NFI Group, owner of the New Flyer plant on Fluvanna Avenue, is reporting a $15 million loss in the third quarter of 2024.

The loss is a $25 million, or 62%, improvement from the second quarter of 2023 as the company’s revenues have increased. The company’s order backlog of 14,590 buses has increased by 53% from the third quarter of 2023 driven by a record number of contracts awarded in 2024. Just in the third quarter of 2024, NFI Group added 1,050 new orders, an 8.2% year-over-year improvement. The backlog for the third quarter of 2024 has a total dollar value of $12 billion.

The company would be even closer to a net break-even position if it could get seats for its finished buses. NFI Group officials told investor analysts recently that problems with a supplier have left nearly finished buses waiting to be delivered – and paid for – until the supplier can provide the seats for the buses. The supplier issue helped drive down manufacturing segment revenue in the third quarter of 2024 by $9 million, or 2%, compared to the second quarter of 2023.

“We were active in an intervention with the supplier where we pushed them to hire external operations consultant and to develop and execute on a recovery plan,” said Paul Soubry, NFI Group president and CEO. “They have also hired third-party labor to increase their manufacturing output. I will note that we are receiving some seating kits and shipping some of that to buses but we did not see an increase in the number of missing seats in October.”

NFI group is asking customers to pay in advance to help with NFI Group’s liquidity while the supplier works through its issues, which could last into early 2025. NFI Group has also contacted a successful European seat supplier who builds seats for other bus companies to set up a Buy America compliant seating production arrangement during the first half of 2025 to take pressure off of NFI Group’s seat supply chain.

Inventory and production rates decreased for several weeks while NFI Group managed its working capital and on completing buses with missing seats. Production also slowed as the company increased production of zero emissions buses that are more complex to manufacture.

“Liquidity and cash management remain a key focus as we navigate through the seating headwinds and continue our production ramp-up,” said Brian Dewsnup, NFI Group executive vice president and chief financial officer. “As Paul mentioned, we’re actively securing additional customer prepayments and deposits. We’ve also secured improved payment terms from certain suppliers. Finally, in October we obtained a proactive temporary waiver from our banking partners that allows us to access the additional $50 million under our secured facilities should we need it. We did this out of an abundance of caution as we do expect that our current liquidity combined with the additional customer payments will be sufficient to fund operations.”

Soubry said the company’s growth in revenue, free cash flow and net earnings are promising. The company is projecting a strong fourth quarter, which he said is typically the busiest period of the year for NFI Group. And, 2025 is looking like a good year due to the number of orders that have been received already.

“We have already nearly sold all of our North American public transit slots for next year and are now selling well into 2026,” Soubry said. “Our competitive positioning has improved in North America and we’re working on several major bids that we will further add confidence to our longer term outlook with limited bidders competing. We’re also actioning strategic initiatives to further strengthen our North America team to ensure that they capitalize on our market-leading position and ensure supplier performances.”