Town of Genesee-based
Generac is approaching the end of a months-long backlog for its flagship product, the home standby generator.
Following rapid increased demand for home standby generators in 2021 and 2022, Generac increased production. However, the company’s network of installers couldn’t keep pace, which led to the backlog.
During the company’s third quarter earnings call,
Aaron Jagdfeld, chief executive officer of Generac, said the company expects to return to year-over-year sales growth in this product category by the end of the fourth quarter. Generac is moving closer to “more sustainable levels” of field inventory, he said.
“We have certain regions and certain channels, like our dealer channel in particular, that feel like we’re kind of at normal, but then you’re back to the whole question of what is normal? We picked a pre-COVID average to say what that is. We’re still under shipping the market in terms of overall end market demand, but it’s narrowing up,” said Jagdfeld.
Generac reported sales of its residential products declined 15% to $565 million compared to $664 million last year. The company’s commercial and industrial (C&I) segment continues to perform well with sales increasing 24% to $385 million compared to $311 million last year.
The company is maintaining its full-year 2023 net sales guidance for a decline of approximately -10% to -12% as compared to the prior year.
Following struggles within the company’s nascent clean energy business, which were the topic of a recent
BizTimes cover story, Jagdfeld hinted at a big year in 2024 for Generac as a new line of products in the space is unveiled.
In August 2022, Generac was struck with what would be the first of several legal issues in its clean energy business.
North Carolina-based Power Home Solar, which had been doing business as Pink Energy, filed a lawsuit against Generac, alleging the SnapRS component in one of Generac’s solar energy systems was defective.
The original SnapRS component was developed by Pika Energy and passed on to Generac as part of the 2019 acquisition.
“I think we all know we’ve struggled with our acquired products initially and we’ve worked very hard, and we will be working very hard over the next 12 months, to bring our new products to market,” said Jagdfeld. “We’ve got a huge team working on that.”
