The owner of the New Flyer manufacturing plant in Jamestown hopes the fact four of its five manufacturing plants are located in the United States will help it better compete for federal contracts.

During a recent conference call with investor analysts, Paul Soubry, NFI Group president and CEO, said that in 2019, there were typically six key competitors for business NFI Group was pursuing. In 2023 one competitor filed for Chapter 1 bankruptcy, with its assets acquired by a smaller business that is leaving the U.S. heavy duty transit market in 2025. A second competitor announced it was leaving the heavy duty transit business by 2025.

“These changes have led to a capacity decrease in the United States market and improvements to NFI’s overall competitive position,” Soubry said. “All players who exited the market referenced the difficulties of heightened inflation, supply disruption and working capital on their decision to exit.”

What does that mean for the New Flyer plant in Jamestown? It could mean more contracts and work coming to Jamestown and NFI group’s manufacturing plants in Alabama and Minnesota.

Soubry said it will take new competition time to enter the U.S. market. And, the fact that so much of NFI Group’s manufacturing takes place inside the domestic United States helps when the company is bidding on contracts backed with money from the United States’ government.

“Never say never, but I would be really surprised to see the U.S. government and whoever is in the administration allowing imports of vehicles that don’t have the U.S. domestic capabilities, supply chain or any of those other things, which is also part of our strategy,” Soubry said in regard to Jamestown and the company’s other U.S.-based plants. “We’ve beefed up over the years the amount of product that we’ve actually built physically in the United States and are in complete compliance.”

NFI Group announced fourth quarter 2023 revenue of $792 million and 1,227 equivalent units delivered, a 19% increase from the fourth quarter of 2022. Zero-emissions buses accounted for 236 of the company’s deliveries. For the full 2023 fiscal year, NFI Group revenue was $2.7 billion with the company delivering 4,001 units.

The fourth quarter of 2023 saw NFI Group record a net loss of $2 million, a $150 million decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022, an improvement of 99%. Full-year revenues increased from $2,060,700 in 2022 to $2,685,200 in 2023, with the company’s net loss decreasing from $276.4 million in 2022 to $136.2 million in 2023.

Revenue growth is expected to continue in 2024, with the company with anticipated double digit revenue growth and improved free cash flow, according to Brian Dewsnup, incoming NFI Group chief financial officer.

“We’ve also provided our 2025 targets, which include Adjusted EBITDA of greater than $350 million, and expect to reach a $400 million annualized run rate by the fourth quarter of 2025. The multiyear growth in our financial projections is driven by a combination of volume recovery, production efficiencies, improved product pricing, and an increased number of higher margin, zero-emission bus deliveries. We also anticipate that we will move beyond the majority of our legacy inflation impacted contracts after the first half of 2024,” Dewsnup said.