morning and welcome to the Federal Signal Corporation New Way Trucks Investor Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Felix Boeschen, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning and welcome to Federal Signal's conference call to discuss the acquisition of New Way Trucks, which was announced yesterday after market close. I'm Felix Boeschen, the company's Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. Also with me on the call today is Jennifer L. Sherman, our President, Chief Executive Officer, and Ian Hudson, our Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, we will provide an overview of New Way and its competitive position, give some details on the economics of the transaction, and discuss the strategic rationale inclusive of our expected synergies. We will refer to some presentation slides today, as well as to the news release, which we issued yesterday afternoon. The slides can be followed online by going to our website, federalsignal.com, clicking on the Investor Call icon, and signing into the webcast.
We have also posted the slide presentation and the news release under the Investor tab on our website. Before I turn the call over to Jennifer, I'd like to remind you that today's call and the related slides may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor language found in yesterday's news release, the slide presentation, and in Federal Signal's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on our website. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer.
Thank you, Felix, and good morning from Scranton, Iowa. I'm delighted to announce that we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire New Way Trucks, a U.S.-based leader in the design and manufacture of refuse collection vehicles serving the solid waste industry. New Way has five manufacturing facilities. Today, I'm sitting in the headquarters here in Scranton, and they have additional facilities in Carroll, Iowa, and Booneville, Mississippi. New Way employs over 750 people, and I'm pleased to welcome every one of these employees to the Federal Signal family today. Before we get into the details of New Way and the transaction, I would like to provide a bit of context around the strategic rationale of the acquisition. As many of you know, we have been distributing third-party refuse trucks through our Joe Johnson Equipment network for almost a decade.
Throughout that timeframe, we've been able to intensely study the refuse collection vehicle industry and its players, and we believe we have identified the ideal anchor tenant in what is a new specialty vehicle vertical for us. As a family-owned business, New Way has established itself as a leading refuse truck manufacturer dedicated to its employees, customers, and the communities in which it operates. Given our track record of acquiring and growing privately owned companies, we believe Federal Signal is an excellent cultural fit to lead New Way into its next chapter. We also believe the unique value proposition of Federal Signal's specialty vehicle platform can help optimize New Way's operations, unlock incremental growth opportunities, and further strengthen New Way's aftermarket service in the years to come. A couple of important factors stood out to us when evaluating New Way's competitive position that ultimately drove our conviction in this transaction.
First, New Way's leading position in automated side loaders within the United States, one of the fastest growing subsectors in the refuse vehicle industry. Second, its U.S.-based manufacturing footprint, including a recently expanded facility in Mississippi. Third, its proven history of strong organic growth and resilience through economic cycles. Fourth, its leadership in offerings to the U.S. municipal and non-CDL customers. Fifth, the opportunities that exist for further improvement as we are able to execute on our synergy plans. Sixth, and critical, the fantastic team at New Way. We are excited that several key New Way management team members will continue in their roles with the company post-transaction.
We believe the amalgamation of our internal refuse leadership team at Federal Signal, which has more than 100 years of combined refuse industry experience, our direct Joe Johnson distribution channel, and the New Way team's expertise strategically positions the combined company for outside growth going forward. I will now turn the call over to Ian to discuss the key financial terms of the deal.
Thank you, Jennifer. In terms of the economics of the deal, Federal Signal will acquire New Way Trucks for an initial purchase price of $396 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis. In connection with the acquisition, the company will also acquire New Way Trucks' manufacturing facilities and associated real estate rights in Iowa and Mississippi for additional consideration of $30 million. Additionally, there is a contingent earnout opportunity of up to $54 million, which is based on the achievement of certain specified financial targets over a two-year period. When adjusted for the present value of anticipated tax benefits, which are currently estimated at approximately $60 million, the combined initial purchase price represents a multiple of approximately 11 times New Way Trucks' projected EBITDA for 2026 of between $30 million and $35 million.
This multiple includes the impact of various planned investments and integration and optimization initiatives, including deployment of Federal Signal's chassis and inventory management best practices. Including anticipated synergies, the initial purchase price represents a multiple of approximately seven times New Way Trucks' projected EBITDA for 2028. We expect the transaction to be neutral to earnings per share in 2026, reflecting the impact of higher interest costs and the anticipated purchase accounting effects, including a preliminary estimate of intangible asset amortization expense. We expect the transaction to be accretive to EPS in subsequent years, with anticipated accretion of between $0.40 per share and $0.45 per share in 2028. This outlook assumes debt paydown of approximately $100 million per year. We intend to finance the acquisition with a combination of cash on hand and availability under our existing credit facility.
We anticipate that our pro forma net debt leverage ratio upon completion of the acquisition will be less than 1.5 times, leaving sufficient financial flexibility for additional acquisitions and other capital allocation priorities, such as organic growth initiatives and cash returns to stockholders. Given the acquired facility footprint and consistent with our other specialty vehicle businesses, we expect annual capital expenditures at New Way Trucks will represent a low single-digit % of net sales in coming years, supporting strong cash generation. Lastly, we are expecting to close the transaction during the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. With that, I will now turn the call back to Jennifer to expand on the strategic rationale for the acquisition and to provide additional details around our expected synergies.
Thank you, Ian. As mentioned, we see the acquisition of New Way Trucks as a natural extension of our specialty vehicle portfolio that checks all of our target M&A criteria. In fact, one of the most attractive characteristics of the refuse vehicle collection segment is its recession-resilient nature. As many of you know, since launching our current growth strategy in 2016, one of our key strategic objectives has been to mute the cyclicality of Federal Signal's earnings streams. We believe the entrance into refuse collection vehicle manufacturing further fortifies this objective, given its stable funding mechanisms and essential service similar to the sewer cleaner industry. As mentioned earlier, New Way Trucks' leadership in automated side loaders is especially exciting.
Automated side loaders, or ASLs for short, represent approximately 37% of the North American refuse collection vehicle industry today, up from approximately 29% five years ago, based on the National Waste Recycling Association. In line with this shift toward ASLs, New Way Trucks has been able to expand its share by approximately 500 basis points over that same timeframe, given its leading U.S. position within ASLs. This growing preference for ASLs within the refuse collection industry is underpinned by compelling labor and safety advantages associated with the equipment. Specifically, ASLs require just a single operator compared to two to three operators for traditional rear loader refuse garbage trucks.
Not only does this automation reduce labor costs for haulers and municipalities, but it also substantially increases operator safety, as operators are able to remain inside the truck throughout the waste collection process, thereby eliminating ride-along crews where the bulk of injuries occur. Going forward, we see New Way Trucks well positioned to continue to capitalize on these secular automation tailwinds within waste collection. As Ian noted, we expect the acquisition to be neutral to adjusted EPS in 2026. This is partially due to several investment opportunities that we've identified, as well as working capital and inventory management optimization opportunities that we plan to complete next year. We also have a plan that will be driven by our voice of customer feedback to enhance New Way Trucks' technology offerings by leveraging our existing businesses, incremental R&D, and third-party partnerships.
These initial investments, which will include our 80/20 operational principles, increased new product development, and other operational initiatives, will allow us to more efficiently achieve our three-year synergy targets by 2028 and expand New Way's margins into our recently raised ESG margin range of 18% to 24% over time. By harnessing the power of our specialty vehicle platform, we are targeting annual run-rate synergies of between $15 million and $20 million. These synergies, coupled with core organic growth at New Way, combine to form our $55 million EBITDA target for 2028. Our identified synergies span three primary categories. Number one, operational, including procurement and the application of our Federal Signal operational model. Number two, enhancing customer service via expanded aftermarket service and dealer development. Number three, unlocking growth, including new product development and sales channel optimization.
Across all three categories, we expect synergies to gradually ramp over the next three years, with synergy targets expected to be substantially realized by the end of 2028. Starting with the operational synergies, we expect operational synergies to be roughly evenly balanced between procurement savings and the application of our operational model, including supply chain optimization. Importantly, we believe the application of the Federal Signal operational model, including an intense focus on our deeply entrenched 80/20 principles, will form the foundation of additional growth and margin expansion opportunities well beyond the next three years. Additionally, we see opportunities to optimize manufacturing efficiencies via a combination of labor productivity gains, safety improvements, and targeted automation opportunities.
A great example of how effective this process can be is our Ox Bodies dump body business based in Fayette, Alabama, where the same operating team in 2023 was able to drive a 90% reduction in standard dump body SKUs through its 80/20 initiatives. This initiative helped expand Ox's EBITDA margins by more than 800 basis points over a two-year timeframe, while Ox meaningfully expanded its market share. Shifting to best-in-class customer service, we expect to realize synergies primarily through the optimization of New Way's aftermarket business and dealer development opportunities aimed at driving targeted growth. In short, Federal Signal's North American aftermarket footprint of more than 35 locations will materially increase New Way's reach, driving more robust parts coverage, closer proximity to customers, and ultimately allowing New Way to penetrate historically underserved regions.
One of those examples is in Canada, where New Way has historically not been a major player. Utilizing our footprint of 10 Canadian service center locations and the experience of our Joe Johnson team in the refuse distribution space, we believe we can drive meaningful share growth for New Way, similar to the playbook we deployed after acquiring Tracklist in 2023. Within the aftermarket expansion opportunity, we are particularly excited about parts. As New Way's growing install base of trucks reaches more optimal part consumption ages over the next three years, we see us well positioned to use our combined aftermarket footprint to drive a higher capture rate for this expanded opportunity set. Additionally, we plan to further accelerate our existing Build More Parts initiative, whereby we have chosen to vertically integrate certain parts production in order to drive increased recurring revenue streams and higher aftermarket share.
While the initiative is only a few years old, we have seen consistently strong double-digit growth from this initiative, and the acquisition of New Way further expands our Build More Parts opportunity set. Owing to a combination of these strategic initiatives, we see opportunity to increase New Way's aftermarket sales mix into the mid to high teens range as a % of net sales by 2028. Lastly, we expect to realize additional revenue growth synergies by unlocking incremental opportunities through new product development, sales channel optimization, and market intelligence tools. Key new product development priorities include enhancing New Way's front loader product line, fortifying its leadership within non-CDL and ASL offerings, and accelerating other technology initiatives, all areas where we see meaningful growth potential and strong customer interest. Additionally, similar to other specialty vehicle acquisitions that we've completed in recent years, we also see sales channel alignment opportunities.
In particular, we will aim to scale direct sales into private haulers, an important customer group that has been historically underserved by New Way. We also see incremental cross-selling opportunities across our other specialty vehicle offerings, including street sweepers, vacuum trucks, municipal maintenance tractors, and certain specialty dump bodies and trailers. In closing, Federal Signal has a long track record of acquiring niche specialty vehicle leaders and delivering sustainable growth through a disciplined operating model. We have been steadfast in our commitment to growing profitability while diversifying both our revenue stream and end market exposures as we seek to mute the impact of market cyclicality. The acquisition of New Way Trucks is another highly strategic opportunity to add to our platform of specialty vehicle companies and for Federal Signal to further diversify into the recession-resilient waste and recycling industry.
We see New Way Trucks as the ideal anchor tenant for this new growth vertical within Federal Signal that will create both organic and inorganic growth opportunities going forward. We will now open the call for questions. Operator?
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Tim Fein with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, Tim.
Good morning. My CITI days are over, but anyways, the question, the first one, Jennifer, is I was hoping maybe you could expand a bit on the distribution strategy, just given the kind of the cross-pollination of brands that exist across yours as well as your competitive or your competitor dealers. You know I'm just thinking about the potential risk that you get some churn through the process as you go through this. Maybe you could speak to that. That's question one.
Sure. Yeah. Thank you. This is something that we've thought a lot about. What's exciting here is we have a lot of different options. We have our exclusive ESG distribution network, and we respect the fact that some of our ESG dealers represent competitive lines. We don't plan on disrupting that. There will be opportunities for some ESG dealers in underserved New Way territories if they're interested to bid on those territories. Given the exclusive nature of this dealer network and the go-to-market strategy, we feel that we plan on continuing that, and we can minimize conflict. Going forward, we plan on leveraging our Joe Johnson Equipment distribution network with a particular focus on Canada, which has been a historically underserved market for New Way.
We think we're in an ideal position in terms of we're going to have a lot of optionality by leveraging the strong partners that New Way has in place, bringing some new partners into the equation, either through our ESG network or otherwise, and then most critically, leveraging our Joe Johnson Equipment team with a specific focus in Canada.
Okay. All right. Thank you. On the parts penetration, I think 10, 11% of sales. The last area or last example I saw in this space about a year ago in another transaction in the space, I think that specific OEM was almost 20%. Not all these manufacturers are the same, but quite a big difference. I'm just curious, is there something structural that you can just think about, kind of the high wear and tear of a garbage truck? I would think inherently the parts penetration should be higher than 10, 11%. Was it a lack of focus or what gave rise to the, you know, it certainly seems like a big opportunity, but maybe there's something we're missing that precludes the parts capture for New Way. Thank you.
Yeah. I'll start with this is a synergy area that we've spent a lot of time and focused on. Frankly, it was one of the reasons, the many reasons that New Way was so attractive to us because we have the infrastructure in place to grow that parts business. A couple of things I would say. One is, you know, they've had so much growth over the last couple of years. As those trucks enter into the kind of sweet spot of two-plus years, there's just, by definition, going to be more parts opportunities for New Way. The New Way team would tell you that it wasn't an area of focus, and it will be a critical area of focus for us. I think what else is important is we referenced our Build More Parts initiative that we're in early days of.
This New Way acquisition and refuse in general creates a new opportunity set for the Build More Parts initiatives. I guess what I'll end on is, you know, we have a lot of confidence in our ability to grow this parts, and we don't see any structural reason that we can't hit those high teens 20 number.
Understood. Thank you, Jennifer.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ross Sparrenblick with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, Ross.
Hey, Jennifer. It's Sam Carlavant for Ross. Thanks for taking my questions.
Absolutely.
Can you help us size New Way's revenue growth in 2024, 2025, and then your expectations for 2026, and then touch on how New Way's current revenue growth profile compares to the double-digit growth the company's seen over the past decade or so?
Yeah. Sam, I think in our prepared remarks, we talked about the growth they've experienced over the last few years. That growth has been organic. In 2024, which is the last full year of operations, their revenue is about $250 million. That's for the annual period of 2024. As we move forward, I think obviously that's embedded within our guidance for 2024. You can essentially back into some of the numbers there. I think we are expecting to be a little down versus 2024 in 2026, as we have some inventory in the system that we'll work through. As we move forward and start to realize some of those synergies, I think we would be expecting a nice growth rate going forward.
Yeah. I guess I'll add another thing too. 2026 is going to be a year of investment. As Ian mentioned, there's some inventory optimization. We're really going to focus heavily on that 80/20. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we feel confident with these investments that we will be able to grow from $30 million to $35 million in 2026 to $55 million in 2028. A lot of that's going to be synergies we talked about. We've never worked on a transaction where we have a more detailed plan and the teams are raring to go in terms of what do we need to do in 2026 and the growth opportunities going forward. Longer term, we would expect this to be kind of very similar to our other ESG assets, mid-single-digit organic growth.
What's unique here is the synergy opportunities over the next three years and the size of those synergy opportunities. Frankly, I'll say the confidence we have regarding what we can bring to the table. New Way Trucks has got a great foundation. Through leveraging our aftermarket groups, through our 80/20 initiatives, procurement, we think there's a tremendous opportunity here going forward. Parts will be an important part of that, as I discussed earlier.
Got it. That's super helpful. Kind of touching on the investments you just talked about, can you help us size those investments in 2026 just so we can get a sense of what the headwind looks like next year?
Yeah. I think it's, you know, we're still working through the numbers, but it'll be at least a couple million dollars. I want to remind everybody, you know, there will be, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, a laser focus on 80/20. We also are looking at some, you know, inventory optimization and other tools that we have in the toolbox going forward.
Got it. One quick follow-up. Can you help us size New Way's backlog just so we have a sense of how much inorganic order growth we can expect in the fourth quarter?
Yeah. I think, Sam, that's probably something we will, when we close, we'll have more clarity on the size of the backlog. Obviously, you know, we have a period of time between signing and closing where, you know, we're going to be waiting for regulatory approval and some of those things. I think we'll come back to you with an updated number on the backlog there.
Okay. Fair enough. I'll leave it there. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Sam.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Walter Liptak with Seaport Research. Please proceed with your question. Good morning.
Thank you for joining, guys.
Good morning. I guess my first question is about 80/20. It's great that you've got those tools to go get profit improvement within this acquisition. When you're calling out the goal of the $55 million EBITDA, is there some revenue growth, some organic revenue growth in that number, or is that all based on 80/20, you know, aftermarket, other synergies?
Yeah. There's absolutely organic revenue growth. I'll start there. The synergies of $15 to $20 million are incremental and embedded in that $55 million, and they're kind of split equally between cost and revenue. I just wanted to highlight, you know, the success our teams have had with 80/20. It wasn't a coincidence. We highlighted the Ox team, that same team members who have 100-plus years' experience in refuse will be working on this particular transaction. We've identified that particular team. What's really important, as you know, is that the 80/20 really sets us up for growth beyond 2028. You know, we're in this for the long run.
One of the reasons we were so attracted to New Way Trucks is they have a great foundation, and we feel like we were the ideal partner with respect to our specialty vehicle platform and the synergies and experience that we can bring to the table to grow revenue. Frankly, there'll be a laser focus on growing their EBITDA margin targets.
Okay. Great. Yeah. That's excellent. The Oxbody team, there's no doubt, the data that you pointed out, 90% reduction in SKUs and the profit improvement is really impressive. Is it a similar sort of a product offering to Oxbody where you could go through and over time do the similar sorts of programs to reduce SKUs and improve the profitability?
Each business is different. The team has, through our diligence process, identified some opportunities through 80/20, and we've embedded those opportunities in our $15 to $20 million of synergies. We're really fortunate to have those team members who are energized about the opportunities of working with the New Way team.
Okay. Great. Okay. Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, thanks. Good morning.
Good morning, Steve. I'm in Scranton, Iowa.
I just want to talk about market dynamics first. My understanding is there are two big competitors that have sizable market share, and then maybe a more fragmented but still relatively small pool of OEMs. Is that correct? How do you think about the TAM?
Yeah. We would say that there are four major players. Each player has expertise. We've really focused on New Way Trucks because of its leading market position for non-CDL and for the ASL product and what we can bring to the equation. We're also, frankly, very attracted because of its high percentage of municipal sales. It goes back to the fundamental premise of your question of how do you define the market. For us, it's really focused on this, obviously, growth of all products, but with a focus on the ASLs, the non-CDL. We understand, and we pointed out in our materials, that on the front loader, for example, there's work to be done, and we think there's great opportunity there. That's really our view of the market and the opportunities. As we talked about on the call, New Way Trucks does very little in Canada right now.
With our distribution footprint in Canada and the expertise we have, we think that is a tremendous opportunity.
If you think about Canada and what the opportunity is in America, have you sized it in terms of what you consider the addressable market?
Yeah, Steve. I think when you think about it, it's probably a good way to think about the split on U.S. versus Canada on a population basis. Certainly, when you think about Canada, it's a very large untapped opportunity for New Way. Given their leadership in automated side loaders, we think we're the right player to penetrate that Canadian market.
Okay. You kind of alluded to this, Jennifer. How have companies differentiated in this market? Is it by technology? Is it by relationship? Is pricing historically rational?
Yeah. This company is just New Way has distinguished itself by its leading market position in the U.S. in automated side loaders, non-CDLs, and its relationship with customers. It is a very strong relationship-based company. It has good dealers, as I talked about earlier in some of my prepared remarks. We believe that pricing has been pretty rational as you know, it is in a recession-resilient end market.
Got it. Just one quick follow-up. If I look at the website, I see a lot of different models across the product categories. Without naming models, can you give us an idea of average selling price from the high end to the low end? Given your 80/20 operational principles, do you want to participate in all those categories going forward?
The average selling price would range somewhere between $85,000 and $175,000. Part of our 80/20 initiative will be, and that's excluding the chassis, obviously. Part of our 80/20 initiative will be focused on that very question.
Automated side loaders would be on the high end of that average selling price.
Yeah, understood. Congratulations. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Moore with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question. Good morning.
Good morning, guys. Good morning. Congrats. That's very interesting.
Thank you.
I'm always interested in the processes in terms of, you know, why New Way was selling at this point in time, and is this a relationship that you've been tracking for a while, or just, you know, any thoughts there?
Yeah. This is a family business owned by siblings. We've gotten to know them, and there was just a strong cultural fit between how they've grown this business, how they treat employees, their investment in the communities where they live and operate. That was very important to the family. We had dinner with them last night at one of many dinners with the whole management team. The energy and the similarities that we see with the culture here at New Way and the culture at our Federal Signal businesses, that was an important part of the fit, particularly for the family. As they said last night in their toast, they're trusting us. We couldn't be more thrilled to build on the legacy that the McLaughlin family has created.
Very helpful. Thank you. Is there any rental revenue currently at New Way, and is that an opportunity moving forward?
There is no rental revenue in terms of what we're buying. We will be evaluating all opportunities as we move forward.
Got it. Maybe just the last one is maybe more of an FSS question, but you talked about the current use of AI in the bid process and being able to leverage that at New Way. Can you maybe just expand a little bit on, you know, kind of the use of AI currently?
Yeah. We've got a number of projects that we are piloting right now. We're in early stages. That is, as we've talked about, part of harnessing the power of our specialty vehicle platform. We will plan on applying those same tools over time to New Way.
Sounds good. I'll leave it there. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Schilske with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning.
Morning, Mike.
Guys, may I just follow up on that last question? We've started to see fully autonomous waste trucks from some of the other players in the industry, as well as new technologies. Not necessarily fully autonomous, but they at least sense the bins as they go along. That's more than just an automated waste truck. That's a different system. We're also starting to see other companies introduce EV waste trucks. I was kind of wondering where does New Way Trucks stand in the area of making its trucks autonomous or adding more autonomy to them and going electric where some cities are going to start to require that in the future?
Yeah. So New Way has been building EV trucks since 2018. Their strategy is in line with Federal Signal's strategy. They're agnostic with respect to chassis. They build on a variety of EV chassis. They've sold 50-plus EV trucks since 2020. We believe that we can leverage, as we've talked about, kind of Federal Signal's team that's focused on this to continue to grow that going forward.
Thank you. On the question of adding more autonomy to the vehicles?
Yeah. With respect to one of the things that we have planned, it is a voice of customer project to really understand and enhance New Way's technology offerings. One of the very first things we're going to do. Through a combination of leveraging our own existing businesses, incremental R&D, which we've built into our model, and third-party partnerships, that could be an important opportunity for New Way. Again, we're going to start with that voice of customer research.
Great. I also wanted to ask about the process to start to integrate the company. Because there's an earnout, kind of like I did with Hog, do you plan to give the company a time within its FSS as a standalone company first so that management can earn the earnout, or do you plan to, on the first day post-closing, dive right in with the integration process? I'm just curious as to how this might differ from the Hog deal.
Yeah. This is very different from the Hog deal in that we have a plan. We've got a team. We have process leaders already identified. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have a group within our TBI business that has 100+ years of refuse experience that will be working with the New Way team. This will be a major focus of our CTO, aligning with the questions you asked at the beginning. What's critical is we will be aligning, as we've done in other deals, the Federal Signal employees who are working in this transaction with the same metrics that's in the earnout. That's what we've done in several transactions, and we found it to be very powerful. We've got a big team here today in Iowa. We've got a big team in Mississippi right now.
We are very prepared when we close this transaction to start to create the foundation for future growth going forward and capture those synergies. Both the New Way shareholders and our Federal Signal team members, again, the incentives will be aligned, and they will be highly motivated to achieve those results.
Okay. Thanks, and congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Greg Burns with Sedgwick Company. Please proceed with your question. Morning.
Good morning.
I just wanted to maybe kind of understand, better understand the organic growth opportunity a little bit as you're looking to enter Canada and maybe further penetrate the U.S. I was just wondering if municipalities or customers, do they operate like mixed fleets or do they standardize across a brand? Like how easy is it to, you know, penetrate different customer bases? If you could give us a sense of what New Way Trucks' installed base looks like and, you know, what are replacement cycles like in this market?
Yeah. To answer your question, you know, typically, customers operate mixed fleets. You know, our focus on the growth areas are really going to be around continued growth of the automated side loader of the non-CDL. Also, you know, we have R&D projects focused around the front loader in addition to that. There are some important product variations. As we move forward with respect to the install base, Felix will walk you through that.
Yeah. I think the answer is sort of the install base replacement cycle question. You know, think about replacement cycles as being, you know, certainly less than 12 years, and ASLs are sub-10 years, which was one of the attractive factors to us about New Way. You know, we talked about the install base a little bit earlier. New Way's been a material market share gainer in the space. When you think about all of those units that have been out in operation, they're probably not yet in what we would consider the optimal parts consumption age. Obviously, you know, as those trucks are out in operation and aging, you know, we think there's an attractive aftermarket opportunity for us to capture.
Okay, great. All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from the line of Tim Fein with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.
Great. Thank you. There's been lots of Canada reference here this morning and the opportunity there. You know, the relationship leveraging the Joe Johnson foothold there. If memory serves, they distribute a competitive line of trucks. I guess in some ways, this goes back to my initial question. I apologize, maybe not the ideal forum for this kind of question, but you know, what happens in that kind of situation?
Yeah. The answer is complicated because you're correct. In some areas, they do distribute competitive trucks, and there'll be some period of transition. There are some large areas where they don't distribute refuse trucks at all. They've been very anxious, and we have infrastructure there because we distribute other Federal Signal products. Calgary and Edmonton would be good examples, and we have, you know, high market share. There's also white space for our Canadian team. It's our intention to kind of fulfill our existing backlog and service those trucks and enhance the service footprint in Canada and in other areas where we may go direct.
Okay. All right. That helps. Maybe someone else had asked about the competitive dynamics and pricing discipline. I'm just thinking back, I guess, I think before your, certainly before your start as CEO of the company, Federal Signal had been involved in this space, you know, and it didn't go well. I know there were currency swings and other things that impacted that. Consolidation, I'm guessing, is going to be one answer. Are there other factors that you would point to that, you know, have made this industry, and you see it in the margins and returns of others, that you'd point to that make this a more attractive industry today versus 20 years ago? I'm sure it's true about a lot of industries. Is there anything else you would point to other than there's just been a lot of consolidation that's occurred?
Yeah. I was in a very junior role at Federal Signal. I didn't have a lot of visibility in terms of its previous ownership of refuse trucks. Obviously, I'm familiar with it. This is a very different business, very different end market dynamics given the consolidation that has occurred. We've studied the industry back to 2000, and we're encouraged by the recession-resilient nature of that industry. We think that New Way has the kind of leading market positions, and we can bring a lot to the equation. It was, frankly, one of the things that was pretty attractive about this acquisition opportunity were the synergies and how we can build and harness that power of the Federal Signal platform. We studied hard. We have an execution plan in place to go after the synergies, and we're really excited.
Yeah, good stuff. Thank you, Jennifer.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session, and we'll conclude our call today. Thank you for your interest and participation. You may now disconnect your line.