Roadtec reports sales grew 10 percent in 2016 and has set a goal for a 20 percent increase in 2017, citing expectations from the Fast Act signed in 2015 that provides for the Highway Trust Fund for six years.
The company did not provide specific sales figures.
“Jobs were created, optimism returned, new roads began the design cycle, and our customers started buying new equipment again,” says Roadtec President John J. Irvine III. “Roadtec experienced a 10% growth in sales for the year, right from the beginning of the year.”
The company reports it hired and trained more than 100 new factory employees and signed nine new equipment dealers to represent its products in 15 states.
“We feel the market in 2016 had a real wait and see attitude up until the election,” Irvine says. “With the current administration’s plans for a $1 trillion infrastructure program over 10 years, we are very optimistic about our industry.”
He adds that based on 2015 and previous years, the company was not expecting 2016 to be a “big year” for the company.
“Ending 2015, we were carrying too much inventory,” Irvine explains. “We liquidated most of our finished goods inventory by year’s end and, of course, a bill was passed in December. We had a small amount of component inventory coming in first quarter 2016. We rallied and turned it up, hiring people, training, pulling component purchases up in our schedule and finished with our best year ever.”
