Dear Fellow Stockholders,
I write this letter during a period of historic transformation at Wabash.
For 36 years, our company has delivered engineered solutions that have achieved new innovation frontiers within the commercial transportation industry. From a humble beginning with 20 employees at one facility in Lafayette, Indiana, to more than 6,000 employees throughout North America, our growth story is a tale of progress and a steadfast conviction that we are never done innovating.
As Wabash celebrates its 37th anniversary on April 15, 2022, the next chapter of our transformation comes to life at a pivotal moment in the transportation, logistics and distribution landscape.
There is a momentous transition happening in our industry as it adapts to a compilation of disruptive forces. Never before has our industry experienced such rapid change, driven by exponential technological advancements and major shifts in consumer behavior.
At Wabash, we work every day with our sights on the future: where supply chains are increasingly interconnected and indispensable to our economy; where our customers buy first to final mile solutions seamlessly from one source; and where advancements in material and digital technologies expand what’s possible.
In 2021, we completed the realignment of our organization in order to operate in lockstep with our customers’ ever-changing needs. As we have improved ease of doing business with Wabash, a strategic shift in our brand strategy—merging Wabash National and our portfolio of brands under one, powerful Wabash brand—is the final piece of the puzzle to uniting our strategy, organization, products and our customers as “One Wabash.”
As One Wabash we’re applying new technologies to deliver breakthrough value for customers, and our teams are dedicated to planning and designing to incorporate emerging technologies and a sustainable future. To further those efforts, we are partnering with some of the largest and most innovative e-commerce and retail companies to reimagine how goods are transported and delivered, and an expanded partnership with Purdue University enhances our speed in the market, with special attention on advanced engineering, material sciences, and electrification to bring solutions to market faster in the transportation, logistics and distribution industries.
Wabash has always led the industry in product design, and in recent years we set our focus on environmental impact, which has gained customers’ attention as they work toward meeting carbon reduction goals. Our products will continue to extend benefits like weight savings and thermal efficiency as competitive differentiators in an operating environment that increasingly prioritizes environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
Our cross-functional corporate responsibility team has made significant progress in enhancing our public disclosures on ESG initiatives, and I encourage you to review our latest corporate responsibility report to learn more about how we are embracing these initiatives as core to our strategy. After two years of publicly disclosing our ESG initiatives, Wabash was already recognized as one of America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek (2022)—an independent evaluation of all U.S. public companies that identifies the top 500 companies that take ESG matters more seriously than others.
With a refined strategy, a redesigned organizational structure, a powerful brand, and an acceleration of innovation and product development activities shaped by the changing transportation landscape and intensified focus on sustainability, we are well positioned to keep moving the industry forward.
Wabash is a different kind of company that is Changing How the World Reaches You™.
As always, I am ever grateful for the hard work and dedication of our people; the strategic oversight of our board of directors; the trust and support of our customers and suppliers; and the confidence of you, our stockholders, in Wabash and our long-term success.
With appreciation,
Brent L. Yeagy
President and Chief Executive Officer
