Item 1. Business
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Statements in this report and the schedules hereto that are not purely historical facts or that necessarily depend upon future events, including statements about expected market share gains, forecasted financial performance or other statements about anticipations, beliefs, expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. In addition, oral statements made by our directors, officers and employees to the investor and analyst communities, media representatives and others, depending upon their nature, may also constitute forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon currently available information and the Company’s current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. Forward-looking statements are by nature inherently uncertain, and actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events described in the forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control or may be currently unknown to the Company, that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements, including risks or uncertainties related to the Company’s other acquisitions, the Company’s growth strategies, including gaining market share and its digital strategies, or the Company’s revenues and operating results being highly dependent on, among other things, the homebuilding industry, lumber prices and the economy, including labor and supply shortages. The Company may not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further information regarding the risk factors that could affect our financial and other results are included as Item 1A of this annual report on Form 10-K and may also be described from time to time in the other reports the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Consequently, all forward-looking statements in this report are qualified by the factors, risks and uncertainties contained therein.
OVERVIEW
We are a leading supplier and manufacturer of building materials, manufactured components and construction services to professional homebuilders, sub-contractors, remodelers and consumers. The Company operates 569 locations in 42 states across the United States, which are internally organized into geographic operating divisions. Due to the similar economic characteristics, categories of products, distribution methods and customers, our operating divisions are aggregated into one reportable segment.
We offer an integrated solution to our customers by providing manufacturing, supply and installation of a full range of structural and related building products. Our manufactured products include our factory-built roof and floor trusses, wall panels, vinyl windows, custom millwork and trim, as well as engineered wood that we design, cut, and assemble specifically for each home. We also assemble interior and exterior doors into pre-hung units. Additionally, we supply our customers with a broad offering of professional grade building products not manufactured by us, such as dimensional lumber and lumber sheet goods and various window, door and millwork lines. Our full range of construction-related services include professional installation, turn-key framing and shell construction, spanning all of our product categories. Further, through our Paradigm subsidiary, we offer software solutions and services for the building products industry.
Builders FirstSource, Inc. is a Delaware corporation formed in 1998 as BSL Holdings, Inc. On October 13, 1999, our name changed to Builders FirstSource, Inc. Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “BLDR”.
OUR INDUSTRY
We operate in the professional segment (“Pro Segment”) of the U.S. residential building products supply market. Customers in the Pro Segment primarily include production and custom homebuilders, remodeling contractors, and multifamily builders. While we are the largest building product supplier according to HBS Dealer magazine’s 2022 Top 200 ProDealers list and the only building supplier with manufacturing capabilities with over $10 billion in sales, the industry remains highly fragmented with competition from large national dealers, specialty dealers, large building supply retailers, regional and local material distributors and smaller privately owned suppliers, truss manufacturers and lumberyards. As such, the industry presents significant opportunities for growth and a number of potential acquisitions.
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The residential building products industry is driven by the level of activity in both the U.S. residential new construction market and the U.S. residential repair and remodeling market. Growth within these markets is linked to a number of key factors, including demographic trends, housing demand, interest rates, employment levels, availability of credit, foreclosure rates, consumer confidence, the availability of qualified tradesmen, and the state of the economy in general.
The residential building products industry is characterized by several key trends, including greater utilization of manufactured components, an expanding role of the distributor in providing turn-key services and a consolidation of suppliers by homebuilders, as described in more detail below. Additionally, there is increasing interest in using digital tools to help drive end-to-end efficiencies throughout the construction industry.
•Prefabricated components: Compared to conventional “stick-build” construction where builders cut and assemble lumber at the job site with their own labor, prefabricated components are engineered in an offsite location using specialized equipment and labor. This outsourced task allows for optimal material usage, lower overall labor costs and improved quality of structural elements. In addition, using prefabricated components typically results in faster construction because fabrication can be automated and performed more systematically. As such, we believe there is a long-term trend towards increased use of prefabricated components by homebuilders.
•Turn-key services: Many homebuilders have taken a more limited role in the homebuilding process and have outsourced certain key elements of the construction process, including process management, product selection, order input, scheduling, framing and installation. As such, we believe that many homebuilders are increasingly looking to suppliers in the Pro Segment to perform these critical functions, resulting in greater demand for integrated project services.
•Consolidation of suppliers by homebuilders: We believe that homebuilders are increasingly looking to consolidate their supplier base. Many homebuilders are seeking a more strategic relationship with suppliers that are able to offer a broad range of products and services and, as a result, are allocating a greater share of wallet to a select number of larger, full-service suppliers.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the single-family residential construction market was an estimated $384.4 billion in 2022, which was 14.7% lower than 2021, and continues to be lower than the historical high of $470.4 billion in 2006. Further, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute (“HIRI”) in its September 2022 semi-annual forecast, the professional repair and remodel end market was an estimated $180.7 billion in 2022, which was 10.2% higher than 2021.
OUR CUSTOMERS
We serve a broad customer base across the United States. We have a diverse geographic footprint, as we have operations in 47 of the top 50 and 86 of the top 100 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”), as ranked by single family housing permits based on available 2022 U.S. Census data. Given the local nature of our business, we have historically and will continue to locate our facilities in close proximity to our key customers and co-locate multiple operations in one facility to improve efficiency.
We have a diversified customer base, ranging from large production builders to small custom homebuilders, as well as multifamily builders, repair and remodeling contractors and light commercial contractors. For the year ended December 31, 2022, our top 10 customers accounted for approximately 18% of net sales, with our largest customer accounting for approximately 5% of net sales. Our top 10 customers are comprised primarily of the largest national production homebuilders, including publicly traded companies such as D.R. Horton, Inc., Dream Finders Homes, Inc., Lennar Corporation, Pulte Homes, Inc., Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, and Toll Brothers Inc.
In addition to the largest production homebuilders, we also service and supply regional production and local custom homebuilders as well as repair and remodeling contractors and multifamily builders. These customers require high levels of service and a broad product offering. Our sales team expects to work very closely with the designers on a day-to-day basis in order to ensure the appropriate products are identified, ordered or produced and delivered on time to the building site. To account for these increased service costs, pricing in the industry is tied to the level of service provided and the volumes purchased. Servicing a broad range of homebuilders, including single-family and multifamily builders, and remodeling contractors allows us to more effectively manage market conditions that may have an outsized adverse impact on a specific customer segment.
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OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
We group our building products and services into four product categories:
Lumber and Lumber Sheet Goods. Lumber and lumber sheet goods include dimensional lumber, plywood and oriented strand board (“OSB”) products used in on-site house framing. Lumber & lumber sheet goods are our largest sales volume product category. The products in this category are highly sensitive to fluctuations in market prices for such commodities.
Manufactured Products. Manufactured products are factory-built substitutes for job-site framing and include wood floor and roof trusses, steel roof trusses, wall panels, and engineered wood that we design, cut, and assemble for each home. Manufactured products also include our proprietary whole-house framing solution, Ready-Frame®, which designs, pre-cuts, labels, and bundles lumber and lumber sheet goods into customized framing packages, saving builders both time and money and improving job site safety. Our manufactured products allow builders to build higher quality homes more efficiently. Roof trusses, floor trusses, and wall panels are built in a factory-controlled environment. Engineered floors and beams are cut to the required size and packaged for the given application at many of our locations. Without manufactured products, builders construct these items on site, where weather and variable labor quality can negatively impact construction cost, quality and installation time. In addition, engineered wood beams have greater structural strength than conventional framing materials, allowing builders to frame houses with more open space creating a wider variety of house designs. Engineered wood floors and open-web floor trusses are also stronger and straighter than conventionally framed floors. While not as sensitive to commodity price fluctuations as lumber and lumber sheet goods, the products in this category are constructed using lumber and lumber sheet goods, and thus are somewhat sensitive to commodity price fluctuations.
Windows, Doors and Millwork. Windows and doors are comprised of the manufacturing, assembly and distribution of windows, and the assembly and distribution of interior and exterior door units. We manufacture a portion of the vinyl windows that we distribute in our plant in Houston, Texas which allows us to supply builders, primarily in the Texas market, with cost-competitive products. Our pre-hung interior and exterior doors consist of a door slab with hinges and door jambs attached, reducing on-site installation time and providing higher quality finished door units than those constructed on site. These products typically require a high degree of product knowledge and training to sell. Millwork includes interior trim and custom features, including those that we manufacture under the Synboard ® brand name. Synboard is produced from extruded PVC and offers several advantages over traditional wood features, such as greater durability and no ongoing maintenance, such as periodic caulking and painting.
Specialty Building Products and Services. Specialty building products and services consist of various products, including vinyl, composite and wood siding, exterior trim, metal studs, cement, roofing, insulation, wallboard, ceilings, cabinets and hardware. This category also includes services such as turn-key framing, shell construction, design assistance and professional installation of products spanning all of our product categories. We provide professional installation and turn-key services as a solution for our homebuilder customers. Through our installation services program, we help homebuilders realize efficiencies through improved scheduling, resulting in reduced cycle time and better cost controls. By utilizing an energy efficiency software program, we also assist homebuilders in designing energy efficient homes in order to meet increasingly stringent energy rating requirements. Upgrading to our premium windows, doors, and insulating products can reduce overall cost to the homebuilder by minimizing costs of the required heating/cooling system. We work closely with the homebuilder to select the appropriate mix of our products to meet current and forthcoming energy codes. We believe these services require scale, capital and sophistication that smaller competitors do not possess. We also offer software products through our Paradigm subsidiary, including drafting, estimating, quoting, and virtual home design services, which provide software solutions to retailers, distributors, manufacturers and homebuilders that help them boost sales, reduce costs, and become more competitive. We believe that the homebuilding and remodeling industries are increasingly adopting digital solutions and that we are well positioned to take advantage of these trends because of our scale and prior investments in digital technologies, including our acquisition of Paradigm.
We compete in a fragmented marketplace. We believe our integrated approach and scale allow us to compete effectively through our comprehensive product lines, prefabricated components and value-added services, combined with the knowledge of our integrated sales forces to enable our homebuilder customers to complete construction more quickly, with higher quality and at a lower cost. While we expect these benefits to be particularly valuable to our customers in market environments characterized by labor shortages and sourcing challenges, we expect such benefits will also be increasingly valued and demanded by our customers operating under normal market conditions.
MANUFACTURING
Our manufacturing facilities utilize industry leading technology, including automated robotic truss lines, and high-quality materials to improve product quality, increase efficiency, reduce lead times and minimize production errors. We manufacture products within two of our product categories: manufactured products, and windows, doors & millwork.
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Manufactured Products — Trusses and Wall Panels. Truss and wall panel production has two steps — design and fabrication. Each house requires its own set of designed shop drawings, which vary by builder type — production versus custom builders. Production builders use prototype house plans as they replicate houses. These house plans may be minimally modified to suit individual customer demand. We maintain an electronic master file of trusses and wall panels for each builder’s prototype houses. For custom builders, the components are designed individually for each house. We download the shop drawings from our design department to computerized saws. We assemble the cut lumber to form roof trusses, floor trusses or wall panels, before shipping the finished components by house to the job site. In addition, we offer our Ready-Frame® framing system which uses specialty software to calculate project-specific lumber needs to provide pre-cut and labeled packages delivered and ready to assemble on the jobsite.
Manufactured Products — Engineered Wood. As with trusses and wall panels, engineered wood components have design and fabrication steps. We design engineered wood floors using a master filing system similar to the truss and wall panel system. Engineered wood beams are designed to ensure the beam will be structurally sound in the given application. After the design phase, a printed layout is generated. We use this layout to cut the engineered wood to the required length and assemble all of the components into a house package. We design and fabricate engineered wood at many of our distribution locations.
Custom Millwork. Our manufactured custom millwork consists primarily of interior and exterior pre-hung door systems, intricate interior and exterior mouldings, custom and premium windows, finish hardware, stair parts, mantels and columns units.
Windows. We manufacture a full line of traditional vinyl windows at an approximately 200,000 square foot manufacturing facility located in Houston, Texas. The process begins by purchasing vinyl lineal extrusions. We cut these extrusions to size and join them together to form the window frame and sash. We then purchase sheet glass and cut it to size. We combine two pieces of identically shaped glass with a sealing compound to create a glass unit with improved insulating capability. We then insert the sealed glass unit and glaze it into the window frame and sash. The unit is completed when we install a balance to operate the window and add a lock to secure the window in a closed position.
Pre-hung Doors. We manufacture pre-hung interior and exterior doors at many of our locations. We insert door slabs and pre-cut door jambs into a door machine, which bores holes into the doors for the door hardware and applies the jambs and hinges to the door slab. We then apply the casing that frames interior doors at a separate station. Exterior doors do not have a casing, and instead may have sidelights applied to the sides of the door, a transom attached over the top of the door unit and a door sill applied to the threshold.
OUR STRATEGY
By pursuing the Company’s four pillar strategic priorities as outlined below, we intend to build on our advantaged market position to create value for our shareholders by increasing profits and net cash flow generation, while making us a more valuable partner to our customers. The resulting cash flow should provide meaningful opportunities for increased investment in organic and acquisitive growth that preserve our balance sheet strength, grow our return on invested capital and return capital to our shareholders.
Organic Growth of Value-add Products and Services
Maximize our share of wallet by capturing above-market growth in our higher margin value-added products. We believe our national manufacturing footprint and differentiated capabilities will allow us to capture growth in our higher margin value-added products, including trusses, wall panels and millwork. We believe our value-added products address the growing demand for ways to build homes more efficiently, addressing labor constraints and rising costs. We plan to accelerate this growth by further expanding our national manufacturing footprint to serve locations that do not currently have adequate access to these higher margin products. By focusing on our differentiated platform and broad product mix, we are able to offer a complete array of products and services that would otherwise need to be sourced from various distributors, providing us an opportunity to capture a greater share of wallet. This operational platform often will make us a preferred distributor for large-scale national homebuilders as well as local and custom homebuilders looking for more efficient ways to build a home. We have also made significant investments in digital solutions that we believe position us to take advantage of long-term digitization trends in the homebuilding and remodel industries. We believe that customers continue to place an increased value on these capabilities, which further differentiates us from our competitors.
Leverage our competitive strengths to capitalize on housing market share. We intend to leverage our core business strengths including local market presence, national footprint, unmatched scale in manufacturing capability, breadth of product portfolio, and end market exposure to expand our sales and profit margins. Our customers continue to emphasize the importance of local access, competitive pricing, a broad product portfolio, sales force knowledge, labor-saving manufactured products, on-site services and overall “ease of use” with their building products suppliers. Our comprehensive product offering, experienced sales force, strong strategic vendor relationships, location coverage in important markets, and tenured senior management team position us well to capitalize on strong demand in the new home construction market and the repair and remodel segment. Our large delivery fleet,
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professional drivers, well positioned locations, and comprehensive inventory management enable us to provide “just-in-time” product delivery, ensuring a smoother and faster production cycle for the homebuilder. Our comprehensive network of products, services and facilities provides a strategically advantaged service model which enhances our value to our customers and provides a strong platform to drive growth. We have also expanded our operational footprint in the multifamily and light commercial markets to position us for further growth in these growing end-markets.
Drive Operational Excellence
Optimize our highly scalable cost structure with operational excellence initiatives. We continue to focus on standardizing and automating processes and technology-based workflows to minimize costs, streamline our operations and enhance working capital efficiency. We are implementing operational excellence initiatives that are designed to further improve efficiency, as well as customer service. These initiatives, including distribution and logistics, pricing and margin management, back-office efficiencies, customer integration and systems-enabled process improvements, should yield significant cost savings. The scope and scale of our existing infrastructure, customer base, and logistical capabilities mean that improvements in efficiency, when replicated across our network, can yield substantial profit margin expansion.
Continue to Build our High-Performing Culture
Strong emphasis on putting our people first. Our team members are a critical resource, and every single one makes a difference. Enhancing talent acquisition, employee development and retention will ensure we continue to attract and retain this valuable component of our business. Our team members are the face of the Company to our customers and the communities in which we operate. Their contributions in serving our customers are a fundamental component in our success. We care about our team members and strive to have a strong environmental, health and safety program that drives world-class safety results and ensures our team members leave their workplace safely, every day. We have developed programs to help progress our people’s careers, such as our Pilot Leadership Development Program, and we strive to maintain a performance-based culture.
Environmental, social and governance strategy. We are also committed to making informed choices that improve our corporate governance, financial strength, operational efficiency, environmental stewardship, community engagement and resource management. Consistent with our core values, our goal is to be recognized by our customers as the preferred supplier, by our employees as a safe, diverse and inclusive workforce, by the industry as being at the forefront of innovation, by our stakeholders as an ethical company and by the communities in which we serve as a good corporate citizen. We recognize that the environmental sustainability of our products is important to both us as a company and to our customers. We prioritize purchasing and supplying sustainable wood products led by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Helping homebuilders become more productive, more efficient, and safer is fundamental to what we do and we are passionate about building this future together.
Pursue Strategic Acquisitions
Leverage free cash flow to accelerate strategic growth. The highly fragmented nature of the Pro Segment of the U.S. residential new construction building products supply market presents substantial acquisition opportunities. Our long-term acquisition strategy is focused on the continued growth of our prefabricated components business and on the potential for geographic expansion. First, we plan to selectively seek acquisition targets that manufacture prefabricated components such as factory-built roof and floor trusses, wall panels, and engineered wood, as well as other value-added products such as vinyl windows and millwork. We also intend to pursue potential acquisitions that present an opportunity to add manufacturing capabilities in a relatively short period of time. Second, there remain a number of attractive homebuilding markets where we do not currently operate. We believe that our proven operating model can be successfully adapted to these markets and where homebuilders, many of whom we currently serve elsewhere, would value our broad product and service offering, professional expertise, and superior customer service. When entering a new market, our strategy is to acquire market-leading distributors and subsequently expand their product offerings or add manufacturing facilities while integrating their operations into our centralized platform. This strategy allows us to quickly achieve the scale required to maximize profitability and leverage existing customer relationships in the local market. Our management has shown the capability to effectively and efficiently integrate newly acquired businesses, increase productivity and drive value. We have successfully integrated approximately 60 acquisitions since 1998, including the BMC and ProBuild transactions both of which were company and industry transforming.
SALES AND MARKETING
We seek to attract and retain customers through exceptional customer service, leading product quality, broad product and service offerings, and competitive pricing. This strategy is centered on building and maintaining strong customer relationships rather than traditional marketing and advertising. We strive to add value for the homebuilders through shorter lead times, lower total project costs, faster project completion and higher quality. We believe by executing this strategy we will continue to generate new business.
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Our experienced, locally focused sales force is at the core of our sales effort. This sales effort involves deploying salespeople who are skilled in housing construction to meet with a homebuilder’s construction superintendent, local purchasing agent, or local executive with the goal of becoming their primary product supplier. If selected by the homebuilder, the salesperson and his or her team review blueprints for the contracted homes and advise the homebuilder in areas such as opportunities for cost reduction, increased energy efficiencies, and regional aesthetic preferences. Next, the team determines the specific package of products that are needed to complete the project and schedules a sequence of site deliveries. Our large delivery fleet and comprehensive inventory management systems enable us to provide “just-in-time” product delivery, ensuring a smoother and faster production cycle for the homebuilder. Throughout the construction process, the salesperson makes frequent site visits to ensure timely delivery and proper installation, and to make suggestions for efficiency improvements. We believe this level of service is highly valued by our customers and generates significant customer loyalty. At December 31, 2022, we employed approximately 2,400 sales representatives, who are generally paid a commission based on gross margin dollars collected and worked with approximately 2,600 sales coordinators and product specialists.
MATERIALS AND SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS
We purchase inventory primarily for distribution, some of which is also utilized in our manufacturing plants. The key materials we purchase include dimensional lumber, OSB and plywood, engineered wood, windows, doors, millwork, and roofing. Our largest suppliers are national companies such as Boise Cascade Company, Weyerhaeuser Company, West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., Specialty Building Products, James Hardie Industries plc, and Louisiana-Pacific Corp. We believe marketplace supply allows us to competitively source most of our requirements without reliance on any particular supplier and that our diversity of suppliers affords us purchasing flexibility. Due to our centralized procurement platform for commodity wood products and corporate oversight of purchasing programs, we believe we are able to maximize the advantages of both our and our suppliers’ broad geographic footprints and negotiate purchases across multiple markets to achieve more favorable contracts with respect to price, terms of sale, and supply. Additionally, for certain customers, we institute purchasing programs on commodity wood products such as OSB and lumber to align portions of our procurement costs with our customer pricing commitments. We balance our OSB and lumber purchases with a mix of contract and spot market purchases to ensure consistent supply of product necessary to fulfill customer contracts, to source products at the lowest possible cost, and to minimize our exposure to the volatility of commodity lumber prices.
We currently source products from thousands of suppliers in order to reduce our dependence on any single company and to maximize purchasing leverage. Although no purchases from any single supplier represented more than approximately 8% of our total materials purchases for the year ended December 31, 2022, we believe we are one of the largest customers for many suppliers, and therefore have significant purchasing leverage. We have found that using multiple suppliers ensures a stable source of products and the best purchasing terms as the suppliers compete to gain and maintain our business.
We maintain strong relationships with our suppliers, and we believe opportunities exist to improve purchasing terms in the future, including inventory storage or “just-in-time” delivery to reduce our inventory carrying costs. We will continue to pursue additional procurement cost savings which would further enhance our margins and cash flow.
COMPETITION
We have and will continue to experience robust competition for homebuilder business due to the highly fragmented nature of the Pro Segment. We face competition from other large national dealers that focus on the Pro Segment, including U.S. LBM, 84 Lumber and Carter Lumber; specialty dealers, such as roofing building supply companies; regional and local building supplies dealers; single and multi-site lumber yards; framing contractors; component manufacturers including Universal Forest Products and Stark Truss; and millwork operators such as American Cedar & Millwork and Westpac. We believe that we have competitive advantages over our competitors due to our long-standing customer relationships, local market knowledge, competitive pricing, superior service, broad product offering and large-scale procurement capabilities. We cultivate long-term relationships with professional builders and work to retain our customers by delivering a full range of high-quality products on time, and offering trade credit, competitive pricing and integrated service and product packages, such as turn-key framing and shell construction, as well as manufactured components and installation. We believe that our local market knowledge, strong customer relationships, superior service, and operational efficiencies allow us to cost-effectively supply our customers, which both enhances profitability and reduces the risk of losing customers to competitors.
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HUMAN CAPITAL
At December 31, 2022, we had approximately 29,000 employees. Less than 1% are covered by collective bargaining agreements, where we believe our relations with the labor unions are generally good. Employee levels are managed to align with the pace of business and management believes it has sufficient human capital to operate its business successfully.
Our people are the key to our success and our continued focus on delivering exceptional customer service and innovative solutions. In managing our human capital, our goal is to ensure their safety, growth and development in an inclusive and team-based environment. By participating in regular surveys and focus groups, we place a strong emphasis on enhancing and increasing the retention and engagement level of our team members. Key areas of the Company’s human capital focus include the following:
Workplace Health & Safety
We care about our team members and anyone who enters our workplace. We strive to have a strong environmental, health and safety program that focuses on implementing policies and training programs. We also perform self-audits to ensure our team members leave their workplace safely, every day. Over the past several years, we have developed and implemented programs designed to promote workplace safety, with the goal of reducing the frequency and severity of employee injuries. We review and monitor our performance closely by updating our executive team monthly on progress.
During 2022, our experience and continuing focus on workplace safety enabled us to preserve business continuity without sacrificing our commitment to keeping our team members and workplace visitors safe.
The Company also aspires to reduce its lost time and recordable injuries each year. In 2022, we reduced our Total Recordable Incident Rate for the seventh consecutive year and by approximately 22% over the prior year.
We also broadly provide accessible safety training to our employees in a number of formats to accommodate the learner’s style, pace, location, and access to technology.
Diversity & Inclusion
Our team members are the face of the Company to our customers and the communities in which we operate. Their contributions in serving our customers are a fundamental component in our success, and every single team member makes a difference.
Our Company strives to foster a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility and fairness to enable all team members to contribute to their full potential. We are committed to enhancing our efforts related to diversity and inclusion across all aspects of our organization, including hiring, promotion and developmental opportunities. We conduct both in-person and online diversity training through our online learning management system. We continue to create greater awareness, eliminate unconscious bias and foster more open and honest communication through our Corporate Inclusion Council.
To assess and improve our efforts, the Company recently surveyed employees finding that the majority of employees feel welcome, safe and included, treated fairly with opportunities to reach full potential, supported professionally, emotionally and socially and are comfortable sharing experiences and opinions, and valued as a team member. We identified four key priorities through our survey: enhance awareness, increase diversity of the workforce, improve and enhance communication, and increase inclusion and engagement. With these priorities in mind we have launched diversity and inclusion trainings, introduced quarterly town halls and engaged in regular Company-wide communications, introduced leadership development and sales trainings, and are in the process of establishing regional and local employee resource groups.
Learning & Development
In order to attract and retain top talent, we provide several resources in a variety of formats that promote the ongoing learning and development of our team members. We offer leadership development training for new and existing leaders in topics such as: Effective Communication, Conducting Performance Management, Developing Successful and Productive Teams, Conflict Resolution & Management, Providing Exceptional Customer Service, Hiring for Fit and Building a Diverse and Inclusive Team. We have maintained our commitment to learning and development through our online learning management system and limited on-site courses facilitated in a safe setting by our training and development team. Our online course catalog offers approximately 11,000 courses which are available to all team members.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS
Our operations are dependent upon our information technology systems, which encompass all of our major business functions. Our primary enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) systems, which we currently use for operations representing the majority of our sales, are proprietary systems that have been highly customized by our computer programmers. The materials required for thousands of standard builder plans are stored by the system for rapid quoting or order entry. Hundreds of price lists are maintained on hundreds of thousands of SKUs, facilitating rapid price changes in a changing product cost environment. A customer’s order can be tracked at each stage of the process and billing can be customized to reduce a customer’s administrative costs and payment speed.
We have a customized financial reporting system that consolidates financial, sales and workforce data from our ERP systems and our human resource information system (“HRIS”), delivering standardized enterprise key performance indicators. This technology platform provides management with robust corporate and location level performance management by leveraging standardized metrics and analytics allowing us to plan, track and report performance and compensation measures.
We have developed a proprietary program for use in our component plants. This software reviews product designs for errors, schedules the plants and provides the data used to measure plant efficiency. In addition, we have purchased several software products that have been integrated with our primary ERP system. These programs assist in various aspects of our business such as analyzing blueprints to generating material lists, purchasing lumber products at the lowest cost, delivery management, resource planning and scheduling and financial planning and analysis.
In 2022, we announced the decision to move the Company to a new ERP system. The program will begin in 2023 kicking off with detailed planning, design, build and testing followed by several years of deployment across our broad network of operating sites. As part of this program, we intend to utilize technology-enabled opportunities to enhance our operating model and transform our business creating further value for all our stakeholders.
SEASONALITY AND OTHER FACTORS
Our first and fourth quarters have historically been, and are generally expected to continue to be, adversely affected by weather causing reduced construction activity during these quarters. In addition, quarterly results historically have reflected, and are expected to continue to reflect, fluctuations from period to period arising from the following:
•The volatility of lumber prices;
•The cyclical nature of the homebuilding industry;
•General economic conditions in the markets in which we compete;
•The pricing policies of our competitors;
•Disruptions in our supply chain;
•The production schedules of our customers; and
The composition and level of working capital typically change during periods of increasing sales as we carry more inventory and receivables. Working capital levels typically increase in the first and second quarters of the year due to higher sales during the peak residential construction season. These increases may result in negative operating cash flows during this peak season, which historically have been financed through available cash and borrowing availability under credit facilities. Generally, collection of receivables and reduction in inventory levels following the peak building and construction season positively impact cash flow.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and in accordance therewith, we file reports, proxy and information statements and other information with the SEC. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy and information statements and other information and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available through the investor relations section of our website under the links to “Financial Information.” Our Internet address is www.bldr.com. Reports are available on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. In addition, our officers and directors file with the SEC initial statements of beneficial ownership and statements of change in beneficial ownership of our securities, which are also available on our website at the same location. We are not including
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this or any other information on our website as a part of, nor incorporating it by reference into, this Form 10-K or any of our other SEC filings.
In addition to our website, the SEC maintains an Internet site that contains our reports, proxy and information statements, and other information that we electronically file with, or furnish to, the SEC at www.sec.gov.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Risks associated with our business, any investment in our securities, and with achieving the forward looking statements contained in this report or in our news releases, websites, public filings, investor and analyst conferences or elsewhere, include the risk factors described below. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. Any of these risks, whether known or unknown, could cause our actual results to differ materially from expectations and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations, and we may not succeed in addressing these challenges and risks. You should read these Risk Factors in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 and our consolidated financial statements and related notes in Item 8.
Industry Risks
The industry in which we operate is dependent upon the residential homebuilding industry, as well as the U.S. economy, the credit markets and other important factors.
The building products industry is highly dependent on new home and multifamily construction as well as repair and remodel, which in turn are dependent upon a number of factors, including interest rates, consumer confidence, employment rates, foreclosure rates, housing inventory levels and occupancy, housing demand and the health of the U.S. economy and mortgage markets. Unfavorable changes in demographics, credit markets, including rising mortgage and other interest rates, consumer confidence, household incomes, inflation, housing affordability, or housing inventory levels and occupancy, or a weakening of the U.S. economy or of any regional or local economy in which we operate could adversely affect consumer spending, result in decreased demand for our products, and adversely affect our business. Production of new homes and multifamily buildings may also decline because of shortages of qualified tradesmen, reliance on inadequately capitalized builders and sub-contractors, shortages of suitable building lots and material, and lack of financing or more expensive financing available to homebuilders. In addition, the building industry is subject to various local, state, and federal statutes, ordinances, and regulations concerning zoning, building design and safety, construction, energy and water conservation and similar matters, including regulations that impose restrictive zoning and density requirements in order to limit the number of homes that can be built within the boundaries of a particular area or in order to maintain certain areas as primarily or exclusively residential. Regulatory restrictions may increase our operating expenses and limit the availability of suitable building lots for our customers, which could negatively affect our sales and earnings. Because we have substantial fixed costs, relatively modest declines in our customers’ production levels could have a significant adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
The building supply industry is subject to cyclical market pressures.
Prices of building products are subject to fluctuations arising from changes in supply and demand, national and international economic conditions, including inflation and interest rates, labor costs, competition, market speculation, government regulation, and trade policies, as well as from periodic delays in the delivery of lumber and other products. For example, prices of wood products, including lumber and panel products, are subject to significant volatility, such as the spike in lumber prices experienced in our industry in 2020 and 2021 and the more recent decline in lumber prices. The prices of wood products directly affect our sales and earnings. In particular, low prices for wood products over a sustained period can adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows, as can excessive spikes in prices. If lumber or structural panel prices were to significantly decline from current levels, our sales and profits would be negatively affected as compared to 2022 operating results. Our lumber and lumber sheet goods product category represented 35.6% of total net sales for the year ended December 31, 2022. We have limited ability to manage the timing and amount of pricing changes for building products. In addition, the supply of building products fluctuates based on available manufacturing capacity. A shortage of capacity or excess capacity in the industry can result in significant increases or declines in prices for those building products, often within a short period of time. Such price fluctuations can adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
In addition, the building products industry is cyclical in nature. Industry forecasters expect that we will face future downturns in the homebuilding industry which could have an adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition or cash flows. We are not able to predict the timing, severity or duration of any future downturns in the housing market.
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Our industry is highly fragmented and competitive, and increased competitive pressure may adversely affect our results.
The building products supply industry is highly fragmented and competitive. We face, and will continue to face, significant competition from local, regional and other national building materials chains, as well as from privately-owned single site enterprises. Any of these competitors may (1) foresee the course of market development more accurately than we do, (2) develop products that are superior to our products, (3) have the ability to produce or supply similar products at a lower cost, (4) develop stronger relationships with local homebuilders or commercial builders or (5) adapt more quickly to new technologies or evolving customer requirements than we do. As a result, we may not be able to compete successfully with them. In addition, home center retailers, which have historically concentrated their sales efforts on retail consumers and small contractors, have intensified their marketing efforts, including expanding e-commerce offerings, to professional homebuilders in recent years and may continue to intensify these efforts in the future. Furthermore, certain product manufacturers sell and distribute their products directly to production homebuilders or commercial builders, and the volume of such direct sales could increase in the future. Additionally, manufacturers of products distributed by us may elect to sell and distribute directly to homebuilders or commercial builders in the future or enter into exclusive supplier arrangements with other distributors. Consolidation of production homebuilders or commercial builders may result in increased competition for their business. Finally, we may not be able to maintain our operating costs or product prices at a level sufficiently low for us to compete effectively. If we are unable to compete effectively, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows may be adversely affected.
Homebuyer demand may shift towards smaller homes creating fluctuations in demand for our products.
Home affordability can be a key driver in demand for our products and home prices have increased meaningfully over the past several years. Home affordability is influenced by a number of economic factors, such as the level of employment, consumer confidence, consumer income, supply of houses, the availability of financing and interest rates. Changes in the inventory of available homes as well as economic factors relative to home prices may result in homes becoming less affordable. Furthermore, consumer preferences could shift to smaller or larger homes in the future. This could cause homebuyer demand to soften or shift substantially which could have an adverse impact on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows if we are unable to respond to the new market demands effectively.
A range of factors may make our quarterly revenues, earnings and cash flows variable.
We have historically experienced, and in the future will continue to experience, variability in revenues, earnings and cash flows on a quarterly basis. The factors expected to contribute to this variability include, among others: (1) the volatility of prices of lumber, wood products and other building products, (2) the cyclical nature of the homebuilding industry, (3) general economic conditions in the various areas that we serve, (4) the intense competition in the industry, including expansion and growth strategies by competitors, (5) the production schedules of our customers and suppliers, (6) the effects of the weather and (7) labor costs, labor shortages and available capacity to meet customer demand for our products. These factors, among others, make it difficult to project our operating results and cash flows on a consistent basis, which may affect the price of our stock.
Operational and Strategic Risks
We may be unable to successfully implement our growth strategy, which includes increasing sales of our prefabricated components and other value-added products, pursuing strategic acquisitions, opening new facilities, implementing operational excellence, pursuing digitization opportunities and initiatives, and maintaining a balanced debt level.
Our long-term strategy depends in part on growing our sales of prefabricated components and other value-added products, increasing our market share, and implementing various initiatives to increase our operational efficiency, improve our margins, optimize our pricing strategies, and streamline the customer experience. If any of these initiatives are not successful, or require extensive investment, our growth may be limited, and we may be unable to achieve or maintain expected levels of growth and profitability.
Our long-term business plan also provides for continued growth through strategic acquisitions and organic growth through the construction of new facilities or the expansion of existing facilities. Failure to identify and acquire suitable acquisition candidates on appropriate terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy. Moreover, our liquidity position, or the requirements of our debt instruments could prevent us from obtaining the capital required to effect new acquisitions or expand our existing facilities. Our failure to make successful acquisitions or to build or expand needed facilities, including manufacturing facilities, produce saleable product, or meet customer demand in a timely manner could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows. A negative impact on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows, or our decision to invest in strategic acquisitions or new facilities, could adversely affect our ability to maintain a balanced debt level.
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Furthermore, we have made significant investments, and intend to continue to invest, in technology solutions designed to increase the efficiency of the homebuilding process. There is no guarantee that such solutions will be effective, will be adopted by our customers, will be able to compete with alternative technology solutions, including from start-up and more well established technology companies or our competitors, or that we will realize the anticipated benefits from our investments in these solutions. As a result, we may suffer losses on these investments or lose market share if competing technology solutions are more widely adopted than the technology solutions we are developing.
We have consummated a number of strategic acquisitions as part of our growth strategy and intend to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions in the future as part of our growth strategy. Strategic acquisitions involve risks and if we are unable to realize the anticipated benefits of these transactions or identify suitable acquisition candidates in the future, our growth, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Strategic acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy and we seek to identify attractive acquisition opportunities that we believe will be accretive and result in increased sales and EBITDA, cost savings, synergies and various other benefits. Assessing the viability and realizing the benefits of these transactions is subject to significant uncertainty. Additionally, in connection with evaluating potential strategic transactions, we may incur significant expenses for the evaluation and due diligence investigation and negotiation of any potential transaction. Furthermore, multiples for acquisition targets have generally increased over the past few years and we face increased competition from other acquirors for attractive acquisition opportunities. As a result, we may not be able to consummate acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. We may also not be able to obtain necessary approvals to consummate acquisitions. An inability to continue to identify and consummate attractive acquisitions could adversely affect our growth.
If we complete an acquisition, we need to successfully integrate the target company’s products, services, associates and systems into our business operations in order to realize the anticipated benefits from an acquisition. Integration can be a complex and time-consuming process, and if the integration is not fully successful or is delayed for a material period of time, we may not achieve the anticipated synergies or benefits of the acquisition. Although we have been successful in the past with the integration of numerous acquisitions, we may not be able to successfully integrate the operations of any future acquired businesses with our own in an efficient and cost-effective manner or without significant disruption to our or the acquired companies’ existing operations. Furthermore, even if a target company is successfully integrated, an acquisition may fail to further our business strategy as anticipated, expose us to increased competition or challenges with respect to our products or services, and expose us to additional liabilities. Any impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets acquired in a strategic transaction may reduce our earnings. Moreover, acquisitions involve significant risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties as to the future financial performance of the acquired business, the achievement of expected synergies, difficulties integrating acquired personnel and corporate cultures into our business, the potential loss of key employees, customers or suppliers, difficulties in integrating different computer and accounting systems, exposure to unforeseen liabilities of acquired companies and the diversion of management attention and resources from existing operations. We may be unable to successfully complete potential acquisitions due to multiple factors, such as issues related to regulatory review of the proposed transactions. We may also be required to incur additional debt or issue additional shares of our common stock in order to consummate acquisitions in the future. Potential new debt may be substantial and may limit our flexibility in using our cash flow from operations. The issuance of new shares of our common stock could dilute the equity value of our existing stockholders. Our failure to fully integrate future acquired businesses effectively or to manage other consequences of our acquisitions, including increased indebtedness, could prevent us from remaining competitive and, ultimately, could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
We are subject to competitive pricing pressure from our customers.
Production homebuilders and multifamily builders historically have exerted and will continue to exert significant pressure on their outside suppliers, including on us, to keep prices low because of their market share and their ability to leverage such market share in the highly fragmented building products supply industry. Given this pricing pressure, we may not be able to pass along price increases for lumber, wood products, other building products, or related labor costs to our customers, which could impact our margins. In addition, continued consolidation among production homebuilders or multifamily and commercial builders, or changes in such builders’ purchasing policies or payment practices, could result in additional pricing pressure, and our financial condition, operating results and cash flows may be adversely affected.
Furthermore, in periods of economic downturn these pricing pressures tend to increase. As a result, we may face heightened pricing pressures in the event of an economic downturn, and our financial condition, operating results and cash flows may be adversely affected.
The loss of any of our significant customers or a reduction in the quantity of products they purchase could affect our financial health.
Our ten largest customers generated approximately 18% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2022. We cannot guarantee that we will maintain or improve our relationships with these customers or that we will supply these customers at historical
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levels. Moreover, in the event of any downturn, some of our homebuilder customers may exit or severely curtail building activity in certain of our markets.
In addition, production homebuilders, multifamily builders and other customers may: (1) seek to purchase some of the products that we currently sell directly from manufacturers, (2) elect to establish their own building products manufacturing and distribution facilities or (3) give advantages to manufacturing or distribution intermediaries in which they have an economic stake. Continued consolidation among production homebuilders could also result in a loss of some of our present customers to our competitors. The loss of one or more of our significant customers or deterioration in our relations with any of them could significantly affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Furthermore, our customers are not required to purchase any minimum amount of products from us. The contracts into which we have entered with most of our professional customers typically provide that we supply particular products or services for a certain period of time when and if ordered by the customer. Should our customers purchase our products in significantly lower quantities than they have in the past, such decreased purchases could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Product shortages, loss of key suppliers, and our dependence on third-party suppliers and manufacturers could affect our financial health.
Our ability to offer a wide variety of products to our customers is dependent upon our ability to obtain adequate product supply from manufacturers and other suppliers. Historically, our products are obtainable from various sources and in sufficient quantities. While the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions and delays in the manufacture and distribution of building products throughout the industry supply chain, we are beginning to see a return to pre-pandemic levels in many areas. That said, the loss of, or an ongoing substantial decrease in the availability of products from our suppliers or the loss of key supplier arrangements could adversely impact our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows.
Although in many instances we have agreements with our suppliers, these agreements are generally terminable by either party on limited notice. Failure by our suppliers to continue to supply us with products on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, could put pressure on our operating margins or have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Short-term changes in the cost of these materials, some of which are subject to significant fluctuations, are oftentimes, but not always, passed on to our customers. Our delayed ability to pass on material price increases to our customers could adversely impact our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Furthermore, the inability of our suppliers to meet our supply needs in a timely manner or our quality standards could cause delays to delivery date requirements of our customers. Such failures could result in the cancellation of orders, customers’ refusal to accept deliveries, a reduction in purchase prices, and ultimately, termination of customer relationships, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. In that case, we may be required to seek alternative sources of materials or products. Our inability to identify and secure alternative sources of supply could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to satisfy customer orders. While we have largely been able to manage these supply chain disruptions to date, there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so in the future.
Failure to attract and retain our key employees and the impact of our recent leadership changes may adversely impact our ability to successfully execute our business strategies.
Our success depends in part on our ability to attract, hire, train and retain qualified managerial, operational, sales and other personnel. We face significant competition for these types of employees in our industry and from other industries. We may be unsuccessful in attracting and retaining the personnel we require to conduct and expand our operations successfully. In addition, key personnel may leave us and compete against us. Our success also depends to a significant extent on the continued service of our senior management team. We may be unsuccessful in replacing key managers who either resign or retire. The loss of any member of our senior management team or other experienced senior employees could impair our ability to execute our business plan, cause us to lose customers and reduce our net sales, or lead to employee morale problems and/or the loss of other key employees. In any such event, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be adversely affected.
Furthermore, we have had recent leadership changes and transitions involving our senior leadership team, as previously announced. Such leadership changes can be inherently difficult to manage, and an inadequate transition may cause disruption to our business, including to our relationships with our customers, suppliers, vendors and employees. It may also make it more difficult for us to hire and retain key employees. In addition, any failure to ensure the effective transfer of knowledge and a smooth transition could hinder our strategic planning, execution and future performance.
In addition, competition for non-management employees has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in higher labor costs and labor shortages at our facilities. As a result, we may continue to face higher operating expenses and may lose revenue opportunities if we lack capacity due to labor shortages to meet customer demand. While only a small percentage of our
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workforce is unionized, there can be no assurance that additional employees will not conduct union organization campaigns or become union members in the future and a failure to renew existing collective bargaining agreements on favorable terms could lead to further labor shortages and higher labor costs.
We may be adversely affected by any disruption in our respective information technology systems.
Our operations are dependent upon our information technology systems, which encompass all of our major business functions. Our primary ERP systems are proprietary systems that have been highly customized by our computer programmers. Our centralized financial reporting system currently draws data from our ERP systems. We rely upon our information technology systems to run critical accounting and financial information systems, process receivables, manage and replenish inventory, fill and ship customer orders on a timely basis, and coordinate our sales activities across all products and services. A substantial disruption in our information technology systems for any prolonged time period could result in problems and delays in generating critical financial and operational information, processing receivables, receiving inventory and supplies and filling customer orders. These disruptions could adversely affect our operating results as well as our customer service and relationships. Our systems, or those of our significant customers or suppliers, might be damaged or interrupted by natural or man-made events or by computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, or similar disruptions affecting the global Internet.
In addition, we rely on a number of third-party service providers to execute certain business processes and maintain certain information technology systems and infrastructure, and any breach of security or disruption in their systems could impair our ability to operate effectively. Such disruptions, delays, problems, or associated costs relating to our systems or those of our significant customers, suppliers or third-party providers could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Furthermore, advances in computer and software capabilities, encryption technology, and other discoveries increase the complexity of our technological environment, including how each interacts with our various software platforms. Such advances could delay or hinder our ability to process transactions or could compromise the integrity of our data, resulting in a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. The risk of system disruption is increased when significant system changes are undertaken. If we fail to timely integrate and update our information technology systems and processes, including our new ERP system, we may fail to realize the cost savings or operational benefits anticipated to be derived from these initiatives.
We are subject to cybersecurity risks and expect to incur increasing costs in an effort to minimize those risks.
Our business employs systems that allow for the secure storage and transmission of customers’, vendors’ and employees’ proprietary information. Security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, litigation and potential liability. We may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent rapidly evolving types of cyber-attacks. Any compromise of our security could result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws, significant legal and financial exposure, damage to our reputation and a loss of confidence in our security measures, which could harm our business. The regulatory environment related to information security and privacy is increasingly rigorous, with new and constantly changing requirements applicable to our business, and compliance with those requirements could result in additional costs. Our computer systems have been, and will likely continue to be, subjected to computer viruses or other malicious codes, unauthorized access attempts and cyber- or phishing-attacks. Additionally, we may be impacted by intrusions or failures of critical infrastructure such as the power grid or communications systems. These events could compromise ours’ and our customers’ and suppliers’ confidential information, impede or interrupt our business operations, and could result in other negative consequences, including remediation costs, loss of revenue, litigation and reputational damage. While we have not experienced any material losses relating to cyber-attacks or other information security breaches to date, we have been the subject of attempted hacking and cyber-attacks and there can be no assurance that we will not suffer such significant losses in the future. As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, we expect to incur increasing costs to strengthen our systems from outside intrusions. While we have implemented administrative and technical controls and have taken other preventive actions, such as deploying company-wide cybersecurity training and conducting threat simulations to reduce the risk of cyber incidents and protect our information technology, they may be insufficient to prevent physical and electronic break-ins, cyber-attacks or other security breaches to our computer systems.
Changes in our customer or product sales mix affect our operating results.
Our operating results vary according to the amount and type of products we sell to each of our primary customer types: single-family homebuilders, remodeling contractors, and multifamily, commercial and other contractors. Gross margins on sales to single-family, multifamily, commercial and other contractors vary based on a variety of factors, including the purchase volumes of the individual customer, the mix of products sold to that customer, the cost to serve that customer, the size and selling price of the project being constructed and the number of upgrades added to the project before or during its construction.
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We generate significant business from the large single-family homebuilders; however, our gross margins on sales to them tend to be lower than our gross margins on sales to other market segments. A shift in our sales mix towards the larger homebuilders could negatively impact our gross margins.
In addition, we typically realize higher gross margins on more highly engineered and customized products, or ancillary products that are often purchased based on convenience and are therefore less price sensitive to our customers. For example, sales of lumber and lumber sheet goods tend to generate lower gross margins due to their commodity nature and the relatively low switching costs of sourcing those products from different suppliers. Structural components and millwork, doors and windows often generate higher gross margins relative to other products due to their increased complexity and opportunity for efficiency gains. A shift in our sales mix towards the lumber and lumber sheet goods product category could negatively impact our gross margins.
The implementation of our supply chain and technology initiatives could disrupt our operations, and these initiatives might not provide the anticipated benefits or might fail.
We have made, and we plan to continue to make, significant investments in our supply chain and technology. These initiatives are designed to streamline our operations to allow our employees to continue to provide high quality service to our customers, while simplifying customer interaction and providing our customers with a more interconnected purchasing experience. The cost and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of these initiatives, including those associated with managing third-party service providers and employing new web-based tools and services, could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations. In the event that we continue to grow, there can be no assurance that we will be able to keep up, expand or adapt our IT infrastructure to meet evolving demand on a timely basis and at a commercially reasonable cost, or at all. In addition, our improved supply chain and new or upgraded technology might not provide the anticipated benefits, it might take longer than expected to realize the anticipated benefits or the initiatives might fail altogether.
Furthermore, our customers are continuing to increasingly demand and rely on increased technology in their operations. We anticipate digitization trends in the home-building industry to continue and have made significant investments in technology solutions to further drive digitization of the home-building industry. While we believe such trends present opportunities for our business, we may be unsuccessful in keeping pace with the development of such technologies, which could result in loss of customers.
We regularly invest resources to update and improve our internal information technology systems and software platforms. Should our investments not succeed, or if delays or other issues with new or existing internal technology systems and software platforms disrupt our operations, our business could be harmed.
We rely on our network infrastructure, ERP systems, data hosting, public cloud and software-as-a-service providers, and internal technology systems for many of our development, marketing, operational, support, sales, accounting and financial reporting activities. We are continually investing resources to update and improve these systems and environments in order to meet existing needs, as well as the growing and changing requirements of our business and customers. If we experience prolonged delays or unforeseen difficulties in updating and upgrading our systems and architecture, including our new ERP system, we may experience outages and may not be able to deliver certain offerings or develop new offerings and enhancements that we need to remain competitive. Improvements, upgrades and, to a greater extent, system conversions, are often complex, costly and time consuming. In addition, such improvements can be challenging to integrate with our existing technology systems, or may uncover problems with our existing technology systems. Unsuccessful implementation of hardware or software updates and improvements could result in outages, disruption in our business operations, loss of revenue or damage to our reputation.
We occupy most of our facilities under long-term non-cancelable leases. We may be unable to renew leases at the end of their terms. If we close a facility, we are still obligated under the applicable lease.
Most of our facilities are leased. Many of our leases are non-cancelable, typically have initial expiration terms ranging from five to 15 years and most provide options to renew for specified periods of time. We believe that leases we enter into in the future will likely be for similar terms (five to 15 years), will be non-cancelable and will feature similar renewal options. If we close or idle a facility we would remain committed to perform our obligations under the applicable lease, which would include, among other things, payment of the base rent, insurance, taxes and other expenses on the leased property for the balance of the lease term. We have closed or idled a number of facilities for which we continue to remain liable. Our obligation to continue making rental payments with respect to leases for closed or idled facilities could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. At the end of a lease term, for those locations where we have no renewal options remaining, we may be unable to renew the lease without additional cost, if at all. If we are unable to renew our facility leases, we may close or, if possible, relocate the facility, which could subject us to additional costs and risks which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, the revenue and profit generated at a relocated facility may not equal the revenue and profit generated at the former operation.
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Financial and Liquidity Risks
Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry, and prevent us from meeting our obligations under our debt instruments.
As of December 31, 2022, our debt totaled $3,015.4 million, which includes $201.4 million of finance lease and other finance obligations. We have a $1.8 billion revolving credit facility with maturity dates between December 17, 2026 and January 17, 2028 (“Revolving facility”), under which we had $264.0 million in outstanding borrowings and $128.9 million of letters of credit outstanding as of December 31, 2022. In addition, we also have $505.2 million in obligations under operating leases.
Our level of indebtedness could have important consequences to us, including:
•make it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to our other indebtedness, resulting in possible defaults on and acceleration of such indebtedness;
•increasing our vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions;
•requiring a substantial portion of our operating cash flow to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, therefore reducing our liquidity and our ability to use our cash flow to fund our operations, capital expenditures, future business opportunities, share repurchases and retirement of debt;
•exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates, and corresponding increased interest expense, because borrowings under the Revolving facility are at variable rates of interest;
•limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions, and general corporate or other purposes;
•limiting our ability to adjust to changing marketplace conditions and placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors who may have less debt; and
•limiting our attractiveness as an investment opportunity for potential investors.
In addition, our debt instruments contain cross-default provisions that could result in our debt being declared immediately due and payable under a number of debt instruments, even if we default on only one debt instrument. In such event, it is possible that we would not be able to satisfy our obligations under all of such accelerated indebtedness simultaneously.
Our financial condition and operating performance, including that of our subsidiaries, are also subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. There are no assurances that we will maintain a level of liquidity sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium and interest on our indebtedness.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets, seek additional capital, or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. In the absence of such operating results and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations in an effort to meet our debt service and other obligations. The agreements governing our debt instruments restrict our ability to dispose of assets and to use the proceeds from such dispositions. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or be able to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them, and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due.
We may have future capital needs and may not be able to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms.
We are substantially reliant on cash on hand and borrowing availability under the Revolving facility, which totaled $1,487.5 million at December 31, 2022, to provide working capital and fund our operations. Our working capital requirements are likely to grow as we continue to grow organically and through acquisitions. Our inability to renew, amend or replace our debt instruments when required or when business conditions warrant could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Economic and credit market conditions, the performance of our industry, and our financial performance, as well as other factors, may constrain our financing abilities. Our ability to secure additional financing, if available, and to satisfy our financial obligations under indebtedness outstanding from time to time will depend upon our future operating performance, the availability of credit, economic conditions and financial, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Significant worsening of current housing market conditions or the macroeconomic factors that affect our industry could require us to seek additional capital and have a material adverse effect on our ability to secure such capital on favorable terms, if at all.
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We may be unable to secure additional financing, financing on favorable terms or our operating cash flow may be insufficient to satisfy our financial obligations under indebtedness outstanding from time to time. The agreements governing our debt instruments, moreover, restrict the amount of permitted indebtedness allowed. In addition, if financing is not available when needed, or is available on unfavorable terms, we may be unable to take advantage of business opportunities, including potential acquisitions, or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of additional equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholders may experience significant dilution.
We may incur additional indebtedness.
We may incur additional indebtedness in the future, including collateralized debt, subject to the restrictions contained in the agreements governing our debt instruments. If new debt is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we now face could intensify.
Our debt instruments contain various covenants that limit our ability to operate our business.
Our financing arrangements, including the agreements governing our debt instruments, contain various provisions that limit our ability to, among other things:
•transfer or sell assets, including the equity interests of our restricted subsidiaries, or use asset sale proceeds;
•pay dividends or distributions on our capital stock or repurchase our capital stock;
•make certain restricted payments or investments;
•create liens to secure debt;
•enter into transactions with affiliates;
•merge or consolidate with another company or continue to receive the benefits of these financing arrangements under a “change in control” scenario (as defined in those agreements); and
•engage in unrelated business activities.
The agreement governing the Revolving facility contains a financial covenant requiring the satisfaction of a minimum fixed charge ratio of 1.00 to 1.00 if our excess availability falls below the greater of $80.0 million or 10% of the maximum borrowing amount, which was $180.0 million as of December 31, 2022.
These provisions may restrict our ability to expand or fully pursue our business strategies. Our ability to comply with the agreements governing our debt instruments may be affected by changes in our operating and financial performance, changes in general business and economic conditions, adverse regulatory developments, a change in control or other events beyond our control. The breach of any of these provisions could result in a default under our indebtedness, which could cause those and other obligations to become due and payable. If any of our indebtedness is accelerated, we may not be able to repay it.
Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our indebtedness service obligations to increase significantly.
Interest rates may increase in the future. As a result, interest rates on our Revolving facility could be higher or lower than current levels. As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $264.0 million, or 8.8%, of our outstanding debt at variable interest rates. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, would correspondingly decrease. Further, an increase in interest rates could also trigger a limitation on the deductibility of those interest costs, increasing our tax expense and further decreasing our net income and cash flows. In recent years, the Company has executed several debt transactions designed to optimize our debt structure and extend maturities. The Company is likely to execute similar debt transactions in the future. However, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in anticipating the direction of interest rates or changes in market conditions, which could result in future debt transactions having a material adverse impact on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
A 1.0% increase in interest rates on the Revolving facility would result in approximately $2.6 million in additional interest expense annually as we had $264.0 million in outstanding borrowings as of December 31, 2022. The Revolving facility also assesses variable commitment and outstanding letter of credit fees based on quarterly average loan utilization.
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If the housing market declines, we may be required to take impairment charges relating to our operations or temporarily idle or permanently close under-performing locations.
If conditions in the housing industry continue to deteriorate we may need to take goodwill and/or asset impairment charges relating to certain of our reporting units. Any such non-cash charges would have an adverse effect on our financial results. In addition, in response to industry conditions, we may have to temporarily idle or permanently close certain facilities in under-performing markets. Widespread facility closures could have a significant adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Our inability to effectively deploy our excess capital may negatively affect return on equity and stockholder value.
Throughout 2022, we generated significant excess cash flows. Our business plan calls for us to execute a variety of strategies to deploy excess capital including, but not limited to, continued organic balance sheet growth and the consideration of potential acquisition opportunities to further deploy our excess capital when we expect such opportunities to significantly enhance long-term stockholder value. We have also repurchased approximately $4.4 billion of our shares since January 2021 through the date of this filing, and intend to continue repurchasing shares pursuant to share repurchase authorization approved by our board of directors and announced on November 28, 2022. Our inability to effectively and timely deploy our excess capital through these strategies may constrain growth in earnings and return on equity and thereby diminish potential growth in stockholder value.
Legal and Compliance Risks
The nature of our business exposes us to product liability, product warranty, casualty, construction defect, asbestos, vehicle and other claims and legal proceedings.
We are involved in product liability, product warranty, casualty, construction defect, asbestos, vehicle and other claims relating to the products we manufacture and distribute, and services we provide or have provided that, if adversely determined, could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows. We rely on manufacturers and other suppliers to provide us with many of the products we sell and distribute. Because we have no direct control over the quality of such products manufactured or supplied by such third-party suppliers, we are exposed to risks relating to the quality of such products. The Company has a number of known and threatened construction defect legal claims. We are also involved in several asbestos personal injury suits due to the alleged sale of asbestos-containing products by legacy businesses that we acquired. In addition, we are exposed to potential claims arising from the conduct of our respective employees and subcontractors, and builders and their subcontractors, for which we may be contractually liable. Although we currently maintain what we believe to be suitable and adequate insurance in excess of our self-insured amounts, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain such insurance on acceptable terms or that such insurance will provide adequate protection against potential liabilities. Product liability, product warranty, casualty, construction defect, asbestos, vehicle, and other claims can be expensive to defend and can divert the attention of management and other personnel for significant periods, regardless of the ultimate outcome. Claims of this nature could also have a negative impact on customer confidence in our products and our company. In addition, we are involved on an ongoing basis in other types of legal proceedings, such as workers’ compensation proceedings. We cannot assure you that any current or future claims against us will not adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Federal, state, local and other regulations could impose substantial costs and/or restrictions on our operations that would reduce our net income.
We are subject to various federal, state, local and other regulations, including, among other things, regulations promulgated by the Department of Transportation and applicable to our fleet of delivery trucks, work safety regulations promulgated by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, employment regulations, including immigration and work-authorization laws and regulations promulgated by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, tariff regulations on imported products promulgated by the Federal government, accounting standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) or similar entities, state and local regulations relating to our escrow business, and state and local zoning restrictions and building codes. More burdensome regulatory requirements in these or other areas may increase our general and administrative costs and adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Moreover, failure to comply with the regulatory requirements applicable to our business could expose us to substantial penalties that could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows and damage our reputation.
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Future changes to tax laws and regulations could have an adverse impact on our business.
We are subject to income and other taxes in the United States. We are subject to ongoing tax audits in various jurisdictions. We regularly assess the likely outcome of these audits in order to determine the appropriateness of our tax provision. However, there can be no assurance that we will accurately predict the outcome of these audits, and the amounts ultimately paid upon resolution of audits could be materially different from the amounts previously included in our income tax expense and therefore could have a material impact on our tax provision, net income and cash flows. In addition, our effective tax rate in the future could be adversely affected by changes to our operating structure, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in tax laws, and the discovery of new information in the course of our tax return preparation. Any future changes in federal and state tax laws and regulations could have an adverse direct impact on our corporate taxes and/or an adverse indirect impact such as making purchasing a home less attractive, which could reduce demand for homes. Adverse impacts from any future changes in federal and state laws and regulations on our business could include an adverse impact on our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
We are subject to potential exposure to environmental liabilities and are subject to environmental regulation.
We are subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws, ordinances and regulations. Although we believe that our facilities are in material compliance with such laws, ordinances, and regulations, as owners and lessees of real property, we can be held liable for the investigation or remediation of contamination on such properties, in some circumstances, without regard to whether we knew of or were responsible for such contamination. No assurance can be provided that remediation may not be required in the future as a result of spills or releases of petroleum products or hazardous substances, the discovery of unknown environmental conditions, more stringent standards regarding existing residual contamination, or changes in legislation, laws, rules or regulations. More burdensome environmental regulatory requirements may increase our general and administrative costs and adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
General Risks
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its contributory effects on the economy could adversely impact, our business, financial condition, liquidity, capital and results of operations.
While the level of disruption caused by, and the economic impact of, the COVID-19 pandemic lessened in 2022, there is no assurance that the pandemic will not worsen again, including as a result of the emergence of new strains of the virus, or another health-related emergency will not emerge. Any worsening of the pandemic, a new health-related emergency and their effects on the economy could have an adverse impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Unstable global economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition, and operations.
We are operating in an uncertain economic environment. The global credit and financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and disruptions, including severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates, high rates of inflation, and uncertainty about economic stability and a potential recession. While our management team continually monitors market conditions and economic factors throughout our footprint, we are unable to predict the duration or severity of such conditions or factors. If conditions were to worsen nationally, regionally or locally, then we could see a decrease in housing starts, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and cash flows.
In addition, the financial markets and the global economy may also be adversely affected by the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, including the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which is increasing volatility in commodity and energy prices, creating supply chain issues and causing instability in financial markets. Sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries in response to such conflict could further adversely impact the financial markets and the global economy, and any economic countermeasures by the affected countries or others could exacerbate market and economic instability. The specific consequences of the conflict in Ukraine on our business is difficult to predict at this time, but in addition to inflationary pressures affecting our operations, any shortages of fuel or significant fuel cost increases could seriously disrupt our ability to distribute products to our customers.
There can be no assurance that further deterioration in markets and confidence in economic conditions will not occur. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn or recession, volatile business environment, hostile third-party action or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. The effects of any economic downturn or recession could continue for many years after the downturn or recession is considered to have ended.
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We may be adversely affected by any natural or man-made disruptions to our operations and our distribution and manufacturing facilities.
We currently maintain a broad network of distribution and manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. Any widespread disruption to our operations resulting from fire, earthquake, weather-related events (such as tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and other storms), other natural disasters, an act of terrorism, intrusions or failures of critical infrastructure such as the power grid or communications systems or any other cause could damage multiple facilities and a significant portion of our inventory and could materially impair our ability to distribute our products to customers. Moreover, we could incur significantly higher costs and longer lead times associated with distributing our products to our customers during the time that it retakes for us to reopen or replace a damaged facility. If any of these events were to occur, our financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be materially adversely affected.
In addition, general weather patterns affect our operating results throughout the year, with adverse weather historically reducing construction activity in the first and fourth quarters in the markets in which we primarily operate. Adverse weather events, natural disasters or similar events, including as a result of climate change, could generally reduce or delay construction activity, which could adversely impact our financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Furthermore, if certain markets where we have made significant investments become less desirable for new home building due to the frequency of adverse weather events or climate change, we could incur significant losses at our facilities throughout these markets.
ESG risks could adversely affect our reputation and shareholder, employee, customer and third party relationships and may negatively affect our stock price.
Our business faces increasing public scrutiny related to ESG activities. We risk damage to our brand and reputation if we fail to act responsibly in a number of areas, such as DEI, environmental stewardship, including with respect to climate change, human capital management, support for our local communities, corporate governance and transparency, or fail to consider ESG factors in our business operations.
Additionally, investors and shareholder advocates are placing an increasing emphasis on how corporations address ESG issues in their business strategy when making investment decisions and when developing their investment theses and proxy recommendations. We may incur meaningful costs with respect to our ESG efforts and if such efforts are negatively perceived, our reputation and stock price may suffer.
Climate change could adversely affect our business and damage our reputation.
Concerns over the long-term impacts of climate change have led and will continue to lead to governmental efforts around the world to mitigate those impacts. Consumers and businesses are also changing their behavior and business preferences as a result of these concerns. New governmental regulations or guidance relating to climate change, as well as changes in consumers’ and businesses’ behaviors and business preferences, may affect whether and on what terms and conditions we will engage in certain activities or offer certain products or services. The governmental and supervisory focus on climate change could also result in our becoming subject to new or heightened regulatory requirements. Any such new or heightened requirements could result in increased regulatory, compliance or other costs. Our business, reputation and ability to attract and retain employees may also be harmed if our response to climate change is perceived to be ineffective or insufficient.
The price of our common stock is volatile and may decline.
The market price of our common stock historically has experienced and may continue to experience significant price fluctuations similar to those experienced by the broader stock market in recent years. For example, between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, the closing price of our common stock on the NYSE ranged from $50.02 to $85.42 per share. In addition, the price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to various factors, including:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant business developments, changes in customer relationships, acquisitions, or expansion plans;
•changes in the prices of products we sell;
•involvement in litigation;
•our sale or repurchases of common stock or other securities in the future;
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•market conditions in our industry;
•changes in key personnel;
•changes in market valuation or earnings of our competitors;
•the trading volume of our common stock;
•changes in the estimation of the future size and growth rate of our markets; and
•general economic and market conditions.
Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against that company.
If we were involved in any similar litigation we could incur substantial costs and our management’s attention and resources could be diverted, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. As a result, it may be difficult for you to resell your shares of common stock in the future.