FirstService Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 6, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Welcome to the 4th Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. Legal counsel requires us to advise that the discussion scheduled to take place today may contain forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements contemplated in the forward looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward looking statements is contained in the company's annual information form as filed with the Canadian Securities Administrations and in the company's annual report on the Form as filed with the U.

Operator

S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Today is February 6, 2024. I would like to turn the call over to Chief Executive Officer, Mr.

Operator

Scott Pattison, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Justin. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our Q4 year end conference call. I'm on with Jeremy Racoosin, our CFO. Thank you for joining us today. We're very pleased with how we finished the year and with our momentum as we head into 2024.

Speaker 1

Before I jump into the quarterly results, I want to make a few comments about the year. We closed out 2023 With our revenue up 16% over 2022 and our EBITDA up 18%, very strong results. Organic growth for the year at 10% accounted for over half of our top line increase. And importantly, The organic growth was balanced equally across our divisions. Both FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands grew organically by 10%.

Speaker 1

We've had some time now to reflect on these results for the year and we could not be more proud of our teams for how they performed. 2023 represents the 3rd consecutive year with organic growth at 10%, and that is a reflection on our teams and their ability to consistently gain market share. Now I'll turn to the Q4. Total revenues were up 6% over the prior year and right in line with our internal expectations. The growth for the quarter related entirely to acquisitions.

Speaker 1

Organic growth was nil due to a very strong Q4 last year, driven by significant loss claims activity from hurricanes Ian and Fiona that led to outsized revenues for our restoration brands. EBITDA for the quarter was flat at $103,000,000 and again, right in line with our expectations. Jeremy will jump into the margin and earnings per share detail in his comments. Looking at our divisional results, FirstService Residential revenues were up 12%, 9% organically. The results are consistent with the previous 3 quarters this year and reflect solid growth from net new contract wins and again was broad based across North America with all of our regions showing gains.

Speaker 1

Looking forward to the coming year, we expect to show growth at FirstService Residential at the high single digit level with organic growth starting to ease back during the year into the mid single digit range, which is our long term average in this business. This is a contractual recurring revenue model with only modest swings quarter to quarter. Moving on to FirstService brands, revenues for the quarter were up 1% compared to the very strong prior year quarter that was up 28% over the same quarter in 2021. Revenues declined 7% on an organic basis with gains at Century Fire and our home improvement brands more than offset by the headwinds at our restoration brands. Let me go through each segment And I'll start with restoration, which includes our results for Paul Davis and First On-site.

Speaker 1

Revenues for the quarter came in lighter than expectation and were down more than 10% against a tough comp in the prior year. We experienced very mild weather patterns across North America during the quarter. And in addition, our remaining Hurricane Ian related backlog did not progress as we expected. We produced only a modest amount of storm related work, about 15,000,000 during the Q4, which historically is our strongest storm related revenue quarter. By comparison, We generated $85,000,000 in revenue last year from hurricanes Ian and Fiona.

Speaker 1

We've seen an uptick in activity in Q1 from the frigid weather that much of North America experienced in mid January, And we expect a solid quarter, but it will not be at the level we experienced in Q1 last year off the back of Winter Storm Elliot and the hurricanes. Our expectation is that Q1 restoration revenues will be down at least 10% from prior year. Moving now to our home improvement brands, including California Closets, CertaPro Painters, Floor Coverings International and Pillar to Post Home Inspection. As a group, these brands were up mid single digit versus the prior year with organic growth low single digit, very similar results to those we posted in Q3. We continue to face real headwinds in home improvement and lead activity continues to be sluggish, still off year over year.

Speaker 1

It's a real tribute to the tenacity of our teams in this segment that we've driven growth the last two quarters in this environment. Interest rate levels and record low home sales have negatively impacted consumer demand and we don't expect this to abate until late in the year or next year. That said, our teams in Home Improvement are confident that they can continue to grind out modest gains through 2024. I'll finish my review of the Q4 results with Century Fire, which had another very strong quarter exceeding our expectations with organic growth near 20%. Similar to previous quarters, this year we are seeing strength across each of installation, service and inspection and our national accounts division and almost all our branches are performing and growing.

Speaker 1

The Century team has really done a great job this year. Looking forward, we're expecting continued strong results, but certainly more modest growth off the back of the 20% growth this year. Backlogs are solid, about flat with prior year end. Based on current bid activity, our expectations growth at Centuri is high single digit, which is more in line with our experience prior to this past year. Before I pass over to Jeremy, I want to spend a few minutes introducing our new platform acquisition, Roofing Corp.

Speaker 1

Of America, which we closed in late December. Roofing Corp. Is a $400,000,000 revenue business that operates from 16 branches across 11 states. It offers end to end roofing services including new installation, reroofing and repair and maintenance primarily to commercial property owners and managers. 90% of the revenue is commercial and the focus go forward is commercial.

Speaker 1

It's a business that has come together over the last 5 years through acquisition. We spent significant due diligence time on each acquired company and each branch and came away very impressed with businesses that make up Roofing Corp and with the teams, both corporately and at the branch level. We're excited about the opportunity in roofing and excited to be partnering with this group led by Randy Corak, CEO. We've been looking at roofing in general since late 2020. I've mentioned it on this call in the past.

Speaker 1

It shares many of the same characteristics as our other businesses in terms of being an essential property service operating in a huge fragmented market with growth potential, both organically and through tuck under acquisition. It's also highly complementary with restoration and fits well with a broader thesis we have around repair, maintenance and restoration of built environment and the growth potential in that space. Growth from the continual expansion of the built environment, but also from the increased frequency and volatility of weather. Restoration, roofing, painting, flooring, We will benefit from weather across all these businesses in the coming years. Roofing Corp.

Speaker 1

Finished 2023 with momentum. They have a strong backlog of work and we expect solid organic growth in the mid to high single digit range for 2024. We also expect to be active in terms of building the acquisition pipeline and seeking out tuck unders. With that, let me pass you over to Jeremy, who will provide a more detailed review of our performance and pull together a consolidated look forward for 2024. Jeremy?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone. Scott just highlighted we are pleased with the strong full year 2023 financial results we delivered even in the face of a more tempered Q4 when we were up against very strong prior year Q4 2022 headwinds. I will parse out these details in my commentary starting first with a summary of our consolidated performance and following up with a segmented breakdown across our 2 divisions. During the Q4, we reported consolidated revenues totaling $1,080,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA of $103,300,000 up 6% and 1% respectively, with our margin at 9.6% compared to 10.1% in the prior year period.

Speaker 2

For the full year, consolidated revenues increased 16% to $4,330,000,000 underpinned by a strong and broad based 10% organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $415,700,000 up 18% over the prior year and yielding a 9.6% margin, up 20 basis points compared to 9.4% in 2022. From a net earnings perspective in the 4th quarter, adjusted EPS was $1.11 down from $1.22 in last year's Q4. For the full year, we reported adjusted EPS of $4.66 up 10% over the $4.24 in 2022. Our annual interest costs almost doubled versus the prior year largely attributable to the higher interest rate environment.

Speaker 2

Higher rates in 2023 compared to 2022 at a more than $0.30 per share or 7% negative impact on our adjusted EPS growth, which otherwise would have matched our EBITDA annual growth rate in 2023. Note that these comments on our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS results respectively reflect adjustments to GAAP operating earnings and GAAP EPS, which are disclosed in this morning's press release and are consistent with our approach in prior periods. Now I'll provide additional commentary on our division results for both the Q4 and full year. At FirstService Residential for the 4th quarter, revenues were $496,000,000 up 12% versus the prior year period and the division reported EBITDA of $43,500,000 up 14% quarter over quarter. Our margin for the quarter was 8.8%, modestly higher than the 8.6% level in Q4 2022.

Speaker 2

For the full year, revenues hit the $2,000,000,000 mark, increasing by 13% over 2022, including 10% organic growth. We also delivered an 11% increase in annual EBITDA with our full year margin at 9.4% and in line with the 9.5% margin for 2022. The margin is also down the middle of our typical 9% to 10% annual margin band for the FirstService Residential division and a range consistent with what we also see for 2024. Shifting now to our FirstService brands division and focusing first on Q4, we recorded revenues of $583,000,000 a 1% increase. As Scott referenced, our restoration operations had lower revenues versus prior year due to the mild weather during the current quarter compared to the contribution from significant hurricane events in late 2022.

Speaker 2

The brands division saw solid organic revenue growth excluding this restoration related headwind. For the 4th quarter, our Brands division EBITDA came in at $61,100,000 down 9% versus the prior year quarter. Our division margin during the quarter was 10.5 percent down from 11.7% in Q4 2022 and as expected match the margin level for the prior sequential third quarter, which we noted in our Q3 earnings call. Profitability and margins were lower within our restoration businesses as a result of the reduced weather driven activity levels and revenues. Margins at our home services brands also moderated in the 4th quarter compared to prior year as increased promotional pricing and marketing initiatives were implemented to preserve our top line growth.

Speaker 2

For the full year, revenues were very strong, up 19% including 11% organic growth. Our annual EBITDA grew 24% resulting in a 10.4% full year margin, up 50 basis points versus the prior year of 9.9%. We will continue to experience quarterly and even annual shift in our brand division margins into 2024 and beyond, particularly in light of our restoration operations, which depend on certain levels of baseline weather driven activity. The more periodic and larger area wide storm events can further exacerbate the year over year margin profiles within Restoration and thereby influence the brand's margin comparisons. Despite these near term fluctuations, Our focus continues to be on the longer term secular market opportunity for our restoration, repair and maintenance brand to deliver attractive compounded growth rates.

Speaker 2

Finally, to close off my commentary on the P and L, We reported lower corporate costs in the 4th quarter due to the benefit of foreign exchange movements. We also had larger than typical acquisition related items during the quarter, which negatively impacted GAAP operating earnings and GAAP EPS, which have no effect on our EBITDA and adjusted EPS performance metrics. Of the $16,000,000 amount in Q4, most related to earn outs tied to prior tuck under acquisitions and transaction costs for the larger Roofing Corp of America acquisition that Scott previously described. Now I'll walk through a summary of our cash flow and capital deployment. For the Q4, we delivered cash flow from operations after working capital totaling $110,000,000 double the level during the prior year period.

Speaker 2

For the full year, operating cash flow was $280,000,000 up significantly over the $106,000,000 in 2022, driven by strong operating earnings growth and conversion of working capital investments in our restoration operations from prior year hurricane activity levels. We incurred $25,000,000 of capital expenditures during Q4, resulting in full year CapEx of $93,000,000 which came in lower than our most recently indicated target of 100,000,000 In 2024, we expect total capital expenditures to increase in line with the growth of our operation to approximately $115,000,000 Maintenance CapEx represents the predominant amount of this spending for service vehicle fleet, IT and office leasehold replacement cycles across our brands and will continue to represent roughly 2% of revenues and 20% of EBITDA on a consolidated basis. The 4th quarter also saw significant acquisition spending totaling $434,000,000 with the bulk of that amount to finance the Ruth and CorPath transaction. For the year, we deployed almost $550,000,000 towards acquisitions and excluding the Roofing Corp. Transaction, our tuck under acquisition program in total close to $150,000,000 which contributes a mid single digit percentage of incremental revenue growth above our organic growth base.

Speaker 2

Beyond these growth driven capital deployment priorities, We also continued our trend of growing our dividends by yesterday approving an 11% dividend increase to $1 per share annually in U. S. Dollars up from the prior $0.90 We have now annually hiked our dividend 10% or higher every year over the past decade. Our 2023 year end balance sheet continues to be strong even after the larger Roofing Corp investment. We closed out the year with just under $1,000,000,000 of net debt and our leverage sits at a conservative 2.1 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA, up only a half turn from the 1.6 times level at the end of 2022.

Speaker 2

After current year end, this past January, we also bolstered our liquidity by tapping into $125,000,000 of seniors unsecured notes under our note holder master shelf facilities, which have 5 to 7 year maturities with interest coupons in the 5.5% area. Together with our cash on hand and availability under our bank credit facility, our current liquidity is approximately $400,000,000 which is ample for us to drive further acquisition growth as we work through our existing deal pipeline. Looking forward, you've heard Scott comment on the individual brands top line near term growth indicators. With all that in mind, We see upcoming Q1 consolidated revenue growth to be approximately 10%. Q1 margins will be lower versus prior year with the residential division margin roughly flat and the brands division margin down due to our restoration operations, which are comparing against approximately $80,000,000 of hurricane related revenue in Q1 2023 that will not repeat in the Q1 of 2024.

Speaker 2

For the full year on a consolidated basis, We expect to deliver top line growth in the low teens percentage range with a healthy base of organic growth on the back of continued momentum with our brands together with approximately $400,000,000 revenue contribution from our Roofing Corp. Acquisition. With respect to profitability, residential margins will likely perform in line with prior year quarters, While our brands margins should see modest year over year improvement during the latter half of the year when we are no longer comparing against the 2023 hurricane and winter storm events. Piecing it all together, we expect our consolidated EBITDA margin for the full year to be relatively in line to slightly up versus 2023. This now concludes our prepared comments.

Speaker 2

Operator, please open up the call to questions and thank you.

Operator

And our first question comes from Michael Doumet from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Hey, good morning, guys. Nice quarter. Scott, Jeremy, I think the maybe just To start on the guidance for the year. So the way I understand it for 2024, the guidance doesn't include any storm related activity, which All else equal would suggest lower EBITDA margins for 2024, but you're calling for flat to slightly higher EBITDA margins, Which again would imply embedded margins are rising somewhere else. Just trying to see if we can break that down a little bit where the margin expansion is happening, whether it's roofing corp or something else?

Speaker 2

Yes, correct, Michael. I mean just to put a box around it, the Top line, low teens, that does not include, as you said, any additional shots in the arm from storms. It also doesn't include unidentified tuck under And frankly, we do acquisitions every year. And if we continue with that cadence, you could see our top line and bottom line frankly resemble pretty close to the performance we just delivered in 2023 over 2022. But again, we don't build that into our thinking.

Speaker 2

Yes, I'd say the residential margin is relatively flat, so no real pickup there. It's In the brands, it would be a little bit of mix. We're adding the Roofing Corp. Transaction, which we come in at low double digit margins and that has a little bit of a positive mix impact. And some of the efficiencies that we're going to start to see in our restoration operations from the implementation of the operating platform.

Speaker 2

It's not going to be in a straight line, but that incrementally over the quarters and into frankly beyond 2024 will be something that we're working on and should be a small margin enhancer for us as well during the course of 2024.

Speaker 3

Super helpful. Maybe bigger picture here. So I do like the thesis around the roofing business. I wonder to what extent There are synergies between the restoration business and the roofing business. And I wonder, Again, if you continue to expand the restoration business, whether or not there are other businesses where you might increasingly look to Explore synergies?

Speaker 1

Michael, certainly, Roofing is complementary to restoration. And we as I said in my prepared comments, we've been looking at it for a few years now and really became aware of it or more aware of it through 1st on-site and our commercial restoration because we're regularly seeing opportunities in roofing and either subbing it out We're walking away from it. So certainly, we became more aware of the opportunity through restoration, It is a discrete opportunity that we see big opportunity in. There will be some collaboration certainly between the restoration brands and Roofing Corp. But it is a discrete segment and a discrete opportunity for us.

Speaker 1

Beyond that, I mean, generally the thesis around repair, maintenance restoration and the impact of weather will have on that. I mean, we're very bullish on it. We think CertaPro Painters will certainly benefit and we are CertaPro every year is expanding its commercial capability. And again, we see collaboration between these areas going forward.

Speaker 3

Really helpful. Appreciate the color. Thank you, guys.

Operator

And thank you. And our next question comes from Stephen Sheldon from William Blair. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning. Thank you. Just first, can you talk about top of the funnel trends in the home improvement brands? I think you said it continues to be sluggish. Are you seeing it weaken even more than you'd seen before?

Speaker 4

And then just as we think about the next couple of quarters there, how much visibility do you have into revenue there just given the backlog that continues to convert?

Speaker 1

It's not weaker, Stephen. It's sort of holding Off our lead activity of 5% to 10%. So it's similar to the last few quarters we've had. And we would expect similar results in the first half of the year to what you've seen in the last half of twenty twenty three. So I mean it's tough, it's a grind, But we expect that we'll be up a bit top line.

Speaker 1

We are continuing to invest in marketing and continuing to focus on lead conversion and closing rate, which are really 2 levers more in our control that can help offset the headwinds and we're having success with that.

Speaker 4

Very helpful. And then as a follow-up within the fire business, Is there much of a margin differential between the installation work tied to construction activity versus the inspection and repair work and just asking that in case we see construction activity paper over the next year or 2 and the impact that could have on margins in the Firebrand, if there is a mix shift more towards the recurring revenue streams there?

Speaker 1

No, very, very similar. The one I would say 2023 margins were similar. Historically, as we've experienced price increases in steel and other materials, It's impacted installation relative to service, which is more labor driven. But right now, they're running very similar.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you.

Operator

And thank you. And our next question comes from Stephen MacLeod from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you. Good morning, guys. Just wanted to circle around on a couple of things related to Q1, particularly within restoration. I know you gave some sort of near term guidance on the different components.

Speaker 5

But just wondering when you put it all together, what how do you sort of foresee Q1 organic growth evolving on a consolidated basis within the brand within the brands division?

Speaker 1

Jeremy, you want to handle that?

Speaker 2

Sure. I think it's going to be pretty similar, Stephen, to What we just saw in Q4, similar headwinds in the order of $80,000,000 I think I mentioned in my prepared comments, $80,000,000 that we're going to be comping against in Q1 versus Q1 of 2023. And that's a similar headwind as what we had just in Q4. So organic revenue growth, as Scott mentioned, was down 7%. It's going to be down about the same amount, including the storms if you ex out this that $80,000,000 headwind would be healthy organic growth for the brands division.

Speaker 5

Yes. Okay, great. And then just, would you expect a similar type of margin impact in Q1 That you saw in Q4 considering the organic is roughly the same?

Speaker 2

On a consolidated, I've said that residential will be flattened and brands be down on a consolidated basis, I would look for Q1 consolidated margins to be down roughly 100 basis points, perhaps a little bit more.

Speaker 5

Okay. And that would be sort of flat resi and down brands to get to that

Speaker 2

Obviously, brands down more than 100 if the other division is flat, but the consolidated would be 100 basis points of potential wider on the compression.

Speaker 5

Yes. Okay. No, that's very helpful. Thanks, Jeremy. And then just sort of higher level, Having now owned the roofing business for 6 weeks or however long it's been, just wondering if you can give a little bit of color as to kind of what you're seeing so far.

Speaker 5

I know you mentioned that the business finished the year strongly, which is great. But just wondering, are there Some wins or highlights that you can sort of highlight that you've seen so far?

Speaker 1

Yes. I mean, It's early days, Stephen, thinking through the wind. I think the biggest thing from our perspective is just our Excitement to be partnering with this group. It's a strong team and we're just filled with optimism about our opportunity in this business. We've got great operators at the branch level that And generally the alignment with the management team around building the premier roofing contractor in the U.

Speaker 1

S. And doing it the right way, ensuring that we're serving the customer, winning day to day and growing organically and then topping that off with acquisitions and we do expect to be participating. It's a consolidating industry And we'll definitely I expect that we'll do some tuck we'll have some success completing tuck unders this year.

Speaker 5

Okay, that's great. Thank you, Scott. And then maybe just sort of higher level, As we think about the year for 2024, looking at looks like the comps are a bit tougher in both brands and resi in the first half of the year. So are you kind of expecting the year to shape out that way with sort of tougher comps in Q in the first half and then maybe some stronger growth in the back half of the year?

Speaker 2

Not so much and I think Scott Spoke about it in residential, if you're talking top line, we're going to settle more into a mid single digit organic top line growth pattern. Brands, sure, the headwinds are most acute in the front half of the year, particularly Q1, Little less so in Q2, but still there with respect to the hurricane related and winter storm Elliott related work we had, it starts to taper off in Q3. And as you know, it was pretty minimal for us in Q4 this year. So yes, the headwinds will fade as we move through the year.

Speaker 5

Okay, that's great. Well, thanks guys. Appreciate it.

Operator

And our next question comes from Daryl Young from Stifel. Your line is now open.

Speaker 1

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Speaker 3

Just sticking on the roofing theme, a question around the growth focus and I guess how the organic model is going to work there and what some of the key variables are for winning market share. So is it about competing on price or is there a way to pursue a differentiation strategy in terms of large scale or more complex roofing projects or specialty facilities or any color

Speaker 1

you can give here on what differentiates the growth? I think, 1st and foremost, it's a growing market. So there are tailwinds that will drive the growth in the market. And then it comes down to Serving the customer in the local market and having great leadership locally, great relationships and delivering on your brand promise. And so this is a group that has done that historically.

Speaker 1

And one of the reasons why we're so excited about partnering with them is that kind of alignment. So it's going to be the markets are Huge. And it's very similar to our other markets. And the opportunity To grow organically is really through your culture, your people and bringing it every day. That's the same as all our businesses and really that's the opportunity that we saw.

Speaker 1

We'll be taking a long term perspective. It's incremental. And then it is early days, but there is an opportunity as we fill out our footprint to start develop a national account program similar to what we've done at First On-site Century Fire. And we'll be working on that in earnest in the coming years.

Speaker 3

That's great color. Thank you. And then on the residential property management side, we've seen a number of third party technology platforms that have kind of popped up in the last few years and looking at helping HOAs and residents self managed communities and record keeping and amenity booking and all that. Are you seeing any sort of competitive risks related to that? I know you invest a lot in your own tech stack, but just any color you can give us there in terms of to keep winning market share on the resi side and any potential disruption?

Speaker 1

Yes. I mean, a lot of that technology would relate to smaller communities, where they technology and the Board may be able to manage it themselves. You did mention self management. So I think that's what you're speaking to. Our sweet spot is really The larger communities, more complex communities, high rise lifestyle, where there's large numbers of sited staff, Technology certainly matters.

Speaker 1

And as you suggest, we continue to invest in ours, but it's more about the day to day delivery of service from your teams.

Speaker 3

Got it. Okay. That's it for me. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks guys.

Operator

And thank you. And our next question comes from Frederic Bastien From Raymond James, your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Good afternoon, guys. Just wanted to Digging a little further on the M and A side. Scott, on the brand side, you've been pretty vocal about adding services like roofing, insulation and asbestos removal. Obviously, you took care of the roofing part with RCA, but I was wondering What are your views right now on the other two business lines that you were calling out in prior quarters?

Speaker 1

Frederick, I mean nothing close, but I think we're always Going to be keeping our eyes out for adjacencies. And again, it's around this maintenance, repair, restoration space.

Speaker 2

When we

Speaker 1

service a large loss, commercial large loss, What other opportunities are there? And what are we walking away from? How can we deliver a better service the customer, which is really what led us to roofing and to comment on some of the other things that you've mentioned.

Speaker 6

Okay.

Speaker 1

Nothing close though.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then this was, I guess, discussed a little earlier on, but presumably the RCA The acquisition came in with a laundry list of potential targets. And is that what is giving you the confidence that you might be able to bring in a more tuck ins on that side?

Speaker 1

Yes. I don't know if it's a laundry list, but there's certainly A pipeline and over the last few years, we've had many conversations. And so sort of combining those efforts will create some opportunity this year. But it's we also are going to be very careful and focus on fit and strategy. But this roofing is a consolidating industry and it's happening quickly.

Speaker 1

So we need to be there.

Speaker 6

Great. That's all I have. Thank you.

Operator

And thank you. And our follow-up question comes from Tom Callahan from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker 7

Hey, good morning guys. Maybe just on the residential side. In terms of the building blocks for 2020 Can you just talk kind of about pricing and what you're seeing there? Like I know through the year in 2023, obviously renewals were running kind than historical, but maybe what's kind of embedded in your outlook into 2024 there?

Speaker 2

Yes, Tom, we've been running at 3% and that It contributed to the strong organic growth in the 10% range these past few quarters. Heading into 2024 and then built into I think in Scott's comments About settling back to a mid single digit range is moving back down to the longer term and typical pricing dynamic in this industry, which is 1% to 2%. So we're incrementally as we renew contracts throughout the year, We're kind of starting to see that type of pricing dynamics settle back in there. And it makes sense, wage inflation is coming down And it's a price competitive industry and we've always said that. So that's the look forward.

Speaker 7

Got it. Thanks for that. And then just maybe one more and I know you guys kind of have touched upon it here in your prepared remarks. But just given kind of the macro headwinds and obviously leads Being down in the home improvement side of things, but obviously still showing gains. Are you kind of thinking about that volumemarket share versus kind of the price promotion trade off and kind of the impact or related impact on margins there As we kind of move forward into 2024?

Speaker 1

Yes, it's definitely a balance that we're working through. It's a growth oriented group and it's a time when We can, in some respects, take advantage of the market and gain share, but we want to balance it with margin. So We're looking to this year Not go backwards on margin certainly and looking to increase it from what we experienced in 2023.

Speaker 7

Okay, great. Appreciate the color guys. I'll turn back. Thanks.

Speaker 3

And thank you.

Operator

And our follow-up question comes from Daryl Young from Stifel. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Yes, sorry guys. Just one last one. With respect to the national account strategy and now having sort of fire, restoration and roofing all potentially Pursuing the same customers. Is there an insurance angle that's starting to work its way through on the commercial side and opportunities to be a preferred vendor with insurance companies as well or is

Speaker 1

that still kind of an early days concept? It's not something that's risen to the top. Certainly, national insurance carriers Our customers to Paul Davis and First On-site, not significant customers to Roofing Corp and not at all the Century Fire. So it's, I think more isolated to restoration right now.

Speaker 3

Okay, that's great. Thanks.

Operator

And thank you. And I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Scott Patterson for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Justin, and thank you all for joining. We're looking forward to a strong 2024 And we'll reconnect with you all in April around Q1. Have a great day.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Q1 investors conference call. Thank you for your participation and have a nice day.

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