John Sapp

The NFI Group, owner of the New Flyer plant on Fluvanna Avenue, Jamestown, has a new incoming president and lofty goals for 2026.

The company recently released its 2025 fourth quarter and full-year financial results. The company recorded fourth quarter sales of $1,025 billion, an increase of 22.5% year-over-year, and a gross margin of $174.4 million, an increase of 89.0% year-over-year. Fourth quarter net earnings were $166.0 million, an increase of $147.5 million year-over-year. While year-end revenues increased from $3.122 billion to $3.614 billion, net earnings decreased from a net negative $30,000 to a net negative $1.19 million in part due to a battery recall settlement agreement with XALT Energy LLC and its subsidiaries regarding costs related to the recall on Generation 3 batteries and estimated future costs. The settlement impacted both NFI’s income statement and its balance sheet, with NFI recording other income of $166 million representing the total settlement amount. In aggregate, NFI has recorded a 72% recovery against the original $229 million liability provision recorded in the third quarter of 2025.

“The majority of this provision relates to the expected cost of the recall campaign while a smaller portion is for potential additional warranty and support costs for other nonrecall related battery electric buses in service from the same battery manufacturer,” said Brian Dewsnup, NFI CFO. “NFI worked throughout the fourth quarter with the impacted supplier and came to the final settlement agreement in December that included the following items: immediate cash payment received in December an inventory of battery cells from a leading global provider which NFI plans to use with a new battery manufacturer starting late 2027.”

The company is forecasting revenue ranging from $3.9 to $4.2 billion in 2026, with those targets reflecting all known U.S. and Canadian tariffs. On November 1, 2025, a new 10% tariff on all imports of buses and coaches into the United States from any jurisdiction went into effect. In February 2026, changes were made to existing International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs, and a new global 10% tariff rate was put into place. NFI has continued to actively engage with its customers to discuss the pricing impacts of all known tariffs on buses and coaches and has been negotiating and charging surcharges to reflect the costs of those tariffs.

“As of now we see tariffs having more of an overall impact on private coach market demand as opposed to the public market,” said John Sapp, new NFI Group CEO. “This is largely due to the established manufacturing facilities within the U.S. for public market demand. We continue to view tariffs as largely a pass-through cost to customers through contractual obligations and through general price increases. This does require discussions with customers, and we may not be able to cover all costs, but we’ve generally had success in being able to find solutions. Longer term, we will continue to assess our geographic production schedules while considering tariff exposure.”

Plants in the U.S., including the Jamestown plant, help to blunt the impact of tariffs on the company’s bottom line.

In addition to tariffs, Sapp was asked by an investor analyst if the ongoing United States war with Iran is having any impact on NFI Group’s supply chain. Sapp said so far it has not, but the company is monitoring the situation.

“We have a couple of suppliers that we watch, but very minimal in terms of the amount of material that we see come and through that region,” Sapp said. “We are watching it closely. We are ensuring that, one, obviously our first and foremost is concerned for anyone that may be affected. But second is ensuring that we’re necessary if we need to have alternative plans that we very quickly work through. The good news for us is we’ve got a very broad supply chain. We can draw on our supply base from all over the globe. And we have certainly many redundancies that exist out there for us – or suppliers, right, that can create that resiliency and redundancy where we need it. So overall, we generally, from a supply standpoint, feel good about where we’re at to be able to navigate the current geopolitical environment there in the Middle East.”