Here is the history of Pavement Repair-only sales going back a few years, and how many companies qualified for the lists in parenthesis:
2023: $315,056,146 (50)
2022: $247,572,610 (50)
2021: $205, 407,647 (75)
2020: $217 million (50)
2019: $209 million (50)
2018: $265 million (75)
2017: $165 million (50)
2016: $255 million (75)
If you look at this growth over the course of seven years, it reveals an annual growth of approximately 12% on average, year over year. This year's growth was 22% for 2023, and that matched the previous largest single year of sales growth from 2018, and this year's segmented sales 16% greater than that 2018. This could potentially indicate that more and more customers are looking to repair and maintain existing pavement surfaces, trying to stretch property investment dollars as far as they will go.
Total sales for all the work performed by the Pavement Repair 50 for 2023 was $1.672 billion compared to $1.22 billion last year, and significantly higher than 2021's reported figure of $1.045 billion.
As a percentage of total sales by the Pavement Repair 50, pavement repair-only sales accounted for more than 20% of total work completed by the contractors, which is just a shade more than the 19% reported last year. The year of 2019 was the last time we saw more than 20% for this segment.
To a certain degree, it is logical to see a third year of relatively stable percentage of work falling into this category, as the cost of virgin materials makes the notion of repairing what you already have a highly attractive proposition, indeed. As far as the other types of work the Pavement Repair 50 performed, they reported that:
All but 1 of the 50 completed paving work
47 performed sealcoating services
46 contractors reported completing striping work, but not in massive quantities
Profit Margins
The highest range of profits for the Pavement Repair 50 rose quite significantly, to their highest levels in six years. Over 56% of contractors reported earning more than 15% profit margins in 2023, while the middle margin earners seemed to completely level off.
56% reported margins of more than 15%, up from 33% last year
16% reported margins of 10-15%, a big drop from 31% in 2022
14% of companies reported margins of 5-10%, another similar drop from 31% last year
12% of contractors reported 3-5% profit margins, a small step up from 8% in 2022
2% of contractors reported margins less than 3%, which was up from 0% in 2022
Where the Pavement Repair Contractors Work
All of the Pavement Repair 50 indicated they generate sales from parking lot work, with 22 reporting that they generate at least 90% of their work from that field. That's more than double last year's number of 10 companies.
Possibly a signal that smaller repair crew contractors are seeing a lot of action on asset maintenance work, rather than larger contractors creating new spaces; roads, streets, and highways all saw a dip in work for this list. Only 35 companies did work for streets and roads, versus 35 last year, but only 6 companies reported highway work versus the 10 last year.
Their Customers
All 50 contractors on the list did some work for commercial/industrial customers, including 7 that did more than 90% of their work for those clients
45 companies generated some work for multi-family residential clients
35 reported doing work for municipalities
23 contractors said that they did some work for single-family residential customers
Replacing the Pavement Repair 50's Fleet
Only four total companies reported that they could replace their current pavement repair fleets for less than $500,000. Three contractors said they could do it for between $500,000 and $1 million. A total of 12 reported that it would take between $1 million and $2 million. This versus the clear standalone majority, that 31 companies said it would take more than $2 million dollars to replace their fleet equipment.
