About Lorie Tekorius
Lorie Tekorius, President and CEO of The Greenbrier Companies, has been discussing the company's financial performance and industry conditions in several media appearances and earnings calls. In September 2024, she noted that the company had recently reported its highest earnings per share in over four and a half years, with consolidated gross margins in the mid-teens. She attributed the company's share performance to the leadership team's focus on its footprint, facility investments, and improving manufacturing and aggregate gross margins. Tekorius also stated that the company is working toward goals of doubling recurring revenue and increasing return on invested capital.
Tekorius has also commented on trade and border issues affecting the rail industry. She described unannounced closures of rail crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border as a critical economic issue, stating that Mexico is the U.S.'s number one trade partner and that the closures disrupt commerce. She said she hopes policymakers can find a way to address the migration issue while maintaining cross-border trade. In other remarks, Tekorius noted that the rail industry is seeing a focus on infrastructure investment from both sides of the aisle, and that companies are shifting manufacturing to northern Mexico as part of a near-shoring trend following COVID-19 supply chain issues. She also discussed the company's involvement in Rail Pulse, an initiative to aggregate freight network information, and described technology and AI as evolving areas for the industry.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Lorie Tekorius's recent appearances.
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Transcript (23 segments)
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Host0:09
Welcome back to 'The Exchange.' Vice President Kamala Harris is set to become the nominee. Wells Fargo is out with a note saying the second Trump presidency would be bullish for the rails given his focus on regulation, domestic dominance, and lower corporate taxes. Joining me to discuss in an exclusive interview is Lorie Tekorius with a leading freight rail carmaker globally. Welcome.
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Lorie Tekorius0:38
It's great to be here.
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Host0:42
I'm sure you are thrilled to talk politics. It does seem like cross-border and freight traffic is one of the areas that has the biggest fallout lately from the presidential consequences of what we've seen.
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Lorie Tekorius0:54
Absolutely. Well, what's interesting is, you know, the rail freight industry, we've been around since the 19th century, right? We've been around and we've seen lots of different presidential candidates. We've seen lots of different presidential administrations, and just like other CEOs, you wake up and go on with the day just like you have to do.
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Host1:20
Reflecting on the Trump administration, 2016 to 2020, did it change what happened with freight traffic all over the country?
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Lorie Tekorius1:29
Some of the things that happened were safety and infrastructure. You need some gondola cars that carry the cars that support those kinds of investments, and we've seen that kind of demand. Anything that helps the economy, helps consumers, that benefits the railroad because so much of what you and I buy at the stores or on the internet, some way, shape, or form, it's been moved in a rail car. Whether it's an automobile, whether it's a washing machine, or whether it's some small gadget that you're buying on Amazon, it or its basic ingredients traveled in a gondola.
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Host2:09
Did you say gondola?
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Lorie Tekorius2:10
It's like a big cradle.
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Host2:12
And it carries what exactly?
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Lorie Tekorius2:14
You can put scrap steel, coiled steel, and all kinds of big, bulky products that don't need to be covered and secured by the weather.
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Host2:22
It sounds like a lot of President Biden's initiatives to increase infrastructure spending across the country would be bullish for gondola activity broadly speaking.
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Lorie Tekorius2:34
Yes. What's nice is we're hearing it on all sides of the aisle, the focus on investing in infrastructure and where we need upgrades around the country.
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Host2:42
The equity analysts are trying to think about angles, but what I'm hearing from you is either outcome might be supportive of rail activity, if maybe for a slightly different kind. My guess is if we're talking about reshoring, we're not talking about gondolas so much; we're talking about everyday commerce and some of that coming from Mexico and Canada instead of on a ship in Asia.
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Lorie Tekorius3:05
Exactly. You're seeing companies doing the nearshoring after COVID and with the supply chain issues. You're seeing companies shifting manufacturing going on in northern Mexico or support. So while we're building rail cars in Mexico, we are also building them in Arkansas, and we are sourcing some of the materials from Mexico from the United States. So the focus on crossing the border and being able to have commerce move across the border freely is great for the United States, it's great for North America. So that's where I really hope that we continue to focus: how do we build the North American market more strongly?
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Host3:41
In other words, you don't want it to be Mexico wins at the expense of China, but not that it comes off completely with the U.S. and cuts off our closest trade partner.
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Lorie Tekorius3:56
Mexico is our number one trade partner, and we need to recognize that, and it's been great for the United States as well. If we were to bring everything back to the United States, I don't think we have a workforce to support that. We do need our partners in North America to make all of our countries greater.
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Host4:12
That's interesting. Of course, things are charged with migration and all of those issues, but leaving that aside, it sounds like outcome regardless, you think the rails should benefit from generally increased GDP and increased activity. There was a pandemic of massive volumes and the hangover period, and the chips have been down and that sort of thing. Where are we now compared with the whole cycle? How has that played out?
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Lorie Tekorius4:38
For any of your viewers that like to look at information and data, there are boatloads and rail carloads...
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Host4:45
Sounds very Greenspan-esque.
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Lorie Tekorius4:47
Yeah. We are seeing it. It's poor comps if you look a year ago. We are seeing loadings going in the right direction, and this is from the freight industry perspective. I look at what's not only great for Greenbrier, as the railroads improve their operations and as we get better with the cars that we design and build, it's just better for all of us. So that's the focus there, and you're right when it comes to the border. My focus is on commerce.
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Host5:14
Yeah. Rail carloads should be up. Are those publicly released?
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Lorie Tekorius5:19
I'm sure you can find it on the internet. I heard a little bit about that.
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Host5:23
I think you should make it publicly released, and you make this a big data point, and we can all find out more about what's going on.
