for redundant warning is critical |
| And if memory serves, warning systems have been -- might have been lagging for some time |
| Our current net debt leverage ratio remains low |
| You are correct that we're not expecting a lot in '24 |
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