Q4 2023 L B Foster Co Earnings Call

Participants

Stephanie Schmidt; IR Manager; L B Foster Co

John Kasel; President, CEO & Director; L B Foster Co

William Thalman; Executive VP & CFO; L B Foster Co

Chris Sakai; Analyst; Singular Research

Alex Rygiel; Analyst; B. Riley Securities, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by, and welcome to L B Foster's score Fourth Quarter 2023 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Again, please note that today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to pass the call over to the Investors Relations Manager Stephanie Schmidt.

Stephanie Schmidt

Thank you, operator.And good morning, everyone, and welcome to L.B. Foster's fourth quarter of 2023 earnings call. My name is Stephanie Schmidt, Company's Investor Relations Manager, our President and CEO, John Castle, and our Chief Financial Officer, Bill Coleman, will be presenting our fourth quarter operating results, market outlook and business developments this morning.
Will stop start the call with John providing his perspective on the Company's fourth quarter and full year 2023 performance. Phil will then review the company's fourth quarter financial results. John will provide perspective on market developments and company outlook and his closing comments. We will then open the session up for questions.
Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures are posted on our website this morning and can be accessed on our Investor Relations page at L.B. Foster.com. Our comments this morning follow the slides in the presentation. Some statements we are making are forward-looking and represent our current view of our markets and business today.
These forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these statements in light of new information, except as required by securities laws, for more detailed risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and presentation during 2023, the company reorg completed a reorganization that resulted in a change in reporting segments from three to two segments.
For purposes of today's call, we have restated segment information for the historical periods presented to conform with the current presentation. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to read our disclosures and reconciliation tables provided within today's earnings release and within our accompanying earnings presentation carefully. As you consider these metrics.
So with that, let me turn the call over to John.

John Kasel

So intuitively And hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our 2020 through fourth quarter earnings call. And as I look back and reflect on what the team accomplished over the last year, I could not be more proud of our progress in late 2021, we set out to transform that. We foster to a high-growth technology-oriented infrastructure solutions provider certainly accomplished.
We completed eight portfolio transactions, significantly reducing our complexity and narrowing our focus on becoming a clear infrastructure pure play with a focus on technology and innovation. We also launched multiple growth and profitability initiatives has significantly improved the earnings and cash generating potential of the business. Clearly, the impact of our office efforts is evident in our 2023 results.
First quarter sales continued to show strong organic growth at 7.7% with a reported decline of 1.7% due to the strategic divestitures of Camtek and CXT ties portfolio work. Organic growth and pricing initiatives drove improved gross margins of 21.5% to up 200 basis points over last year, while gross margins were up $2.3 million versus last year. Adjusted EBITDA was down $1.4 million due primarily to a higher variable incentive compensation expense that will reset to target levels in 2024.
The highlight for the quarter was our operating cash flow generation to $22.1 million in operating cash flow, translating to $16 million reduction in net debt during the quarter. Net debt finished the year at $52.7 million with gross leverage ratio per our credit agreements to similarly improving to 1.7 times at year end, down from 2.0 times at the start of the quarter. In line with our disciplined capital allocation priorities.
Operating cash flow was used to maintain a reasonable leverage level, funded growth oriented capital spending projects, complete tuck-in acquisitions for our key growth platforms and continued capital return to shareholders through stock repurchases. And with that, I'm pleased to report that we have made solid progress on all these fronts in Q4.
Turning to slide 6, you can see how our strong finish contributed to substantial progress we made in 2023 as reflected in our full year results. In fact, both sales and adjusted EBITDA results exceeded the upper end of our guidance for the year. Sales of $543.7 million were up 9.3% over 2022 gross margins of 20.7% were up 270 basis points. Adjusted EBITDA of $31.8 million was up $7.6 million over last year or 31.4%.
It should be noted that these results were achieved despite an ongoing commercial weakness in the UK market, specifically in our contract services business, similar to Q4. Cash generating cash generation was a highlight for the full year. In fact, it was fantastic results with operating cash flow results of totaling $37.4 million for 2023, we also generated $8.2 million from divestitures and asset sales.
These proceeds were used primarily to reduce our net debt by $36.3 million during the year, bringing our gross leverage ratio down to 1.7 times versus 2.8 times last year. We also made good progress funding our growth CapEx initiatives and stock repurchases throughout 2023.
As indicated in our earnings announcement, we realigned our management and operating structure at the end of the year with the business are reporting up to two highly qualified segment leaders, Greg Liberté for rail of Nest for infrastructure. Congratulations to both Greg and Bob. As a result of these changes, we have updated the segment reporting to align with how we run how we're running the business.
And finally, we established financial guidance for 2024 with sales expected to range between $525 million to $560 million. We estimate this sales range would represent organic growth of flat to 6% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA outlook for 2024 is in the range of $34 million to $39 million, with the benefits of the portfolio work and profitability initiatives expected to deliver improved adjusted EBITDA margin with the improved profitability outlook and our disciplined approach to managing working capital.
We are now expecting generate free cash flow ranging from $12 million to $18 million in 2024, with capital spending represent 2% to 2.5% of sales. We continue to fund organic growth initiatives and as a reminder, this will be the last year of our work for Union Pacific settlement funding with payments totaling $8 million 24. This will give us a great boost to cash flow starting in 2025.
In summary, I'm very pleased with the great progress we have made in 2023 and look forward to continuing our journey to 2024.
Next, Bill will cover the detailed financials for Q4, and I'll come back at the Analyst here and with you some closing remarks on our outlook. Over to you, Bill.

William Thalman

Thanks, John. Morning, everyone. I'll begin by covering the highlights of our fourth quarter on slide 8. As a reminder, the schedules in the appendix provide more information on our financial results, including non-GAAP reconciliations. Net sales of $134.9 million declined 1.7% in the fourth quarter due to a 9.4% decline from divestitures, partially offset by organic sales growth of 7.7%. The 2022.
Acquisitions of scratch and Van Heusen go are now included in our organic sales. While the 2023 divestiture decline was due to the Camtek and ties businesses, our improved profitability profile continues to be reflected in our margins with gross profit up 8.5%, expanding 200 basis points to 21.5%. This improvement is due to organic growth portfolio changes, favorable business mix and price realization, partially offset by the impact of the challenging commercial environment and our UK Rail business.
SG&A costs are higher due primarily to increased personnel costs, including variable incentive expenses that will reset back to target levels in 2024, coupled with a $1 million bad debt provision for a UK customer that previously filed for administrative protection. We also recorded a $700,000 restructuring cost charge in our UK business as we rightsized to the market conditions.
Net loss for the quarter was $400,000 favorable $43.5 million over the prior year quarter due to last year's $37.9 million deferred tax valuation allowance and $8 million impairment charges. As John mentioned in his opening remarks, one of the most notable highlights for the quarter was the $22.1 million in operating cash.
I'll cover these details along with orders and backlogs later in the presentation, Ken, the graphs on slide 9 highlight the changes in sales and adjusted EBITDA as a result of our divestiture activity and within our remaining legacy business, which now includes Spain whose scope and scratch as a result of the Camtek and ties divestitures and 2023, Q4 sales were down $12.9 million or 9.4%, but adjusted EBITDA increased $1.1 million.
As a result of these transactions, while the legacy business delivered organic growth of $10.6 million year over year. Adjusted EBITDA was down $2.4 million due primarily to higher variable incentive compensation expenses as well as the weaker commercial environment in the UK. Our guidance anticipates these two drivers will have less of an impact in 2024.
Slide 10 reflects an important trend demonstrating the progress we've made in the sales growth and profitability over the last two years. We've reported strong organic growth in each quarter into 2023, which highlights the resilience of our business and robust demand levels both in our end markets. The adjusted gross profit improved year over year in each quarter in 2023, with the 2023 average of 21.2% up 240 basis points over the prior year.
In summary, we believe our business portfolio transformation and focused profitability initiatives have translated into a structural improvement in the gross margin profile of our business that should be sustainable with the longer term demand prospects for our infrastructure end markets.
Over the next couple of slides, I'll cover our segment performance in Q4. And as previously mentioned, we are now reporting two business segments, rail and infrastructure. I'll first cover the rail segment on Slide 11. Fourth quarter rail segment revenues of $69.3 million were down 10.9% year over year, 6.9% of which was due to the Thais divestiture in 2023. The balance of the decline was due primarily to our rail distribution business within rail products, which often fluctuates due to the timing of large orders.
Softness in the UK Rail business also contributed to the decline. Partially offsetting was improved volumes in both global friction management and our domestic total tracked monitoring business. Rail margins of 19.2% were down 390 basis points, driven primarily by the margin impairment impacts from continued weakness in the UK commercial construction market, coupled with slightly weaker margins and global friction management. Rail orders and backlog were both down year over year due primarily to timing of orders within rail products, which is already showing signs of improvement in early 2024.
Slide 12 reflects the fourth quarter results of our infrastructure segment. As a reminder, infrastructure is now a combination of our Precast Concrete Products & Steel Products businesses reporting to Bob Ness, the previous steel products and Measurement division has been renamed to steel products after the sale of Temtec Prior periods have been recast to reflect our current reporting structure.
Infrastructure revenue increased $6.1 million or 10.3% year over year. Sales were up 23.1% organically, partially offset by the Camtek divestiture, which drove a 12.7% decline. Gross profit margins for this segment increased 910 basis points, which was driven by gains in volume, pricing and product mix in both precast and steel products as well as an uplift lift from the sale of our of Camtek and the bridge grid deck product line exit, both of which were previously dilutive to gross margins.
New orders declined $18.8 million and backlog was down $37.6 million, both of which were due primarily to the Camtek divestiture and bridge product line exits full year results.
On Slide 13, highlight the momentum we've established in our business throughout all of 2023, sales were up 9.3% year over year, 11.7% organically and gross profit margins expanded 270 basis points to 20.7%. Adjusted EBITDA increased $7.6 million or 31.4%, with the EBITDA margin of 5.8%, up 90 basis points versus last year.
SG&A costs for the year were up due to the increased personnel costs, including variable compensation as well as $2.5 million in U. K bad debt and restructuring costs. Excluding the bad debt and restructuring charges, SG&A as a percentage of sales was 17.4% in 2023 compared to 16.6% in 2022, up 80 basis points due primarily to the higher variable incentive costs.
As John mentioned in his opening remarks, we achieved a significant improvement on operating cash flow in 2023, generating $37.4 million compared to a use of $10.6 million in 2022. This progress allowed us to fund the key capital allocation priorities, which I'll now cover over the next several slides.
Cash generation and leverage metrics are reflected on Slide 14. Improved profitability and lower working capital requirements drove $37.4 million in cash flow from operations for the year. The strong operating cash flow allowed us to reduce net debt, $16 million in the quarter and $36.3 million for the full year. As a result, our gross leverage per our credit agreement decreased from 2.8 times at the start of the year to 1.7 times at year end.
We're pleased with the significant progress achieved improving our leverage metrics metrics over the last several quarters and are now our leverage is now well below the elevated level immediately after the acquisitions of and whose scope and scratch and summer of 2022, our normal working capital cycle is expected to increase net debt and leverage in early 2024 with a steady decline and improved year over year metrics in the second half of the year, free cash flow provided robust funding of $33 million in 2023.
However, we actually reduced our net debt by $36.3 million this year due in part to the two divestitures completed during the year, both of which were accretive to our leverage ratio, the balance of the free cash flow funded stock repurchases and a small tuck-in precast acquisition in line with our capital allocation priorities.
As a reminder, we have $103 million in federal net operating losses that should minimize our US tax obligation for the seeable foreseeable future. We believe our 2023 results highlight the cash generating power of our business and our 2024 free cash flow guidance ranges between $12 million to $18 million, reflecting higher capital spending for organic growth projects with our improved profitability outlook, capital light business model and the winding up of the Union Pacific settlement payments, we believe consistent free cash flow between $25 million $35 million dollars is achievable beyond 2024.
This would be a free cash flow yield of approximately 10% to 13% at today's valuation as a reminder, our capital allocation priorities are outlined on Slide 15. We continue to focus on managing our net debt and leverage levels while cautiously investing in organic growth opportunities. We see in Rail Technologies and precast concrete.
And we will also look for small tuck-in acquisitions that are aligned with our portfolio growth strategy as evidenced by the Cooper Mountain precast acquisition that was completed in Q4. We're comfortable with gross leverage around two times. I'm pleased we've achieved this level a little after a year, a little over a year after the completion of two strategic acquisitions and 2022 capital spending is expected to run at approximately 2% to 2.5% of sales on average, which is slightly higher than our historical levels due to anticipated organic growth investments expected to have high returns and quick paybacks.
We will continue to evaluate opportunities to return cash to shareholders through our stock repurchase program. We've been active since its inception in February of 2023 and are pleased with the progress made throughout the year with 1.2% reduction in outstanding shares thus far consuming $2.3 million of the $15 million authorization.
And while distributing value to shareholders through a dividend is not a current priority, we will continue to consider this capital allocation option as the prospects for stronger, stable free cash flow continued to improve my closing comments, we will refer to slides 16 and 17 covering orders and backlog trends by business consolidated book-to-bill ratio for 2023 was 0.97 to 1, with total new orders of $529 million, down $22.9 million or 4.2%.
While the decline in orders is largely attributed to the net impact of M&A orders and the legacy rail segment were also down due to the lumpy nature and seasonality of orders in the rail distribution business, we are seeing increased quoting activity and order rate activity in early 2024 four, and we remain optimistic about our prospects for improving demand from the majority of our end markets.
And lastly, our consolidated backlog on Slide 17 reflects a healthy backlog level at $213.8 million, while backlog decreased $58.5 million from elevated levels at year end last year, $31.3 million of the decline was due to divestiture and product line exit activities about of the change is due primarily to timing of orders in the Rail segment, which we believe will recover in early 2024.
In closing, our fourth quarter and 2023 results highlight the momentum we are seeing in the business and benefits from our strategic transformation. We're pleased with the progress achieved in 2023 which exceeded our expectations in most cases, and we continue to be confident in our strategic roadmap. We look forward to further progress in 2024 and beyond.
Thanks again for your time, and I'll now hand it back over to John for his closing remarks. Sian?

John Kasel

Thanks, Bill. I'll begin my closing remarks by covering the near term outlook for our key end markets.
On slide, we remain optimistic about prospects for continued growth in North and North America rail infrastructure markets, particularly given the increasing customer emphasis on real safety, fuel savings and operating efficiency funding for the U.S. programs approved over the last couple of years has been slowly make its way through the system. We began to realize some of these project related business activities in 2023, and we expect this trend to continue moving to 2024.
As previously mentioned, our UK Rail technology service business continues to face difficult market conditions with weaker demand levels and ongoing disruptions, liquidity disruptions with some customers. The UK construction market has been very challenging over the last year, and so we continue to assess this business in light of ongoing weakness.
As Bill mentioned, we completed a restructuring program in the UK in the fourth quarter to help bring our costs in line with current the current commercial environment. Although conditions are challenging, they appear to be showing some signs of bottoming out. This is a top focus for myself and the team, and we will continue to monitor the situation and manage what we can control. Moving away from the UK.
We believe the eight portfolio actions completed over the last two years allow for a more focused effort to grow our core businesses and serve infrastructure markets with strong ongoing demand in our infrastructure business, we continue to see strong demand in precast concrete. We are focusing on expanding our reach both geographically and through proprietary technology and product licenses.
But good examples of this, as Bill mentioned, is our acquisition of the operating assets of Caroma LLC, which was completed during Q4 the acquired business was integrated into our Boise, Idaho precast operation and included already rock product license expanse of our precast offering integrator Boise market on our net North America bridge business saw some challenges with obsolescence of our Boost grid debt offering. We believe that we are now positioned to better support our customers while focusing on more innovative solutions.
Finally, we also continue to see similar crude demand activity in our protective pipeline coatings business. In summary, despite the isolated challenges we face in the UK, we believe our overall prospects for profitable growth remains strong in light of the infrastructure investments supercycle, which we expect to continue for years to come.
I thought I'd begin to wrap up today's call with our investment thesis, which is supported by four compelling pillars. First, we have taken strategic steps necessary to begin transforming L.B. Foster, resulting in structural improvements in profitability that are evident in our 2023 results and the 24 guidance we provided today.
Second, we reported strong organic growth in 2023, and we believe we represent an infrastructure pure play with multiple avenues for growth and investments. Supercycle first clearly needed in our served markets.
Third, we deliver exceptional cash flow in 2023, and our capital light business model, coupled with improving profitability, suggests a favorable cash flow outlook. And finally, we have a disciplined capital allocation approach with multiple levers. Centers falls, several of which have not yet been fully deployed. Our strategic execution along these four pillars translate into improved financial results to 2023. With these pillars in place, we are confident in our prospects for the future.
Turning to slide 21, we closely. Look, we are closely monitoring the potential well, which loss should be added back to the Russell 2000 Index, which was which will be reconstituted this spring. As you recall, we were removed from the index back in 2021 when the current index was reconstituted in May of 2023, the cut off market cap was approximately $160 million.
Our market cap at that time was $125 million over last year, and our stock price has appreciated over 90% compared to approximately 8% for the rest of 12, and our current market cap today stands at approximately $260 million. We believe that the Russell 2000 was recast to today, we would be included in the index, which should translate into increased interest in the stock and our strategic transformation as is now in play.
In closing, I would like to thank the team for their great work and exceptional results. Delivering 2023, we have made substantial progress since we rolled out 25 aspirational goals of $600 million in sales, $50 million of adjusted EBITDA back in 2021. We now have a clear line of sight and steps we need to take to achieve those goals. Companies energized going into 2024, and we continue to build momentum.
And finally, in the recent past, we unveiled our new Company core purpose. We innovate to solve global infrastructure challenges with this tag line came the launch of our new brand identity and global website, including the new L.B. Foster logo, which has now been visually, represents the momentum of our business and connects the business we are today with the aspirations we have for the future is this focus on innovation and relentless ambition to solve complex problems that continues to drive our people and the Company is moving toward. Thank you for your time and continuing interest.
And we foster, I'll turn it back to the operator for the Q&A session.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Chris Sakai, Singular Research.

Chris Sakai

Yes, hi, good morning, Chris. Morning, friends.
Good morning. I had a question on gross profit margins for Rail Technologies and Services and Infrastructure Solutions on it looks like Rail Technologies had had a decline and infrastructure had had a gain? And where would we see these going in 2020 for Red Lobster?

John Kasel

I'll thanks, Chris, for joining us, and thanks for your questions and really appreciate it. So the big picture and the gross margin expansion of 270 basis points, which is 20.7% for the full year. So we had some puts and gains as well as some other contraction. But bottom line is the portfolio moves that we've done over the last two years has really really helped our position moving forward. So we're seeing some normalization happening the margins.
And I want to give our team a lot of credit for altered for stabilizing supply chain and going out and getting price that's in line with market conditions today, maybe ability to give a little more detail on what we can share with Chris on the specifics.

William Thalman

Yes, Chris, hi. Thanks again for the question. Yes, what I would say is the rail side of the business. We had a bit of a challenging Q4 on volumes were a bit weaker with rail distribution and then the UK business, clearly some headwinds there. I think I mentioned in the comment in my prepared remarks that we wouldn't expect UK impact to be significant moving into 2024. So we expect they will stabilize and improve moving into 2024 off of Q2, Q4, for sure.
And then on the infrastructure side, the overall improvement that was realized across the board, both steel products as well as precast, very strong margins in our legacy business, in particular in our precast business. And we expect that to be sustained moving into 2024 as well. So a little weaker in rail and the rail side in Q4, but we expect to improve moving into the year and the sustained and gains and infrastructure should be held into the new year as well.

Chris Sakai

Okay. Sounds good. Thanks for that. And with continued good cash flow as you anticipate reducing our debt further.

John Kasel

Yes, thanks for bringing that to your attention. We are very pleased with the fourth quarter. And in fact, the whole second half of the year, our cash generation was was outstanding. And I want to give the team a lot of credit and TJ Kern in the Treasury Department, working with their respective commercial teams of really getting after things. And we didn't have the best our two years first cash cash generation. And if you look at early 2023, but the second half was nothing short of outstanding, come up with them for you improving our operating ratio from 2.8 to 1.7.
So yes, we're going to continue to watch that. And Bill mentioned in his remarks that, you know, we do have daily usable cash right now as you know, our seasonal business Christmas. So we're going to have to build up some of the inventories and to get after Q2 and Q3 specifically because that's with the ramp in revenue there. But in general, we're not going to lose our gains year over year. And the focus of cash management team is spread throughout the company, and we're doing a very good job of managing those levers.

Chris Sakai

Okay, great. Thanks.

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Alex Rygiel, B. Riley Securities.

Alex Rygiel

Thank you, John and Bill. Nice quarter.

John Kasel

Thanks, Alex, for diastolic.

Alex Rygiel

A question here with regards to sort of your 2025 target, how confident are you or has that confidence changed at all as it relates to the 2025 targets? Now that you're through 2023 and have a little bit better visibility into 2024?

John Kasel

Yes. Thanks for the question of, you know, I think I shared with you in the past when we came out of the aspirational goals and it was really kind of really setting the pace under. So everybody understand we aspired to be something different, but I will tell you with flip scoring our respective to the business we are today and we will be coming in that infrastructure pure play in the monies.
We're starting to see funneling through the government into the respective states cities as well as the other grant money. We're really feeling very good about our opportunities of helping our customers as it relates to safety and operation, operational performance as well as reliability. The Company set up well, the products and services we have today really leveraging that type of activity business that honestly back in 21 when we put these goals in place, we were I wasn't really understood how we're going to get there. But today we feel very, very good about it.
And just getting those eight transactions that we did, both of bringing in a couple of businesses, Francisco, IIV., as well as scratch, but also getting some of the noise out of the system that each respective sawmill business will be divested. It really gave the management leadership team, a strong focus or what we need, more importantly, who we are and where we need to go. So we have a pretty well laid out here between the next couple of years and look what we need to do that to be in line with those aspirational goals.
And I feel better about it today than I ever have.

Alex Rygiel

That's great. And kind of continue on that topic, EBITDA margins, margins, you're generally improving guidance as it relates to margins are improving, but there is kind of a notable step-up in your expectation for adjusted EBITDA margins in 2025 target up to it's a very strong and respectable kind of 8%. So any thoughts comments on how we sort of make that step up is the continuation of a mix shift here is improving.

John Kasel

I think there's an improved outcome on a couple of things is not necessarily volume per play, and I'll let Bill stepped into this, but let me tell you from my point of view. First is number one from we did 31.8, which was top side of our our guidance for the term loan. And the topside of our guidance for 2024 is at $39 million. And then how do we get to that next step, I think is what you're saying.
The reality is much of it is in play here North America, what we have to do and we will continue to do is manage those headwinds in the UK, and that's where we saw some things in the last couple of years where the reality is they have taken away from where we need to get to not necessarily from a technology innovation point of view, they've been great, but the markets have been depressed.
So the focus for my team and myself is make sure that now they stay in line and we get them to a position where they can contribute. So the greater company has released EBITDA and the rest of it will fall in place from there. Bill, you want to add any color to that?

William Thalman

Yes, yes. Thanks, John, and thanks for the question, Alex. The The thing I would say from a from a bridge point of view, is it thinking about the midpoint of our guidance as kind of a baseline for 2024 as we've talked about, we're investing in organic growth opportunities that we have in front of us for 2024 that will create revenue lift in 2025, along with the strong demand cycle, we expect to be there in our broader infrastructure markets.
So we're thinking that results in something like 10% growth going from 24 to 25. If you use a midpoint for the 2024 number. And then ultimately, it's a 22% EBITDA margin on that growth to get up to the $50 million target that we have out there. And when you think about that growth coming from rail technologies as well as our precast business, which is where the primary drivers of our growth will be those are going to be at a higher margin profiles than our overall average for sure.
And we absolutely feel like we can get SG&A leverage from 24 to 25 because those opportunities are not going to require a significant amount of SG&A investment to get it. So we have a pretty clear view of what it will take to get there we've got the programs in place, and we're laying the groundwork now this year to be able to create that step change from 24 to 25.

Alex Rygiel

Very helpful. Thank you.

John Kasel

Very much. Good luck cash outs.

Operator

Thank you. And I see no further questions in the queue. I will turn it back to Jon Kathol for final comments.

John Kasel

Thank you, Carmen, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And as I close out my remarks, thanks to the team at L.B. Foster our strong performance, especially as we came into the second half of the year. We're setting ourselves up for it in my mind to again to be a transformational year in 24 and giving line with those aspirational goals of 25 which are again part of the journey.
We're not going to consider ourselves to be done when we hit our aspirational goals. We get close now back in 25 and beyond so I'd also like to give a shout out to the Board of Directors with the leadership of Ray Butler, which has made our job much, much easier, raised, only Excellent job transforming the Board refreshment, bringing in new directors that really are lined up to the strategy, hold management accountable and has really made something very, very compelling as far as it's a really strong team.
I moving for so many thanks to Ray and the work he's done, making our life a lot easier and providing that wisdom guidance and experience that is going to help us continue to do move along this transformational journey.
So with that, thanks again for everybody joining us today, and we look forward to catching up with you at the close of the Q1, take care and be safe.

Operator

And thank you all for participating, and you may now disconnect.