About L.B. Foster

L.B. Foster Company operates as a global technology solutions provider of engineered, manufactured products and services that builds and supports infrastructure. Segments The company operates through three segments: Rail, Technologies, and Services; Precast Concrete Products; and Steel Products and Measurement. Rail, Technologies, and Services (Rail) This segment consists of several manufacturing, distribution, and service businesses that provide a variety of products, solutions, and services for freight and passenger railroads and other industrial companies throughout the world. The Rail segment has sales offices throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, and works on rail projects where it offers products manufactured by the company, or sourced from numerous supply chain partners. The Rail segment also offers contract project management and aftermarket services. The Rail reporting segment consisted of the Rail Products, Global Friction Management, and Technology Services and Solutions business units. Rail Products The Rail Products business unit consists of the company’s Rail Distribution, Allegheny Rail Products, Transit Products, and Concrete Tie divisions. Following are summaries of those divisions: Rail Distribution - This division sells new rail mainly to passenger and short line freight railroads, industrial companies, and rail contractors for the replacement of existing lines or expansion of new lines. Rail accessories sold by the Rail Distribution division include track spikes, bolts, angle bars, tie plates, and other products required to install or maintain rail lines. These products are manufactured by the company or purchased from other manufacturers and distributed accordingly. Rail Distribution also sells trackwork products to Class II and III railroads, industrial, and export markets. Allegheny Rail Products (ARP) - ARP engineers and manufactures insulated rail joints and related accessories for freight and passenger railroads and industrial customers. Insulated joints are manufactured domestically at the company’s facilities in Pueblo, CO and Niles, OH. Transit Products - This division supplies designed, engineered, and outsourced-manufactured direct fixation fasteners, coverboards, and special accessories primarily for passenger railroad systems. Transit Products also manufactures power rail, also known as third rail, at its facility in Niles, OH. These products are usually sold to contractors or by sealed bid to passenger railroads. Concrete Ties - This division manufactures engineered concrete railroad ties for freight and passenger railroads and industrial accounts at its facility in Spokane, WA. Track Components - The Track Components division manufactured track spikes and anchors at a facility in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. The company completed the sale of the assets of this division in August of 2022. Global Friction Management The company’s Global Friction Management business unit engineers, manufactures, and fabricates friction management products and application systems for its rail customers. It also provides aftermarket services managing its friction management solutions for customers. The company’s friction management products optimize performance at the rail to wheel interface, which helps its customers reduce fuel consumption, improve operating efficiencies, extend the life of operating assets, such as rail and wheels, reduce track stresses, and lower the related maintenance and operating costs of its rail customers. Friction management products include mobile and wayside systems that apply lubricants and liquid or solid friction modifiers. These products and systems are designed, engineered, manufactured, fabricated, serviced, and marketed in the United States (U.S.), Canada, the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Germany. Technology Services and Solutions The company’s Technology Services and Solutions business unit engineers and manufactures railroad condition monitoring systems and equipment, wheel impact load detection systems, wayside data collection and management systems, and rockfall, flood, earthworks, and bridge strike monitoring. These offerings create a smart interface between conventional rail products and intelligent digital technologies to monitor safety, increase network velocity, and enable the digital railway. In addition, the business unit provides controls, display, and telecommunication contract management solutions for the transit, control room, and customer information and display sectors to enhance safety, operational efficiency, and customer experience. These products, systems, and services are designed, engineered, serviced, and marketed in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. In June of 2022, the company acquired the stock of Skratch Enterprises Ltd. (Skratch), located in Telford, the United Kingdom. Skratch offers a single-point supply solution model for clients, and enables large scale deployments of its intelligent digital signage solutions. Skratch’s service offerings include design, prototyping and proof of concept, hardware and software, logistics and warehousing, installation, maintenance, content management, and managed monitoring. Precast Concrete Products (Precast) segment This segment manufactures precast concrete products for the North American civil infrastructure market. Under its CXT brand, Precast manufactures restrooms, concession stands, and other protective storage buildings available in multiple designs, textures, and colors for national, state, and municipal parks. The company is a leading, high-end supplier of precast buildings in terms of volume, product options, and capabilities. Precast also manufactures various other precast concrete products, such as sounds walls, bridge beams, box culverts, septic tanks, and other custom pre-stressed and precast concrete products at its Boise, ID, Hillsboro, TX, and Waverly, WV manufacturing facilities. In August of 2022, the company acquired the operating assets of VanHooseCo Precast, LLC (VanHooseCo), a privately-held business headquartered in Loudon, Tennessee specializing in precast concrete walls, water management products, and forms for the commercial and residential infrastructure markets. VanHooseCo has an existing manufacturing site in Loudon, near Knoxville, and a new facility recently commissioned in Lebanon, TN near Nashville. The company also entered into license agreements for VanHooseCo’s ENVIROCAST pre-insulated concrete walls and ENVIROKEEPER water retention and management product lines. The acquisition expands the company’s addressable market to include commercial and residential developers, as well as state and local agencies in Tennessee and surrounding states, and provides a platform for further investment and organic growth in the expanding precast concrete infrastructure market. Steel Products and Measurement segment This segment provides custom engineered solutions and services that help to build and maintain critical civil and energy infrastructure throughout the Americas. Steel Products and Measurement designs, manufactures, and supplies a variety of steel bridge products to contractors performing installation and repair work to North American transportation infrastructure network. It also provides solutions in corrosion protection, measurement, and control systems for the safe transportation and accurate measurement of gas and liquids in pipelines, as well as threaded pipe for water well applications. This segment consists of the Fabricated Steel Products and Coatings and Measurement business units. Fabricated Steel Products The Fabricated Steel Products business unit provides fabricated bridge products to infrastructure end markets and provides threading services for agricultural, municipal and industrial water well applications. The Fabricated Steel Products business unit markets and sells products primarily in North America. Bridge Products - The Bridge Products facility in Bedford, PA manufactures a number of fabricated steel and aluminum products primarily for the highway, bridge, and transit industries, including concrete-reinforced steel grid decking, open steel grid deck, aluminum bridge railing, and stay-in-place steel bridge forms. Water Well Threading - The company’s Magnolia, TX facility cuts, threads, and paints pipe primarily for water well applications for the agriculture industry and municipal water authorities and, to a lesser extent, threading services for the Oil Country Tubular Goods markets. Coatings and Measurement The Coatings and Measurement business unit provides protective coating services and precision measurement products to infrastructure end markets. The following is a summary of those product and service offerings: Protective Coatings - There are two pipeline coating services locations that make up the company’s Protective Coatings division. The company’s Birmingham, AL facility coats the outside and inside diameter of pipe primarily for oil and gas transmission pipelines. This location partners with its primary customer, a pipe manufacturer, to market fusion bonded epoxy coatings, abrasion resistant coatings, and internal linings for a wide variety of pipe diameters for use in pipeline projects throughout North America. The second location, situated in Willis, TX, applies specialty outside and inside diameter coatings for a wide variety of pipe diameters for oil and gas transmission, mining, and waste-water pipelines, as well as custom coatings for specialty pipe fittings and connections. Precision Measurement Products and Systems - The company manufactures and provides turnkey solutions for metering and injection systems primarily for the oil, and, to a lesser extent, gas industry. The Willis, TX location operates a fabrication plant that builds metering systems for custody transfer applications, including crude oil and other petroleum-based products. These systems are used at well sites, pipelines, refineries, chemical plants, and loading/unloading facilities. The Willis, TX location also manufactures and installs additive and dye injection systems. These systems are used to inject performance additives and/or dyes into petroleum products. Marketing The company generally markets its Rail products and services directly in all major industrial areas of the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Precast and Steel Products and Measurement products and services are primarily marketed domestically. The company employs a sales force of approximately 79 people that is supplemented with a network of agents across Europe, South America, and Asia to reach current customers and cultivate potential customers in these areas. Research and Development For the year ended December 31, 2021, the company’s research and development expenses were $2,219 thousands. History L.B. Foster Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, was founded in 1902.