Wabash: Orders ‘blow away’ prior record
Lafayette-based trailer and truck body manufacturer Wabash (NYSE: WNC) is reporting full-year net income of $112.3 million compared to $1.2 million the previous year, as well as a record backlog of orders of $3.4 billion. The company says new orders “substantially outpaced shipment,” due in part to a long-term agreement with national trucking company J.B. Hunt (Nasdaq: JBHT).
Wabash says its backlog rose 46% compared to September 2022 and was 34% above December 2021.
“The commercial implications of this activity are clear from a total backlog of $3.4 billion, which blows away our prior backlog record by almost $1 billion and already provides significant visibility in 2024,”said Wabash President and CEO Brent Yeagy. “With the partnership of strategic customers like J.B. Hunt, we are jointly exercising a new level of control over our destiny.”
Last November, Yeagy told Inside INdiana Business the company had changed the process of booking orders. He said Wabash is signing multiyear contracts with key customers that have a strong financial outlook. Yeagy says there is less risk of contract cancellation from those buyers.
“We have a very discreet way, very process-oriented way that we look to fill our backlog with strategic customers and making sure that we meet their needs, but at the same time not getting out over our skis with rising inflation,” said Yeagy in a November 2022 interview.
The company says it manufactured 52,035 new trailers in FY 2022, compared to 45,365 the previous year. It saw similar production growth in the fourth quarter. Wabash Q4 net income measured $41.6 million, compared to a $25.3 million loss during the same period a year ago.
“Although 2022 will go down as the most successful year of financial performance the company has achieved so far, the groundwork to enable this execution has been in progress since 2019,” said Yeagy. “The changes to our strategy and the accompanying improvements to our organization that we’ve communicated in recent years have positioned us for this record performance, which we fully expect to expand upon in 2023.”
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