VALMONT INDUSTRIES INC (VMI)

Valmont Industries is a diversified manufacturer of products and services for infrastructure and agriculture markets. Its infrastructure offerings are aimed at making communities safer, cleaner, more efficient and better connected. Its agriculture offerings help growers raise crop yields with fewer inputs. The company was founded in 1946, went public in 1968, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VMI, and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Valmont reports in two segments, Infrastructure and Agriculture, a structure adopted in 2022 and organized by market dynamics. The Infrastructure segment has five product lines. Transmission, Distribution and Substation makes steel, pre-stressed concrete, composite and hybrid structures that support electrical transmission, distribution and substation equipment. Lighting and Transportation makes lighting poles, traffic and overhead sign structures, highway safety systems and the Con-Struct steel bridge system. Coatings provides galvanizing, anodizing and painting services to extend the life of metal products. Telecommunications makes wireless poles, towers, camouflage concealment solutions and components that support 5G. Renewable Energy sells solar single-axis tracking systems. The Agriculture segment makes mechanized irrigation equipment, including center pivot and linear systems, parts and tubular products. It also provides technology for precision agriculture, such as predictive and autonomous crop and irrigation management, remote monitoring and agronomy software. Its offshore wind structures business, Valmont SM in Denmark, was divested in 2022.

Infrastructure customers include municipalities and government entities worldwide, lighting fixture manufacturers (OEMs), contractors, and telecommunications and utility companies. Solar trackers are sold to engineering, procurement and construction firms, solar developers, independent power producers and utilities. Infrastructure markets are partly funded by local, state and federal spending, including the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The TD&S market is mainly in North America and is driven by grid upgrades, renewable generation policy and rising electricity consumption. In the United States, Agriculture customers are dealers who resell irrigation equipment to farmers. Both segments also serve the general manufacturing sector. About 32% of 2022 net sales were sold in markets or produced in plants outside North America.

Valmont has grown both organically and through acquisitions. Recent deals include ConcealFab (2022), Prospera Technologies (2021), PivoTrac (2021), Solbras (2020) and Convert Italia (2018). It has built or expanded manufacturing in Poland, India and the United Arab Emirates to serve European, Middle Eastern and North African markets. It also won a $240 million multi-year irrigation order in Egypt and an $85 million multi-year agreement for projects in Africa. The company says it competes by differentiating on customer service, engineering proficiency, technological innovation and quality.