Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to L. B. Foster's Third Quarter of 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode.
After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to the Investor Relations Manager, Stephanie Liszweck. Please go
ahead. Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to L. B. Foster's Q3 of 2022 earnings call.
My name is Stephanie Listwock, the company's Investor Relations Manager. Our President and CEO, John Castle and our Chief Financial Officer, Bill Coleman, will be presenting our Q3 operating results, market outlook and business developments this morning. We'll start the call with John providing his perspective on the company's 2 recent acquisitions and 1 divestiture and also the Q3 performance, including market development. Bill will then review the company's Q3 financial results. John will provide perspective on 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 were posted on our website this morning and can be accessed on our Investor Relations page at lpfoster.com. Our comments this morning will follow the slides in the earnings presentation. Some statements we are making are forward looking and represent our current view of our markets and business today, including comments related to COVID-nineteen. These forward looking statements reflect our 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. 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. For the purpose of helping you understand the underlying performance of the company, we will be referring to adjusted EBITDA, net debt and adjusted net leverage ratio during the presentation today. The company also had a limited number of unusual adjustments during the quarter, for which certain metrics have been adjusted in today's presentation for purposes of more accurately communicating the company's operating performance. These non GAAP metrics are reflected in the reconciliation tables included in the appendix to the earnings presentation.
Additionally, in September of 2021, we announced the asset sale of our Piling Products division. And on August 1, 2022, we completed the sale of our track components business. Due to the nature of these sales, we have presented these businesses within continuing operations in our financial So with that, let me turn the call over to John.
Thanks, Stephanie, and hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us today for our Q3 earnings call. Before I turn it over to Bill for a financial review, I'd like to begin by covering the more significant takeaways from the quarter and recent activities, starting with our strategic Portfolio transformation accomplishments. As previously reported, we continued our portfolio transformation with acquisitions of the Van Huskel Company business August 12 and the acquisition of Teleservideo on July 6. Additionally, we completed the sale of Track Components business on August 1. These transactions were well aligned with our strategic roadmap, and I'll cover these moves in a bit more detail in a moment.
In our legacy business, we faced significant inflationary headwinds across most of the businesses that adversely impacted our margins in the first half of the year, particularly in the precast business. In the Q3 results, we're beginning to see benefits of our mitigation efforts with adjusted margins up year over year in all segments. We're particularly pleased with what we've seen in improved margins in legacy precast business, which were up 4 10 basis points over last year. I should also highlight that we recorded a $4,000,000 adjustment to sales in the quarter for the settlement of certain long term contracts related to the Crossrail project in the United Kingdom. The adjustment reduced both sales and gross margin in the quarter.
Ultimately, this came down to a business decision. But I'd like to add our performance on the Crossrail project has delivered significant value since 2015, and the settlement should allow us benefit from increasing project We are seeing the U. K. Starting with HS2, a 10 year project connecting the cities of London and Birmingham by high speed transit system. Our adjusted EBITDA increased 111 percent from $4,400,000 to $9,300,000 on a 3% adjusted sales growth year over year.
This is reflective of the portfolio moves we completed along with the improved performance in the legacy business. At quarter end, our backlog stood at Approximately $273,000,000 a 5 year high and up 17.7% year over year. Order intake levels for the quarter were slightly Do not include any significant business from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in Congress just over 1 year ago today. As a note, Bill and I will cover our outlook for orders and demand at the end of our prepared remarks. As a reminder, Slide 6 reflects our strategic playbook for our streams with 5 of the initiatives highlighted representing our recent accomplishments.
We have made significant progress on our strategic transformation that was outlined in December 2021. Over the past year, we have completed 5 transactions comprising of 3 acquisitions and 2 divestitures, positioning us for profitable growth in the future. We previously communicated Our goal transforms certain elements of portfolio from slower growth commodity like offerings to higher growth technology focused solutions. The transactions on Slide 7 represent our progress towards this transformation. On June 21, we completed the acquisition of Scratch, where purchase price is $7,400,000 with annual revenues just under $8,000,000 Scratch is a U.
K. Industry leader in digital system integration, serving mainly retail markets with expertise in advanced digital display technologies and capabilities. We also completed the acquisition of Teligent Video or IV. This purchase was completed at a total purchase price of approximately $1,000,000 Ivy is a U. K.
Developer of high quality surveillance security and safety solutions that align with our growth initiatives focused on remote condition monitoring and visual communication. Both Scratch and IV highlight our strategic core growth To transform L. E. Foster into technology focused, high growth infrastructure solutions company, thus enabling us access to a wider target United Kingdom and Western Europe. On the divestiture side, we completed the sale of our traffic business in Canada for 7,800,000 This sale provides funding for investment in our growth platforms.
Finally, on August 12, we completed the acquisition of Anhusko, which is aligned with our strategic playbook initiative to double down on Precast Concrete. Van Huzco had over $28,000,000 of sales in 2021 and meaningful profitability, which made the acquisition price of approximately $52,000,000 very attractive. We are already seeing the value of potential of the Van Goosko Company coming together with our legacy precast business and encouraged by the outlook of the combined business. In summary, these transactions and our legacy results demonstrate that we are transforming And I'll come back at the end with some closing remarks on our overall market and business outlook. Over to you, Bill.
Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin my comments by covering the Q3 highlights on Slide number 9. Note that the schedules in the appendix provide more detailed information on financial results, including the non GAAP measures Stephanie referenced. As a reminder, we divested the piling Since September of last year and Track Components in August of this year. These transactions are not being treated as discontinued operations.
Accordingly, the amounts presented today include the Piling business within the Steel Products and Measurement segment and the Track Components business within the Rail Technologies and Services segment unless otherwise noted as adjusted for compatibility purposes. 3rd quarter sales were $130,000,000 Essentially flat with last year. As previously mentioned, net sales for the quarter included a $4,000,000 adverse impact associated with the Crossrail settlement. This impact reduced both net sales and gross profit in the quarter. Gross profit increased by $800,000 or 70 basis points from the prior year quarter.
The Crossrail settlement reduced gross profit margin by 2 40 basis points in the current quarter. In addition, a purchase accounting adjustment related to Van Husco acquired inventory adversely impacted reported gross margins by 70 basis points. Excluding these items, 3rd quarter gross margin was 20.8%, up 3 70 basis points over last year's 3rd quarter. SG and A expense was up $2,600,000 due in part to $1,400,000 in costs associated with the company's acquisition and divestiture activities and contingent consideration for the Van Husco acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA in Q3 increased $4,900,000 to $9,300,000 a 111% increase year over year.
I'll cover the drivers of this improved result on the next slide. Operating cash flow was a usage of $5,500,000 in Q3 due primarily to higher working capital levels needed to deliver the robust organic sales and quarter end backlog, which increased 9.1% from the 2nd quarter. We expect to generate strong operating cash flow in Q4 as working capital requirements ease through the balance of the year. 3rd quarter orders totaled $137,300,000 down 1.1% from the prior year. Orders improved 5% organically and 5.6% from acquisitions, but were offset by an 11.7% decline due to divestitures.
3rd quarter backlog increased $41,100,000 year over year due to a 12.7 percent organic increase and 6.7% increase from acquisitions, partially offset by a 1.6% decline as a result of divestitures. Slide 10 provides an overview of the drivers of our year over year performance in the Q3. The bridge on the left shows the overall change in sales, which reflects the strong organic growth of $15,300,000 or 11.8% during the quarter. The impact driven by portfolio activity added $7,200,000 from acquisitions, but was more than offset by an $18,600,000 reduction in sales related to businesses that were divested. The adjusted EBITDA chart reflects the impact of the legacy business growth and margin expansion and net portfolio activity impact on adjusted EBITDA results.
Adjusted EBITDA for the current year 3rd quarter removes the impact of the Crossrail settlement, acquisition and divestiture related costs, The purchase accounting adjustment and contingent consideration expense related to Van Husco and the loss on the Trac Components divestiture. Note that adjusted EBITDA for the prior year Q3 removes the $2,700,000 gain on the divestiture of the piling business. Adjusted EBITDA increased $4,900,000 to $9,300,000 year over year. The drivers of the improved performance include organic growth and margin expansion in our legacy business and the accretive effect of our portfolio moves. I'd emphasize that adjusted EBITDA from our portfolio reshaping efforts improved $1,500,000 on $11,400,000 less sales, highlighting the strong leverage delivered by this initiative.
Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of adjusted sales expanded from 3.4% last year to 6.9% in the current quarter. Margin expansion in our legacy business was driven primarily by our precast business, but all segments contributed to the improved results. We previously communicated our goal to transform our portfolio from slower growth, commodity like offerings to higher growth, more profitable technology focused solutions. We are seeing early indications we are on the right path in our reported results and look forward to continuing our value creation journey. Over the next three slides, I'll cover the performance of each of our segments starting with our Rail segment on Slide 10.
3rd quarter Rail segment revenue increased $3,400,000 year over year driven by 11.8 percent organic growth, partially offset by a 1.9% reduction associated with acquisition and divestiture activity and a 5.3% reduction associated with the Crossrail settlement. Gross margins were also impacted $4,000,000 due to Crossrail and excluding this settlement, rail gross profit margins expanded 250 basis points. New orders declined from the prior year due to the sale of the track components business and timing of orders primarily related to rail distribution. Over the trailing 12 months, sales and orders have been approximately $300,000,000 resulting in no change in the backlog. As reflected on Slide 12, Precast Concrete Products segment revenue increased $10,900,000 or 60.6% year over year.
Organic sales increased 25.2% and the Van Husco acquisition contributed 35.4% year over year. Gross margins increased 450 basis points year over year driven by the legacy business and the impact of the Van Husco acquisition. Margin expansion on our legacy business, which was up 4 10 basis points year over year, reflects the expected fulfillment of backlog generated ahead of pricing actions as well as increased volume year over year. The expansion in the overall segment margins includes $900,000 in inventory adjustments related to the Van Huska acquired inventory, which negatively impacted segment margins by 290 basis points. Orders and backlog levels remain robust in our precast segment and we expect this favorable trend to continue with the Van Husco acquisition and the announced government funding programs.
The Steel Products and Measurement segment revenues decreased $14,300,000 or 37.6 percent year over year. The organic sales increase was 5.2%, offset by a $16,300,000 decline or 42.8 percent from the sale of the piling business. Gross profit margins improved 230 basis points due to the sale of the dilutive piling business as well as increased pricing and favorable business mix. Sequentially, Q3 margins were up 70 basis points, reflecting our efforts to mitigate commodity inflationary headwinds coupled with favorable business sales mix. Order rates in Q3 increased 58.8%, while backlog increased 47.7% With both increases due primarily to a large order for coated pipe in our Birmingham, Alabama facility in Our year over year results are reflected on Slide 14.
Year to date sales decreased $40,300,000 or 10.1 percent. The impact organic sales increase and 1.8% due to acquisitions. Steel Products and Measurement segment net sales declined $51,000,000 or 42.1 percent Due to the due to the piling divestiture, the Rail segment declined $6,100,000 or 2.7 percent driven by the Trac Components divestiture accounting for $2,400,000 of the decline as well as the Crossrail settlement. These decreases were partially offset by increased sales in our Global Friction Management business. The Precast segment realized a $16,800,000 increase or 33 percent driven by 6 point $4,000,000 from the Van Husco acquisition and strong sales in the Southern U.
S. Region. Gross profit in the current year to date period was $62,800,000 a $4,400,000 decrease or 6 point The decrease in gross profit was driven primarily by the impact of the piling divestiture and the Crossrail settlement, partially offset by sales strength in precast. Precast gross profit increased by $2,300,000 including gross profit of $1,300,000 from the Van Huzco acquisition, which included the $900,000 inventory purchase Accounting expense. Rail gross profit declined $1,800,000 due to the Crossrail settlement and Steel Products and Measurement gross profit declined by $4,900,000 driven primarily by the sale of the piling business.
Selling and administrative expenses for the year to date period increased $1,500,000 or 2.5 percent, including $2,000,000 associated with the company's current year transformation activities. Adjusted EBITDA year to date, which is adjusted for the impact of the Crossrail settlement, Acquisition and divestiture related items and non routine insurance proceeds was $16,700,000 a 7.8% increase compared to the prior year period. Our liquidity metrics are reflected on Slide 15. As expected, our net debt increased during the Q3 to $94,000,000 with the closing of the $52,000,000 Van Husco acquisition. On August 12, 2022, We amended our credit facility to obtain approval for the Van Husco acquisition and temporarily modify certain financial Covenants to accommodate the transaction.
The amendment modified the maximum gross leverage ratio covenant through June 30, 2023. The maximum ratio through December of 2022 is 4 times. As of September 30, our gross leverage ratio was 3.3 times. With expected cash generation from operating activities, we expect our gross leverage ratio will improve in the 4th quarter and moving into 2023. Also in the Q3, we generated approximately $7,800,000 in cash from Track components divestiture and we finally received a $5,600,000 federal income tax refund.
Both items were accretive to our leverage ratio at the end of the quarter and we are now pursuing an additional $2,800,000 federal As we've indicated in the past, we will strive to maintain a balanced level of indebtedness relative to our overall profitability, cash generation and capital structure with a long term target of around 2x net leverage. My closing comments will refer to the slides 1617 covering orders, Revenue and backlog by segment. The book to bill ratios on Slide 16 reflect the increasing strength we've seen in our business Through the Q3. Rail Technologies and Services orders were softer in Q3, but this is just timing of orders. Over the trailing 12 month period, sales and orders are approximately $300,000,000 We continue to see strong order intake in our Precast Concrete business with Q3 orders totaling $31,000,000 up approximately 31% versus last year, driven by the Van Husco acquisition, which added $7,100,000 in orders since we took ownership.
Steel products and measurement orders increased significantly due to the coatings order previously mentioned. And lastly, our consolidated backlog on Slide 17 reflects robust growth across the portfolio, particularly in the Precast Concrete and Steel Products and Measurement segments. Our quarter end backlog is at a 5 year high and is up 17.7% versus this time last year. Backlog was impacted by a 12.7% organic increase and a 6.7% increase associated with acquisitions, partially offset by a 1.6% decline due to divestitures. The robust order intake and backlog levels demonstrate the ongoing strength in the business and commercial markets we serve.
While recessionary market conditions remain a broader match grow risk, we remain optimistic and the long term prospects for the growth in our served markets. Thank you for your time, and I'll now hand it back over to John for his closing remarks. John?
Thanks, Bill. Please turn to Slide 19, where I'll provide some closing remarks on the overall market and business outlook. The portfolio moves we covered during today's call demonstrate our commitment to executing the strategy and investing in our growth platforms. We are currently focused on assuring a seamless integration for the acquired businesses while evaluating the growth opportunities that our combined businesses present. Well, more to say on those opportunities in the coming quarters.
As Bill indicated, our backlog is at a 5 year high and this does not include any significant business related to Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We do, however, have line of sight to significant infrastructure projects across the portfolio that are well aligned to our growth strategy We believe these programs will provide some degree of demand support should market conditions deteriorate. As Bill mentioned, our Steel Products and Measurement business has seen an uptick in order activity in the 3rd quarter. This has resulted in a 63% increase in backlog during that period of time. And while overall operating conditions are We are confident in our ability to navigate these headwinds and demonstrate as we demonstrated in our Q3 results.
In summary, we remain cautiously optimistic that recessionary headwinds may be tempered by the government infrastructure spending programs announced over the last couple of years. As a result, we expect the prospects for a stable to improving demand for our products and services in the future to remain promising. In the meantime, we have been laser focused on executing our strategy, which was rolled out during Investor Day in December of 2021. As demonstrated in our actions and our results, we're transforming L. B.
Foster into technology focused high growth infrastructure solutions provider. Guided by our strategy, we remain committed to delivering our aspirational goals of approximately $600,000,000 in revenue $50,000,000 EBITDA by 2025. While this quarter results are encouraging, these are the early days in our journey to restore and improve shareholder returns. As we actively integrate our recent acquisitions, we plan to further leverage our growth platforms in Rail Technologies Precast Concrete And at the same time, continue to optimize the performance in the returns portfolio. In closing, I'm very proud of what our team has accomplished In such a short period of time, their energy and commitment makes all the difference.
I look forward to continuing the journey with them and reporting our progress in quarters to come. I'll now turn it back to you, operator, for the Q and A session.
Thank you. Our first question comes from Alex Rygiel with B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Thank you, gentlemen. Couple of quick questions here.
Backlog looks fantastic. Can you talk
a little bit about the implied, profit margin In backlog today, obviously that is suggesting sort of what margins could look like sort of as we Proceed into 2023.
Sure. Yes. Thanks, Helix, for joining us today. We really appreciate it. And backlog is strong With the 5 year record as far as activity, we really feel strong, very good about it.
And of course, improving profitability is coming With that backlog, Bill, you want to give a little more similar colors to that?
Yes. Good morning, Alex. Yes. I guess the thing we would highlight is that early in the year we were emphasizing that the precast backlog had A bit of depressed margins in it relative to business that was booked ahead of our price increases that we were able to realize Within that segment and we started to see that abate as we got into Q3 and you can see that we had a Really strong performance in margins in our precast business both year over year and sequentially. I would add that on top of that Van Huzco, which we had for about half the quarter in 2022, Also had very strong margins and were accretive to even the precast margins including the 8 $51,000 adjustment that we had in the purchase accounting adjustment related to the acquired inventory.
So and I guess as we looked at our mitigation actions that we've taken over the year, it took time for it to ultimately manifest itself And our margins and this quarter was the 1st quarter that we really saw that come through, obviously adjusting for the Crossrail settlement that was a bit of a depression to the margins in the quarter, but we view that more as a non routine item that should be behind us at this point. So overall, I would say that our expectation on margins is that Q3 was solid and that we should continue to see improvement from there.
Yes. I would just reiterate what you said there. We had to work through that GSA contracts on the precast That's a good part of our backlog, Alex, was related to that. And we just didn't have the ability to pull a lever on that because those revenues We're constrained. So we were able to work through that first half of the year, a good part of that backlog.
So we're in pretty good shape here heading into Q4 and beyond. And then as
we think about the recent press releases regarding the carbon pipeline, You want us to think about how to quantify that from a revenue basis and what the timeline of revenue recognition could look like on that?
Sure. You heard me stutter there a little bit because of that big uptick we had in backlog. We've been waiting for this and excited about it. And we'd like to Thank our friends, John Nolan and Company at CIPCO and our team back in Birmingham that worked hard to make this happen With the leadership of Brian Friedman and our group, fantastic progress. So this is going to be a very, very long project, 2,000 miles of pipe in total.
It's one of the largest orders we have ever booked. Our contribution will be about 500 miles with 24 pipe will quote the outside diameter of it and we plan to start that production in the beginning of Q2 of 2023. The actual size of it will be around $20,000,000 in sales. So we haven't seen something like this in some period of time.
Fantastic. Congratulations.
Thank you. Thanks, Alex.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. It comes from the line of John Bair with Ascent Wealth Advisors. Please go ahead.
Good morning, John and Bill.
Hi, John. Hi, John.
How are you all doing? Good quarter.
Very well. Yourself?
Not too bad. Got a couple of questions here. In the past, you'd mentioned that you'd had some bottlenecks with delivery of precast products That the end user didn't you had to keep them on your own site basically. Have you seen any easing of that situation?
Yes. So, John, thanks again for joining us today and your questions. It's getting better. The disruption we're having with COVID, getting the permits As well as the sites ready has improved and the weather is also helping us in the Q3 as well. So The situation is much better than we've seen just in the last 120 days.
Okay. That's good. Another question, turning to the recent Summit Carbon Solutions Award, that's a fairly controversial project. From what I I've read they have about 50% of the right of ways secured or signed up by landowners, but there's quite a bit of Controversy around that. So the question is, at what point Will American Cast Iron begin to manufacture pipe?
Do they have to wait until this Is completely locked up or is it your understanding that Portions of that pipeline will in fact get built where they have the right of ways and
I think it's all or none, honestly, because of what the scope of the project is and 37 different facilities that they're Tying together and then moving that over 2,000 miles of distributed pipe. I hear you, but having said that, there have been major Progress is privately funded. CITCO is ramping up right now, getting their 2nd mill online and we're doing the same. So We're very bullish and optimistic that it's going to go forth as outlined.
It seems like a lot of these Green energy related projects, everybody wants them, but they don't want them in their own backyard. So it seems that It
kind of gums the works up
a little bit there. Last question I have and that is How rapidly do you believe you can pay down that debt load? It sounds like you have pretty good Cash flow coming in from Van Husco's acquisition and so forth. What's your timeline on that or what's your outlook on how quickly you might be able to whittle that debt level down?
Yes. Again, thanks. I'm going to turn it over to Bill. But we knew we were going to do this. So this was planned, but we are pleased with the cash Generation that we're getting from our new companies coming in.
We don't want to be running too high. We've seen we've been there before. We learned our lessons. And also we got a little run up of the inventories going on now too, protecting, make sure that we're getting product out to our customers. Bill, you want to give a little more color on?
Yes. Yes, I can add to that. So when you think about the Q3, We had the acquisition proceeds and we actually had a very strong quarter in terms of revenue, organic revenue growth Sequentially as well. So it also ended up adding to our working capital and we have a little bit of inventory also to Support the build in and working capital for revenue going into Q4. So we expect Q4 ultimately to be a Pretty strong cash flow quarter.
And then as we move into 2023, we're going to be pretty judicious about paying down debt over That as the year progresses, I'd also highlight that one of the things that John mentioned earlier is that we have Line of sight to some pretty attractive growth programs related to the Van Huzco acquisition. So as we move into 2023, we'll be thinking about some of the capital needs that are required to support those programs, but we'll also be Prudent in terms of the level of debt that might be necessary to support those programs and make sure we're systematic in terms of paying down the debt, All relative to the profitability and cash generation that we're paying, I guess, we're incurring. I'll remind everybody that our longer term target is around 2 times and we're certainly elevated at the moment because of the acquisition And our goal will be to get back to that 2 times leverage ratio over a period of time.
Right. Do you have any other divestiture possibilities that might To help you generate cash that might be used that way or what's your thoughts in that area?
So if you go back and look at the playbook that I laid out today and we laid out back in Investor Day, that's an ongoing process that we have And our returns portfolio looking at those businesses, how to generate cash as well as the business liability in the future. So that's an ongoing process.
All right. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Have a good rest of the year. Thanks. Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. And it comes from the line of Chris Sakai with Singular Research. Please proceed.
Hi, Chris.
Yes. Hi, good morning.
Good morning, Chris.
What are you seeing in the South as far as increased Building sales are concerned in precast. And has this trend continued into the Q4?
Yes, good question. So we watch that very closely. And Obviously, with the acquisition of Van Hoesco, now that we're in that type of business, Tennessee is a really bullish market for us in the Carolinas. North Carolina is a strong. These are big markets for us and then close to Texas is one of the largest up and coming residential spots that we see.
And we'll be looking at maybe in penetrating the Florida market over time, notwithstanding a recent event there with the hurricane. So the That part of the world is going very, very strong. That's one of the reasons we're very bullish about Van Huzco operation. Reminding the group today, we only have the one facility up and running. We're commissioning the second facility.
So we're looking for some big things to happen and bring these our CXT legacy business together with that and really putting It's a brand and product out there in the marketplace, specifically in that type of marketplace in the South. It looks very good to us.
Okay, right. And then in precast, what drove the gross margin expansion in the base business?
So we talked a little bit about that earlier with Alex, what we saw, much of our we run around $70,000,000 historically in backlog in that business. A good part of that is in our buildings and restrooms and a large part of that goes to the state or federal or counties. So they're locked into Different contracts related to the government contracts, the GSA agreements. So much of those are type of Projects could have a long gestation period, Chris, where they go 6 months to a year. So we booked a number of those jobs in 2021.
And we were held with very little ability to increase our price. So we just had to work them through the backlog. And we did that in the Q4 and Q1 and Q2 of this year. So we feel very good where we're sitting today. We were able to go get price where we needed and work off that backlog that was we call constrained.
So The future looks very good in that business for us.
Okay. Sounds good. And last one for me. What are you seeing for new orders in the steel products and measurement business? And is this a growing trend or not?
So that group comes in we've got many things that contribute to that group right now, right? And the big one was obviously what's going on in the coating side. The other business that we have in the coatings has had a very strong year. The Willis Ballwinch acquisition has been had a really strong year. And we've been Very, very pleased with their performance over the year.
On the steel side, we divested the piling group, right, in September of last So that leaves us with the fab side and that's a little choppier, but we're looking for the infrastructure money really kick in, And the balance of this year into next year, and we're starting to see that in that business with the Bridgeform work. That's been very, very good for us, and bidding activity is extremely high. And we hope the grid activity will follow as well in 'twenty three and 'twenty four and beyond. So I think infrastructure will have a big plan. As Bill and I mentioned in the call today, we're seeing quite a bit of bidding activity and quoting activity related to The Infrastructure Jobs Act from just over a year ago.
But we're not rolling that through our facilities yet. But we do anticipate that to happen Coming in the Q1, Q2 of next year.
Okay. Thanks for your answers.
Thanks, Chris.
Thank you. I will turn the call back to John Caso for final remarks.
Thank you very much, Carmen. Really And come out and really share with you how we feel the company and what's going on and really get into the adjusted side of the company. And the fact is, I think We've come a long way, very pleased with the team's work here with the 5 acquisitions that has done over the last 12 months. And I think the transformation we're doing related to playbook, and specifically on the growth side is really coming together nicely, driving towards our aspirational goals that what we laid out there in 2025. So thanks again, everybody.
Go out and vote. Have a good day. Be safe. Thank you.
And with that, we conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.