The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call October 23, 2024 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Justin Roberts - Vice President and Treasurer
Lorie Tekorius - President and CEO
Brian Comstock - Executive Vice President and President, Americas
Michael Donfris - Senior Vice President and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Bascome Majors - Susquehanna

Operator

Hello. And welcome to The Greenbrier Companies Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Following today’s presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Each analyst should limit themselves to one question with a follow-up if needed. Until that time, all lines will be in a listen-only mode. At the request of The Greenbrier Companies, the conference call is being recorded for instant replay purposes.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Justin Roberts, Vice President and Treasurer. Mr. Roberts, you may begin.

Justin Roberts

Thank you, Chuck. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our conference call today. I am joined by Lorie Tekorius, Greenbrier’s CEO and President; Brian Comstock, Executive Vice President and President of the Americas; and Michael Donfris, Senior Vice President and CFO.

Following our update on Greenbrier’s 2024 performance and our outlook for fiscal 2025, we will open up the call for questions. Our earnings release and supplemental slide presentation can be found on the IR section of our website.

Matters discussed on today’s conference call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Throughout our discussion today, we will describe some of the important factors that could cause Greenbrier’s actual results in 2025 and beyond to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalf of Greenbrier. Throughout the call today, you will hear us referring to recurring revenue. We define that as Leasing & Management Services revenue excluding the impact of syndication activity.

And with that, I will hand the call over to Lorie.

Lorie Tekorius

Thank you, Justin, and good afternoon, everyone. Greenbrier’s positive momentum in 2024 expanded during our fourth quarter. We’re advancing our multiyear Better Together strategy focused on three key areas, maintaining our Manufacturing leadership position in all our geographies, improving our Manufacturing gross margins and doubling recurring revenue in our leasing business. I’m pleased with the results and achievements since we launched this three-part strategy just two years ago.

In Q4, Greenbrier generated our second highest quarterly EBITDA of $159 million and aggregate gross margin expanded to 18.2%. This is 310 basis points of sequential margin growth. Full year aggregate gross margin of 15.8% is 460 basis points higher than fiscal 2023.