TopBuild - Q1 2024
May 7, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
I will now turn the conference over to your host, PI Aquino. You may begin.
PI Aquino (Head of Investor Relations)
Good morning, and thanks for joining us. On our call today are Robert Buck, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rob Kuhns, Chief Financial Officer. We posted our earnings release, senior management's formal remarks, and a presentation that summarizes our comments on our website at Topbuild.com. Many of our remarks today will include forward-looking statements which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in this morning's press release as well as in the company's filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Please note that some of the financial measures to be discussed during this call will be on a non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.
We have provided a reconciliation of these financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures in a table included in today's press release and in our presentation, both of which are available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to President and CEO Robert Buck.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Good morning, and thank you for joining our call today. Our first quarter performance got the year off to a solid start for TopBuild and was in line with our expectations. As a result, it's continued to demonstrate the strength of our business model and our team's ongoing drive to improve. As you saw in our release this morning, we are also raising our outlook and guidance for the remainder of 2024, which Rob will cover in his remarks. Let me start with a couple of comments around our recent announcements. Most of you saw our press release of 2 weeks ago terminating the SPI transactions. Since last July, we worked through the HSR review process to help the DOJ better understand the entire business and transaction details.
The DOJ focused on a small subsegment of metal building insulation, laminated fiberglass, and defined the business and distribution of the product very narrowly. Laminated fiberglass is one of several options that contractors have when insulating a metal building. This view from the DOJ led us to explore the possibility of renegotiating the transaction to buy SPI excluding the MBI business. While doing so would have likely allowed us to receive regulatory approval, we were unable to agree on price with the sellers and ultimately decided that pursuing the transaction further was not in our shareholders' best interest. As good stewards of your capital, we will continue to be very disciplined in our approach to acquisitions and capital allocation. Next, we announced today that our Board authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $1 billion.
This is in addition to the prior authorization, which has approximately $154 million remaining. This brings our total availability for share repurchase to $1.15 billion. This authorization shows the strength of our balance sheet and our management team and Board's confidence in our business and strategic direction. Turning now to our first quarter, we're pleased with the start to the year. Total company sales grew 1.1% to $1.28 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA rose 6.5% to $253.8 million. Good price realization of the quarter, coupled with productivity initiatives, drove Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 100 basis points to 19.8%. On a same-branch basis in the first quarter, our single-family installation business improved sequentially each month. In fact, March was the first time in more than a year that single-family improved on a year-over-year basis, which is very encouraging.
As you have heard from the public builder sentiment and order volumes being reported, we expect a healthy single-family environment for the remainder of 2024. Our installation results also benefited from continued strength in multifamily in the quarter, which grew more than 20% versus the tough comp from last year. As we know, the last quarter, starts and bidding activity for multifamily have slowed, but we have a healthy backlog of work that we anticipate will continue throughout the balance of 2024. Across the commercial and industrial landscape, we're seeing solid progress in the business, and our bidding activity win rate continues to improve. Our proprietary lead app tool is driving organic growth in this part of the business. We see many major projects being bid and coming online. We have several heavy commercial mechanical insulation projects that are being worked on across multiple verticals.
We have added slides 9, 10, and 11 to our earnings deck so you can visualize these verticals as well as our highly fragmented $18.25 billion TAM or total addressable market. These slides will also help you understand our customer base, product breadth, and service reach. As you can see, we have a lot of white space across our core insulation business for both organic and M&A growth. Turning to M&A, acquisitions will continue to be our number 1 capital allocation priority as they generate great returns for increased shareholder value. Identifying, evaluating, and integrating acquisitions is a core competency of ours, and we have an excellent track record of results in this area. We continue to have a robust pipeline of acquisition prospects. In fact, yesterday we announced an agreement to acquire Insulation Works, a $28 million Arkansas-based installation business with a national expertise in agricultural buildings.
We're excited to have another great addition to the TopBuild family of companies and expect to close this transaction later this month. To date in 2024, we've announced 5 transactions totaling approximately $68 million in annual revenue. Let me make a couple of industry comments before turning to our operations. On the material supply side, fiberglass continues to be on allocation. We anticipate Knauf's new facility in Texas will come online successfully in Q3. However, there is quite a bit of maintenance and downtime planned at several other fiberglass facilities, which will likely offset any new production capacity this year. We are feeling the impact of tight supply situation in our distribution business, mainly our specialty distribution volumes, which Rob will touch on in his comments. On the other hand, we are seeing momentum with spray foam given the code adoption tailwinds I will discuss later.
Recently, all four of the fiberglass suppliers have announced material cost increases effective in June or July. We expect to successfully work through any cost inflation that may take place, as we've consistently demonstrated. Moving to our operations, as I noted on our last call, we expanded our Special Ops team in 2023. This is a small team of highly seasoned operators whose mission is to focus on our branches, whose metrics fall in our bottom quartile. By leveraging this team's knowledge and experience, we're able to identify opportunities to drive improved performance. This quarter, we saw the benefit of this Special Ops work in one of our larger distribution and fabrication locations on the East Coast. Through work that started in 2023, this business was relocated to a better geography to service our customers. The facility was right-sized to drive improvements operationally, including productivity and overhead.
Better inventory management helped reduce transfers and improve service levels. Strategic decisions were made and actions regarding sales productivity and talent. A mix of business was reviewed and actions taken around new verticals for the business. What is the outcome? The Special Ops focus has improved profitability in this business from a low single digits to now mid-teens profit performance. The work on our bottom quartile is ongoing as we drive to improve our business, and our Special Ops team continues to focus on the opportunities across our network. Next, for those of you who might be less familiar, I'd like to spend a couple of minutes on our mechanical insulation business and the opportunity going forward. When you consider an industrial facility, they are full of pipes, ductwork, and mechanical systems.
These environments may have systems that need to be maintained at a certain temperature or systems that require sound control via an acoustic barrier. They may also need protective insulation barriers to keep employees safe. We have the capability to supply any mechanical insulation solution required across many diverse industries. This is accomplished through a variety of products, including custom-fit jacketing and pipe covers made from insulating materials like fiberglass, foam glass, or aerogel, just to name a few. Our distribution business provides these materials and custom fabricates coverings to contractors and mechanical installers. The standards for these industries are very prescriptive, often regulated with specific replacement schedules. We're currently working on several large industrial LNG facilities, liquefied natural gas, in the U.S. and Canada. Mechanical insulation plays a key role for LNG facilities.
Many are being built along the Gulf Coast, and you're dealing with high humidity environments and using cryogenic temperatures to compress natural gas. Let me give an example of a multi-year LNG mega project in Louisiana where we are a primary distributor of mechanical insulation. The facility will sit on more than 600 acres and take 3-4 years to complete. The facility will contain massive storage tanks, energy turbines, and multiple segments of pipeline totaling over 20 miles throughout. Some pipes will be more than 3 feet in diameter. Our initial scope included supplying products and fabrication services for modules being constructed off-site. Our national footprint allowed us to supply these pre-built modules from multiple distribution international facilities across multiple states. This represented over $12 million in revenue in 2023.
As the project has progressed, our scope has expanded to include more hot and cold insulation applications, fire protection, and sound remediation insulation for on-site construction, which will deliver an additional $20 million of revenue. This is a great example of our scope on a multi-phase project that enables us to leverage our product breadth and expertise, fabrication capabilities, project management focus, and national footprint. As we mentioned in the past, these projects may be lumpy over time in regard to revenue, but they play to TopBuild's specialty distribution strengths. In addition, the replacement cycles for these projects vary from 18-24 months for certain equipment to plant-wide refurbishment every five years. We will see recurring revenue from this project and others. Let me transition to discussing the future of our overall business.
We have several dynamics across the industry that will allow our differentiated business model to continue driving profitable growth, whether it be the large mega projects that should come online in the next few years and the recurring revenue that will follow, or our expanded commercial reach across North America. At a macro level, the United States continues to face a housing shortage, the result of the last decade of underbuilding. So fundamentally, we expect housing demand to be strong for the foreseeable future. We also see tailwinds for TopBuild in the industry coming from energy code adoptions and recent HUD announcements. Given our expertise in all things insulation-related, we expect these energy code changes to help fuel additional demand for years to come. All these dynamics, along with our relentless drive to improve and focus on talent, fuels our confidence that TopBuild will outperform in any changing business environment.
Finally, I'll close my remarks today by thanking and congratulating our entire TopBuild team. TopBuild has been recognized as a great place to work for the second consecutive year. This recognition demonstrates that we're building a workplace that supports development, provides career opportunities, ensures fair treatment, and values each employee. On behalf of our entire leadership team, thank you to our employees. Your passion, drive, and commitment to success have played a significant role in earning this certification once again. Let me now turn the call over to Rob.
Thanks, Robert, and good morning, everyone. I want to thank our teams for their hard work in delivering another quarter of profitable growth for TopBuild. As we mentioned on the February call, the first quarter of last year was our highest sales growth quarter due to the carryover of a strong single-family backlog. We also had a slow start to this January due to weather across the country. Our teams came back and delivered strong results in February and March, and our first quarter saw sales grow 1.1% to $1.28 billion in line with our expectations. Across both segments, we did a great job covering the fiberglass cost increases that hit during the quarter. These fiberglass price increases were partially offset by the carryover impact of lower material prices on spray foam from last year.
Breaking our first quarter sales down by segment, our installation segment net sales grew 4.1% to $798.7 million, of which 2.6% was the net contribution from acquisitions and disposals. Pricing contributed 1.2%, and volume was up slightly by 0.3%. Installation's multifamily sales remained strong due to the strength of our backlog, and single-family sales continued to improve each month of the quarter. The current trend on single-family starts should be a tailwind to our business as we move through the remainder of the year. Net sales for specialty distribution declined 2.3% to $545.8 million for the first quarter. Volume declined 4.2%, partially offset by higher pricing of 1.5% and acquisitions of 0.4%. The volume decline was driven by lower residential insulation sales because of business mix and tighter material supply of fiberglass.
Total company gross margin of 30.3% expanded by 100 basis points versus last year due to improved productivity and higher pricing in both segments. As I mentioned earlier, our teams continue to do a great job effectively managing the price-cost relationship. In addition, our ongoing focus on driving operational improvements, as Robert detailed earlier, continues to drive margin benefits. Adjusted EBITDA of $253.8 million was up 6.5%, and Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 100 basis points to 19.8% compared to the first quarter of 2023. Installation Adjusted EBITDA margin was 22%, an improvement of 60 basis points year-over-year. Specialty distribution's Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.9% was 110 basis points better than the first quarter of 2023. Other income and expense totaled $7.5 million in the quarter, which was down from $16.1 million last year. Interest income from higher cash balances was the primary driver.
Adjusted earnings per diluted share grew 10.3% to $4.81 in the first quarter. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow, we finished the quarter with total liquidity of $1.4 billion, which includes cash of $968.8 million and availability under our revolver of $436.2 million. Net debt at the end of the quarter was $453.7 million, and our leverage ratio was 0.42x the last 12 months' Adjusted EBITDA. Working capital, as a percent of sales, was 14% in the quarter, an improvement of 160 basis points from last year at this time, primarily driven by inventory reductions. Free cash flow for the last 12 months was $790.1 million, which compares to $502.6 million last year, an increase of 57.2%. Our uniquely advantaged business model continues to generate strong cash flows.
Acquisitions remain our top priority for reinvesting our cash flow, as our disciplined M&A process has a proven track record of driving significant shareholder value. As Robert discussed earlier, our Board recently approved a new share repurchase authorization of up to $1 billion, bringing the total availability for buybacks to $1.15 billion. As we have done in the past, we will continue to balance returning capital to shareholders with our M&A pipeline. Turning now to our 2024 guidance, we are raising our sales expectations by $40 million to a range of $5.4 billion-$5.6 billion. We continue to expect total sales for residential and commercial to grow by mid-single digits. We are also raising our Adjusted EBITDA guidance by $25 million to $1.065 billion-$1.155 billion. These increases to sales and Adjusted EBITDA are driven by better-than-anticipated Q1 profitability and recent acquisitions.
Looking to the remainder of the year, I want to remind you that last year's second and third quarter EBITDA included $10 million and $15 million, respectively, of unusual profit related to our multifamily business. I'll close today by reiterating our continued confidence in our outlook, as well as the strength of the long-term fundamentals in our business. We believe that our teams will continue to execute at a high level, and TopBuild will continue to outperform in any environment. Robert? Thanks, Rob. We continue to be confident about 2024 and expect both segments to deliver another year of consistent execution and strong results. Our multiple avenues for growth stretch across a very fragmented $18.25 billion TAM. I hope the information and slides that we've provided today are helpful in better understanding our insulation end markets and our opportunities.
We have a proven, differentiated business model and a disciplined capital allocation strategy. Looking forward, we see great opportunity for profitable growth, both organically and through M&A. Operator, we are now ready for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Our first question comes from the line of Stephen Kim with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.
Stephen Kim (Analyst)
Yeah, thanks very much, guys. Appreciate all the color, as always. A couple of questions here, I guess, first regarding the M&A pipeline, which continues to be, I guess you said, your number one priority. Obviously, thanks for the color here on the metal building insulation hiccup with SPI. But as we look across the landscape, I was wondering if you could give us kind of a breakdown of how you see the pipeline looking across the three segments that you laid out. And specifically within the mechanical-industrial, could you help us understand what the landscape looks like? I assume that the metal building insulation is not something which you expect to be an impediment going forward, but if you could just clarify that for us, that would be helpful. Thanks.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Hey, good morning, Stephen. This is Robert. So yeah, across the landscape of the pipelines, I'll start residential first. So very healthy there, both on the installation side and some good opportunity on the distribution side as well. And it can be, by the way, it can be fiberglass, it can be spray foam, the other insulation-related products that we do. That's why it provides such fragmentation and good opportunity. And then on the mechanical side, we definitely do not see the MBI as any inhibitor. That probably really only takes kind of one player off the table, and that was what transpired with SPI. So relative to mechanical, as we've said in the past, there's a handful of larger players on the mechanical side that we obviously consider, and you could count those kind of on one hand, if you will. After that, it's very fragmented.
So regional players, both in the U.S. and in Canada. And again, what you find in that space is those regional players may be participating in a certain vertical. So they may be in oil and gas, they may be in food and beverage, they may be in pharmaceutical, as an example. That's why that space is fragmented as well, and it gives us a lot of M&A opportunity in that space. So good pipeline, that's why we say it still definitely remains number one capital allocation priority, and I think you'll absolutely continue to see us be active across the space.
Stephen Kim (Analyst)
Okay, great. That's helpful. Appreciate that. Secondly, I guess, with respect to the code changes there, we saw HUD announce that change, which I guess would be effective in the residential new construction in about 18 months, moving to the 2021 code. So I was curious if you could help us dimensionalize that a little bit across a couple of vectors. First, is it right to think that the code change to 2021 on a per-home basis maybe increase the amount of insulation used in dollars, call it maybe 20%-30%? And then what would that translate into a benefit to TopBuild from a revenue perspective, in your view? And then another way of another aspect is our understanding is that the 2024 code may be rather different and in many cases require less material. So I was wondering if you could help us think through that.
And then lastly, regarding the code change, what do you think the likelihood is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopt these changes to?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, so talk about the code changes. So you're right. I mean, the HUD announcement is a tailwind for sure. Now, obviously, it depends on a couple of things. One is, where's the builder today? If they're at a 2009 or older code, you could be talking somewhere in the ballpark of maybe as much of a 30% increase in maybe the pounds of fiberglass. If they're more in that range of a 2015 code, it could be more in the 15% type of range. So we do see it as a tailwind. Obviously, there's multiple options as to how you can go after meeting those codes that obviously could drive some of the revenue questions you asked. But look, we see it as all tailwinds for the future, and that means multiple years into the future as well.
I think 2024 is interesting because it's kind of more of a systems approach, so there can be multiple ways that you go after that code and meeting some of those requirements. So I think we'll see how that translates, but we know that insulation is one of the best and most comprehensive ways for builders to deliver and to meet those requirements as well. I think relative to adoption, I mean, you see that energy codes; it seems like there's just been really a boost of that tailwind, if you will, even though given the Inflation Reduction Act 45L is a little more complex, but it takes more of a systems approach. So I think our feeling is that you'll see more adoption. To be determined, but it does seem like in the past 12-18 months, more tailwind for the industry for sure.
Stephen Kim (Analyst)
Okay, great. Well, it's all good news, I guess, for you guys. Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate all the help.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.
Susan Maklari (Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Morning.
Susan Maklari (Analyst)
Good morning. My first question is just perhaps going back to the capital allocation. Given your comments on the mechanical side of things, does it imply that maybe you would consider pursuing some of those smaller niche players rather than going after the handful of larger ones? And I guess with that too, how are you thinking about buybacks, just given the increase in the authorization that you also announced this morning?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, good morning, Susan. This is Robert. I'll take the first part of that question, Rob. We'll take the second part. So yeah, so on the landscape of the mechanical acquisition side, we're looking across both. I mean, so obviously, we have some relationships with some of the larger players and conversations that we've had. But then absolutely, we participate across all those verticals. And so the local or more regional players that may play in one or two verticals, we're absolutely interested in that. We've had some success in that approach in the past. DI had some success in that approach in the past as well. So we're open to the gamut on M&A relative to mechanical, and we think it's all open ground for us. So I think that's why we're excited about it.
That's why we keep talking about the fragmentation, but also the robust pipeline as well.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, Susan, and I'll just add on the buyback front, I mean, obviously, we're excited about announcing that today. It shows the confidence our Board has in our strategy. It shows the health of our balance sheet right now. So as Robert said, M&A is going to remain our top priority. But obviously, given the cash we have on hand today, we're going to balance our pipeline with returning capital to shareholders as we have in the past. So like I said, we're really excited about that, and we're going to continue to manage that as we have in the past.
Susan Maklari (Analyst)
Okay. All right. Thank you for that. And then maybe thinking a bit about price and price cost, you mentioned the announcements, the price increases that have come out from the suppliers. Just any thoughts on how that can roll through the business and your ability to continue to offset those incremental increases?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, this is Robert. So, obviously confident. We've talked in the past about, number 1, how we manage those given our ERP system and that touch with each branch at the local level. 2, I think we've demonstrated our teams in the field have demonstrated great track record with that. I think relative to how that plays out, we'll see how the single-family starts play out. We think it's going to be a positive back half of the year, which will keep material tight and probably bodes well for the traction relative to what happens with price and the price increase. So more to come, but yeah, definitely confident in our ability to manage that appropriately.
Susan Maklari (Analyst)
Okay. All right. Thank you for the color. Good luck with everything.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kenneth Zener with Seaport Research Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Kenneth Zener (Analyst)
Good morning, everybody.
Michael Rehaut (Analyst)
Morning.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Hey, Ken.
Kenneth Zener (Analyst)
It's an interesting combination here where pricing's positive. You talked about on the distribution side, supply actually impacting your volume, if I understood your language correct. Is that correct?
Robert Buck (CEO)
That's correct.
Kenneth Zener (Analyst)
So could you give a little context? I know north of 1.4 million starts, things are pretty tight. That's supporting the price amid what had been slowing activity. It's obviously accelerating again. But did you guys know nobody's going to Home Depot? I don't hear allocation like people going to Home Depot, per se, or can you talk to how it was so tight and perhaps why we didn't see greater price dynamics, more favorable price if supply was so tight, I guess, is one of the things I'm trying to understand as that goes to the perhaps tension that we might see in price in the second half.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, Ken, so I'll take the first part on material. Rob will handle the price detail piece of it. So yeah, so material definitely still tight.
I mean, I would save and say that we've had to buy some material through third-party, if you will, given the tightness. Now, as we mentioned back in February, some of that is planned maintenance, but there's also been some downtime in the industry as well, unplanned downtime in the industry that caused material to be tight. I think what we've seen is you see given some of the code adoption, you're seeing some momentum with other products. We mentioned on our prior remarks around spray foam. So I think you see that relieving some of it relative to the installation side of the business. And then we talked about fiberglass. There was also some commercial products that were very tight in the first quarter as well, mainly around mineral wool and some of the manufacturer's issues of that product as well. But that's definitely improving.
We think material stays tight, but we think we'll be in a good position here given some of the other products. Rob will talk about the price piece.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, so around price, Ken, I mean, the way to think about the first quarter, a couple of things impacting that and probably making it a little less than if you just look at fiberglass in a vacuum. One is the timing of the fiberglass increase. I'd say it was more of a mid-quarter implementation, so we should see that improve as we go into the second quarter. And then the other thing you have is the carryover impact of some price decreases we saw last year, primarily around spray foam. And that's going to continue on in through the second quarter, offsetting some of the price increase we see on fiberglass.
Kenneth Zener (Analyst)
Okay. And then can we talk to obviously, the deal didn't go through, but mechanical is a huge area, right, where you could keep doing acquisitions given your mid-teens share for quite a while. But perhaps is there something different that as you do these mechanical acquisitions that'll change the incremental margins of specialty distribution, or is it still expected to largely be, let's say, 75% material, 25% perhaps value add? So the incrementals of that business over time will still be in that low to mid-teens range that I think you guys have described before?
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, I mean, and I think from what we've seen, I think we'll expect most of the distributors in that space will probably see EBITDA margins when we acquire them kind of in that mid-teens type or low, I'd say more low, 10%-11% type range, maybe low teens. But then just like with DI and the synergies we'll be able to drive, we'd expect to be able to get that up into the mid-teens. And the incrementals over time, once you get that first year of fixed costs behind you there and you're leveraging that fixed cost base, we'd expect the incrementals to be in that 22-27 that we target over the long term. We talk about distribution being more towards the low end of that and obviously install more towards the high end. Thank you very much.
Kenneth Zener (Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Rehaut with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Michael Rehaut (Analyst)
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to circle back for a moment. Don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but obviously, a lot of focus around the mechanical vertical. And I was wondering if you could give a little more color around what the metal building insulation represented as a % of sales of SPI, what it also represents as a % of the $5.75 billion mechanical vertical that you posted on the slides. And I noticed that you didn't change the overall TAM of that vertical relative to your prior presentation. So I'm just kind of wondering around this subsector if you still see it as a viable part of the industry.
Again, just trying to get a size of SPI in the broader sector and if it changes your view around this subcategory as still being an area as part of your acquisition strategy within the broader space?
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, Michael, this is Rob. I'll start on that one. I mean, when you look at MBI for us today, it's roughly about 6% of our revenue. It's important to also clarify for people, it falls into that middle vertical or that middle market on our slides of the commercial building envelope. It's not the mechanical space. It's the commercial building envelope. And from our view, when you go to insulate a metal building, there's multiple options you can do, right? Laminated fiberglass is one option, and that's what we do. And that's what SPI did as well. For them, it was about 15% of their total revenue. So relatively small pieces for both of us. So it's a small niche within that commercial building envelope. When you go to insulate a commercial building, you could use laminated fiberglass. You can use spray foam. You can use insulated metal panels.
And that's how we thought about the market more broadly. But the DOJ narrowed in on that laminated fiberglass, which is a much smaller piece of the overall market there. So in terms of our M&A strategy going forward, it doesn't really concern us. We're already, obviously, a large player in that very small niche. And we're not as big a player in the rest of the commercial building space or in the mechanical space. And that's where we'll continue to do M&A going forward.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, and obviously, Mike, that's where the focus was, really, around that small niche of the MBI side. So no concern across the rest of the business. And there's really not much that takes off the table relative to MBI other than the decision we just made.
Michael Rehaut (Analyst)
Right. So I guess just kind of following on that and appreciate the additional color there. As you look at the landscape of potential targets across the commercial, industrial space, the building envelope, and the mechanical, in the past, you've kind of said that there were maybe half a dozen or less kind of larger potential acquisitions, medium to larger, and you kind of walked through the different relative sizes. With SPI off the table, to the extent that some of these other medium to larger size potential targets also have MBI, I'm just kind of curious if that kind of changes the calculus or the likelihood of some of those other larger players, or was this kind of a one-off where the other kind of medium to larger targets wouldn't necessarily have this niche issue that the DOJ kind of zeroed in on?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah. Great question, Mike, because this is Robert. So you hit on it there. The other players really don't have the MBI niche piece of the business. That's why we keep saying it's really zero concern for us from an M&A strategy perspective. So it doesn't really exist in any of the other targets that we've talked about in the past or any of the ones that we're focused on. So really not an issue.
Michael Rehaut (Analyst)
Great. And then one last quick one, if I could. When you talk about raising the guidance, and you kind of said that it was driven off of the better first-quarter profitability and the 1Q acquisitions, just wanted to clarify that whether or not it included the most recent acquisition of the Arkansas installer and also if it reflects any level of success with the June, July price increases.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Hey, Michael, this is Rob. So it does not include either one of those. So we don't include any acquisitions that we haven't yet closed. So the Arkansas acquisition that we announced will be incremental. And then likewise, we haven't baked in any incremental pricing at this point. We've put in, obviously, what we know from the Q1 price increase, but we haven't baked in that additional price increase, that potential price increase later this year.
Michael Rehaut (Analyst)
Perfect. Thanks so much.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rafe Jadrosich with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Shaun Calnan (Analyst)
Hi, guys. This is actually Shaun Calnan. I'm for Rafe. So spray foam has come up a couple of times on this call. Can you talk about your current exposure to spray foam, either in terms of volume or revenue? And then are you seeing the demand pick up for that as the price begins to narrow between that and some of more of the traditional insulation products?
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, Sean, I'll give you a couple of quick numbers, and then Robert can expand on what's going on in the industry a little bit with spray foam. But from a unit basis, in terms of the houses we insulate, it's probably roughly 10% on the unit basis. From a dollar's perspective, though, it's going to be north of 20% because the cost on spray foam's roughly 2x, maybe a little more than that, closer to 2.5 in some places in terms of the cost per unit. But Robert can talk a little bit about some of the dynamics there with spray foam right now.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, so you're definitely seeing momentum in the product, Sean. One is definitely a big tailwind coming from the codes that we've talked about. So you see even some of the production home builders are becoming very interested in that product to reach the 45L rebate piece and make sure they deliver upon that. So yeah, definitely momentum with the product, both smaller builders, custom builders, but then also even with production builders. And then last part I would just say is around commercial. We see more spray foam being specced in commercial projects as well. So it's got some momentum really across the board.
Shaun Calnan (Analyst)
Got it. And then in yesterday's InsulationWorks announcement, you guys specifically called out the agricultural market. Can you give us a rough estimate of how much that segment currently contributes to sales and then what you think the market opportunity is there?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, for us today, it's a pretty small piece of our sales. We do that across the country in different parts. I think about the Northeast as an example, Southeast. We do it, but what we love about InsulationWorks and the ownership group there is they really are a national player in that, great relationships, great expertise, even with some of the large poultry producers across the country. So they're bringing a whole new level, which would really be something we can build upon across the country for TopBuild.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Phil Ng with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Philip Ng (Analyst)
Hey, guys. I guess my question is, do you have any chunkier deals in the pipeline, especially on the C&I side? And just given how strong your balance sheet is and free cash flow, perhaps, Rob, how are you thinking about pacing this buyback? Because at least on my math, a billion-dollar buyback, I'm not saying you would buy the whole thing this year. It would still get you to a balance sheet one times or less from a leverage standpoint. So one, color on chunkier deals, and two, how are you thinking about pacing this billion-dollar buyback authorization program you just announced?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Hey, Phil, Robert, I'll take the first part. So yeah, I mean, definitely, the pipeline looks good from that perspective. Obviously, we were waiting to see if we got SPI across the finish line. And so now that we've moved forward from that, made our decision to remain disciplined on the M&A front, then we'll be moving forward with some of our other opportunities that we have. So yeah, so feel good about the pipeline, really, across all three end segments, including the C&I side as well.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, Phil, and this is Rob. In terms of buybacks, like I said earlier, we're not going to be able to give any guidance exactly at how that's going to play out. We're going to obviously see how the M&A pipeline flows, prioritize that. But as you point out, we're sitting in a very healthy balance sheet position today. So we'll see how many of these M&A deals we get to the finish line, and we'll certainly balance that with the buybacks moving forward. Like we've talked about in the past, we think net debt leverage somewhere in the 1-2 is probably the right type number. And we're obviously at 0.42 at the end of this quarter. We were anticipating using a significant portion of that cash on the SPI deal. So obviously, we're pivoting from that and hence the announcement of the billion-dollar authorization.
Philip Ng (Analyst)
But Rob, I guess if there's no deals, the game plan wouldn't be to build excess cash, right? The plan would probably still stay within that leverage ratio or maybe closer to the low end? Am I thinking about it right?
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, I mean, I think if we spent the majority of that, we'll probably still end up on the low end of that 1-2 right now.
Philip Ng (Analyst)
Okay. All right, that's helpful. And then from a material availability standpoint, a little surprised how tight it is. I know it's tight on allocation. I'm a little surprised. There are some limitations on getting material. Did I hear you correctly, Robert, that the Knauf plan is coming on sometime in 3Q? I thought it was supposed to come on July. So that might create an even tighter environment. Certainly, there's price increases out there for fiberglass and mineral, but rates are higher for longer now. So how are you thinking about your ability to kind of push this through, and how do you think about supply-demand overall?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yes, I think, Phil, good question. So the plan is coming up and call it June, July as far as when it starts up. But by the time they get running, if you will, at maybe a steady pace, you're probably talking definitely into Q3. And as you think about materials, we talked about, there's still maintenance to be done in the industry. And we've seen some unplanned downtime, which gives you a little bit of pause for concern. So that's why we think material stays tight the remainder of this year. And then if you take the single-family starts, which we think even if you just take the order information from the builders, I think we think single-family will be strong the back half of the year. So we think there's good possibility for traction there in material. And then we'll see how 2025 plays out here.
Those lines should be up, full production by then, and then we'll see what's happening from a starts perspective as well. And some of this code's piece of it that we talk about, you'll see some central pounds coming into play there relative to capacity needs. So should line up well here for the back half of the year, but we'll have to keep playing the allocation piece as well.
Philip Ng (Analyst)
Sorry to sneak this one in, Robert. I mean, you were talking about how code changes would be a tailwind for demand. Material is clearly tight. Single-family should pick up in the back half. Are you hearing anything from your suppliers in terms of potentially adding more capacity that could potentially be a relief next year? I know Owens Corning is taking a harder look at any long-term plans on the capacity front. But any incremental uplift that you see perhaps next year outside of Knauf ramping up more fully and perhaps from a maintenance standpoint, things being a little better spot?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, I think maybe two things I'll say, Phil. I think one, people are evaluating. That's for sure. But I think people are evaluating multiple insulating products whenever they're doing the evaluation, if that makes sense.
Philip Ng (Analyst)
Okay. Thank you.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stephens Inc. Please proceed with your question.
Sid Ramesh (Analyst)
Hey, guys. This is Sid Ramesh on for Trey Grooms. Thanks for taking my question. Could you maybe talk about the trends you saw in April and into May on the different end markets? Anything noticeable with maybe rates taking a little higher? Sounds like single-family is improving, but any changes on the commercial or multifamily side?
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, I'd say, Sid, for us, no major changes. I mean, April came in about as we expected. And just like I think Robert mentioned in his opening comments, we saw March was the first month. We saw single-family with year-over-year sales growth, first time we'd seen that in a year. April, we saw that again. So we are seeing some of the improvement from the improved starts on the single-family side, which is definitely a positive sign as we move forward here.
Sid Ramesh (Analyst)
Got it. And then quickly on the mid-single-digit commercial growth number, how should we think about R&R and new kind of assumed in that number? We've been hearing maybe some weakness on the new construction side. So any color would be helpful.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, I think, I mean, like we've said in the past, I mean, the R&R within our specialty distribution business, which is 60% commercial, it's about a quarter of that revenue. Hopefully, the comments Robert made in his script today talking about that LNG facility in Louisiana helps kind of drive home the scale of what we're talking about with some of those types of jobs. I mean, that's a job where our total revenue over a couple of years is going to be over $30 million. And then you think about it, you got that recurring revenue coming after that. You're going to have ongoing maintenance and repair that happens throughout the life, and then you're going to have every five years or so a complete teardown and replacement of that.
So while we're watching the commercial industrial side of things closely, too, I think we haven't seen any slowdown in our bid rates. A lot of the work that's going on with some of these mega projects, whether it be LNG, whether it be chip manufacturing, they're heavy insulation needs for those projects that are going on, which should be a tailwind for our business as we move forward.
Sid Ramesh (Analyst)
Great. Appreciate the color, guys. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Stevenson with Loop Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Jeffrey Stevenson (Analyst)
Hey, thanks for taking my questions today, and congrats on the nice quarter.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Thanks, Jeff.
Jeffrey Stevenson (Analyst)
So the improved monthly sequential single-family installation volumes throughout the quarter was encouraging. But with rates expected to remain higher longer, are you expecting public builders to represent a greater concentration of your mid-single-digit residential demand expectations than you did in February since the regional and independent builders are more sensitive to future interest rate cuts?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, I think I'll take the first part, Rob, may add on. So yeah, I mean, as you talk to our wide variety of customers, whether it be production, big builders, regional builders, small custom builders, definitely the production builders, regional builders are bullish for sure. And then I think even the small custom builders, I think they feel positive. They're actually watching the rates a little bit closer. So yeah, I think we feel good about that. We definitely feel good about our work with our production home builders and kind of some of the things that we talked about relative to codes and what they're pushing to make sure they get the 45L advantage, if you will. So that kind of plays to multiple insulating options in those homes, and it's quite a bit of impact for the production home builders.
We think there's a lot of things going on with the different builders here that are positive, but definitely the production builders are well-suited for what's happening.
Robert Kuhns (CFO)
Yeah, and Jeff, definitely not any major shift from what we had in our initial guidance or anything that would adjust our guidance in any way as a result of what's going on right now with rates.
Jeffrey Stevenson (Analyst)
Okay. Got it, Rob. Thanks. And then I just wanted to follow up on the last question. It sounds like both light and heavy commercial bidding activity remains healthy, and you obviously continue to benefit from your new lead app as well. That said, is there any verticals that you have any concern of some slowdown moving forward, just given the choppiness we continue to see in leading commercial demand indicators?
Robert Buck (CEO)
Yeah, Jeff, Robert, not really. So whenever we're looking at our backlogs and our bidding, we're looking at the verticals. And I think so the one that kind of comes front and center for folks is around office buildings, that type of thing. But that was something we probably started talking to our teams about, made sure we were looking at our bidding activity probably two years ago. So no real concern around the verticals and what we're seeing, and then obviously making sure we're well-represented across the many verticals there.
Jeffrey Stevenson (Analyst)
Got it. Thank you.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to President and CEO Robert Buck. For a closing remark.
Robert Buck (CEO)
Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to talking with you in August when we'll be presenting our Q2 results. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time.