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Tecnoglass Inc (NASDAQ: TGLS)
Q3 2019 Earnings Call
Nov 6, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Tecnoglass Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rodny Nacier, Investor Relations. Thank you sir, you may begin.
Rodny Nacier -- Investor Relations
Thank you for joining us for Tecnoglass' third quarter 2019 conference call. A copy of the slide presentation to accompany the call may be obtained on the Investors section of the Tecnoglass website. Our speakers for today's call are Chief Executive Officer, Jose Manuel Daes; Chief Operating Officer, Chris Daes; and Chief Financial Officer, Santiago Giraldo.
I would like to remind everyone that matters discussed in this call except for historical information are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future financial performance, future growth and future acquisitions.
These statements are based on Tecnoglass' current expectations or beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary in a material nature from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors and other risks or uncertainties affecting the operations of Tecnoglass' business.
These risks, uncertainties and contingencies are indicated from time-to-time in Tecnoglass' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information discussed during the call is presented in light of such risks. Further, investors should keep in mind that Tecnoglass' financial results in any particular period may not be indicative of future results. Tecnoglass is under no obligation to and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. I'll now turn the call over to Jose Manuel, beginning on slide number four.
Jose Manuel Daes-- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Thank you, Rodny, and thank everyone for participating in today's call. In the third quarter, we further cemented our position as a U.S. focused growth company. We achieved another quarter of record revenue with 12% growth primarily through continued expansion in our core U.S. market, which represented 86% of total revenues. We increased US sales 13%, including residential, up nearly 60%, reflecting our rapid penetration of the Florida single-family market. We also strengthened our commercial foothold in attractive regions of the country.
The U.S. is expected to remain the primary driver of our growth, based on an attractive mix of project and backlog in coming quarters. Through our expanding reputation for excellence in our extensive portfolio of projects in diverse regions, we expect to continue gaining market share in the U.S., supported by further progress in our commercial business. And our impressive expansion in residential. We are forming many new customer relationships and we’re in need to further diversify our geographic footprint. In Colombia, revenues were up 21% year-over-year excluding FX. This was encouraging and better than expected. We also ended the quarter with solid levels of backlog in that region.
In July, we were pleased to complete the expansion of our aluminum extrusion facilities on budget and on-time. This modern state-of-the-art facility is now fully operational and is helping us to more efficiently serve the incremental aluminum demand throughout our markets. We are pleased with the progress we have made on our high return investment as we continue to scale our industry-leading margin business and gain share. Our other high return investment to automate certain operations of our facilities remain on track to be completed by year end. We expect this capacity upgrades to increase the efficiency of our operations and allow us to advance our competitive position in the U.S. as we execute against a record backlog of projects. We look forward to deliver another full year of double-digit growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Furthermore, we expect to end the year better situated than ever to continue driving the stronger results.
Beyond 2019, our record line of projects paired with our highly efficient, low-cost operations give us confidence in our ability to generate attractive returns for shareholders in the years to come.
I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide additional details on our backlog.
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
Thank you, Jose Manuel. Moving to our backlog on slide 6.As Jose mentioned, we continue to establish ourselves as a U.S. centric company. We continue to generate record levels of project backlog, which stood at $532 million at the end of the third quarter. Backlog increased 5% year-over-year, primarily representing attractive project wins across more than 14 states. The Q3 backlog level represents more than 1.2 times our trailing 12-month revenue, but an even more impressive 1.5 times when taking out residential sales, which do not get captured in our backlog. We continue to see the solid levels of quoting and bidding activity. We have a strong base of activity that gives us comfort in our project pipeline through 2020. The U.S. market represents an increase in mix of our business, comprising approximately 88% of our third quarter backlog.
This compares to 78% in the third quarter of 2018. We continue to experience favorable residential and commercial construction conditions in the U.S. and we are sourcing project wins from a diverse number of regions where structural glass and curtain wall systems continue to lead the architectural glass trends. We will continue to focus on diversifying of revenue stream into attractive geographies where we have the opportunity to gain share. Our facility investments will help us capitalize of these greater demand for our products. Our target automation and optimization initiatives at our production facilities are already in the testing stage and will start operating by year-end, providing for additional efficiencies within our vertical integrated operation, mainly on labor and waste reduction. On the product side, the success of our residential offerings continues to surpass our expectations and now accounts for over 15% of our overall business.
We are pleased with the trajectory of our business. I look forward to executing on our multi-year project pipeline while carefully pursuing additional opportunities to grow our company. Our strategic footprint, first-class product designs and commitment to operational excellence should allow us to continue producing industry leading margins in our business.
I will now turn the call over to Santiago to discuss our financial results and market.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Christian. Beginning with our financial highlights on Slide number 8. We were pleased to improve third quarter revenues by 11.8% year-over-year to $108.5 million. Excluding the impact of unfavorable foreign currency, total revenues would have increased 13.6% compared to the prior year quarter.
We accomplished this while continuing to rapidly penetrate the U.S. market, especially in residential, where our sales grew 60% compared to the prior year quarter. Lower gross margin year-over-year was primarily due to an exceptionally favorable mix of higher margin manufacturing revenues during the prior-year quarter.
In the third quarter of 2019, we had a more typical mix of manufacturing and services revenue which produced a gross margin more in line with our previously communicated normalized level in the low-to-mid 30s range. We were very pleased to improve operating expense as a percentage of sales by 140 basis points to 18.6% on higher revenues and cost controls.
We ended the quarter with a strong cash position of $42 million and a net leverage ratio of 2.4 times, down from 2.7 times last year. This balance sheet strength supports our growth initiatives and operational enhancements as we move forward. We spent $6.1 million on capex in the third quarter with the majority geared toward the higher return capacity upgrade and automation initiatives, with most of such capex having already been funded ahead of this near-term completion.
Looking at the drivers of revenue on slide number 9. Continued outperformance in the U.S. drove the majority of third quarter sales with the U.S. marking its twentieth straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth, increasing by 13% year-over-year to $92.8 million. The U.S. primarily reflected stronger residential invoicing, healthy commercial construction activity, market share gains, and additional projects in new strategic geographies where we are growing our presence.
In Latin America, we were pleased with better-than-expected third quarter performance in Colombia, where revenues grew 7% year-over-year and 21% excluding FX. As we mentioned last quarter, with a significant shift in our business to the U.S. during the past five years, the United States actually represents a higher percentage of Tecnoglass revenue mix as compared to most of our U.S. based building product peers. On a trailing 12-month basis, the U.S. represented approximately 86% of our total revenues. This compares to an average of approximately 80% for our U.S. based building products peer group.
Looking at the drivers of adjusted EBITDA on slide number 10. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5.2% to $24 million from the prior year quarter, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.1%.
Gross profit increased 3% to a third quarter record of $35.7 million, representing a 33% gross margin. This compared to gross profit of $34.7 million in the prior year quarter, representing a gross margin of 35.8%. As I mentioned earlier, the difference in gross margins was primarily related to an exceptionally favorable revenue mix with a significant portion of manufacturing-related revenues in the comparable 2018 period.
During the third quarter of 2019, we had a more balanced mix of manufacturing and service revenues, producing a gross margin more in line with our expectations and our normalized margin profile. Our operating expenses, as a percentage of revenue, improved by 140 basis points year-over-year to 18.6% in the third quarter. This reflected operating leverage on higher revenues coupled with ongoing company wide initiatives to improve SG&A, mainly on shipping and handling and personnel cost.
Our joint venture with Saint-Gobain contributed $1.2 million to adjusted EBITDA. Looking at our continued expansion into the residential market on slide number 12. As a reminder, we refer to U.S. single-family residential as our residential business. We classify all other sales including medium and high-rise condos as commercial. In 2017, we entered the U.S. single-family market in a rapid growth in this segment of our business continues to surpass our expectations. At the end of the third quarter, the U.S. single-family market represented 17% of our trailing 12 month US revenues compared to just 3% in 2017.
Year-to-date our residential sales have doubled when compared to the results for the first 9 months of 2018, which is a very encouraging trend. We continue to believe that our collective efforts in residential along with our more established commercial reputation will allow us to continue to grow faster than the national average.
We see significant upside in the potential of our business to capture a rising share of residential and overall market share in the U.S. Moving to our high return investments on slide number 13. In July, 2019, we completed our previously announced aluminum production capacity expansion in response to strong customer demand for aluminum products. Our other high return investments to automate key operations at several glass and aluminum facilities are on schedule to be operational by year-end. As of the end of the third quarter, we have already deployed approximately 80% of our total anticipated $20 million capital investments in this growth and efficiency initiatives. A portion of the remaining spend will be pushed into early 2020 and paid after we are able to assess the performance of the upgrades. Our float glass joint venture with Saint-Gobain continues to reinforce our vertical integration strategy, providing us with a key supplier of glass in our production process, while contributing to results.
Beyond the existing JV operation, the construction of the second state-of-the-art plant nearby our headquarters in Barranquilla is on track to begin by the first quarter of 2020. We are advancing as anticipated with the permits and planning stages and continue to be very encouraged by the potential efficiencies to our business over time.
Moving to our 2019 outlook on slide number 15.We continue to expect strong top and bottom line growth in full year 2019. Based on solid execution year-to-date and better end-market visibility, we are raising our outlook for the full year 2019 revenues to grow to a range of $430 million to $440 million. We anticipate the majority of revenue growth to come from the U.S., helped partly by innovative new products, project types, geographic expansion and single-family residential. As explained on prior calls, the implied year-over-year percentage growth in the first half is higher compared to the back half year-over-year growth, based on the anticipated timing of invoicing in 2019 compared to 2018. Based on our increased sales outlook and anticipated mix of revenues, we are rising our full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook to be in the range of $93 million to $97 million.
This outlook assumes favorable operating leverage on higher revenues and a higher mix of sales from manufacturing operations compared to the prior year. Additionally, the outlook incorporates our unchanged share of adjusted EBITDA from the Saint-Gobain joint venture which began contributing to our results in the second quarter of 2019,as contemplated in our original outlook. Furthermore, we expect lower SG&A as a percentage of sales based on incremental revenues and ongoing cost control efforts.
We are extremely confident in our ability to achieve our growth objectives for 2019. As we build on our competitive advantages, we plan to continue gaining market share and advancing further as a leading U.S. focused producer of high-quality glass products. We thank you for your continued support of Tecnoglass. We will be happy to answer your questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Mike Shlisky with Dougherty. Please proceed with your question.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Good morning, guys.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Mike.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Good morning. So I wanted to touch first on the Saint-Gobain JV. In the slides, you mentioned that it was about $1.2 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. This is the first quarter of ownership that you had it for the full quarter I think. So maybe tell us, I know there is a new facility coming online eventually, but for the next sequential quarters, is that the right run rate to think for the EBITDA contribution?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, it will be between $1.2 million to $1.5 million on a quarterly basis, which is what is expected going forward.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Okay, great.
And then turning to what's in the backlog today. First of all, great job going up 5% over the prior year. I guess my question is based upon what you know in the backlog today, the mix between res and non-res, etc. Is there anything that would have us believe that the margin in this regard, the last couple of quarters won't continue into most of 2020 at this point or is there some change in the mix or something that that could be either up or down next year on the EBITDA margin?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
No, I think, based on the mix, the gross margin that could be expected is really in line with what we saw this quarter and in previous quarters. However, we do expect to get operating leverage on SG&A moving forward as you saw in this period.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Okay. And then I also wanted to ask about the employment situation kind of like in the Barranquilla area. I know you've had some growth and some good backlog, you've always mentioned there has been some low cost. But because of all the growth, have you had any issues finding people and find them at correct wages to kind of build this backlog going forward.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Unemployment is back up in Colombia. We have more unemployment now, we used to have 8.5% to 9% and now is up to 10.5%.So we are not finding any troubles finding the right people and with all the automation that is taking place is not going to be necessary.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Got it, got it. I just want to squeeze one more in. This one is for Santiago. You brought down leverage year-over-year. Could you remind us if you've got any kind of targeted range for your leverage going forward?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. So at the beginning of the year we had indicated we wanted to end up at 2.5 times. So being under that is certainly nice. My idea would be to continue that trend and hopefully over the next few quarters to get it down to 2 times. We don't have a necessary guidance for leverage, but my expectation would be to end up where we are, or a little lower by the end of the year.
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Okay, guys. Great. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks Mike. Talk to you soon.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Josh Wilson with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Good morning and thanks for taking my questions.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Josh.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Good morning.
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James -- Analyst
First a little clarity on the gross margin outlook. So based on your backlog and also the new automation equipment, just to clarify what you think gross margin is shaping up like for 2020?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, that -- what you saw this quarter is really in line with the recent performance. Once we are able to assess the impact from the automation on direct labor, we could gain a bit of leverage on -- or our bit of operating leverage on that. But once we have a couple of months under our belt, the automation is due to start this month, once we have a couple of months, we will be in a better position to tell you exactly what that's going to look like. Our base case is that we are able to kind of get to a 33% level. If we have what we expect as far as efficiencies on the labor side, we should be able to increase that, I would say 50 basis points, but we'll have a better idea once we have operated a couple of months and in line with the timing when we will provide guidance for 2020.
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James – Analyst
Got it. And then inventory was better than I expected. Was that just a timing issue or are you making further gains in working capital.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
I think it's both. Its efficiency is streamlining the process, making large efforts to manage working capital, which has been a big focus for the company this year. Inventory days came down nicely, if you compare versus last year. DSOs are stable and that's the next point of focus. So hopefully we’re able -- we'll be able to improve that trend as well.
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James – Analyst
Good. And then I've been getting more questions around the Miami market, could you give us your latest thoughts on how that market is looking and what your exposure is there?
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
Yeah, Jose can better answer that, Jose?
Jose Manuel Daes -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
What was the question again, please?
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
The Miami market, how you see it for this year.
Jose Manuel Daes -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Yes. The Miami – listen, the market in Florida for high-rise and mid-rise is picking up again a lot. I mean we see a lot of quoting and we have a very large backlog for 2021. 2020 is already sold and it looks good, decent, not the best year, like 2012, 2013, but the rentals and the hotels and the office space is picking up greatly and we plan to grow again is Florida, I believe, 20% to 30% for 2021.
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James – Analyst
Got it. Good luck with the next quarter.
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
Thanks Josh.
Jose Manuel Daes -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Zane Karimi with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for the time.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Good morning. Thank you.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
So first off, I noticed the Colombian sales grew for the first time in a while. Congrats there. Do you expect that to recover? Going forward, are you deliberately managing kind of how large that gets for you given the margin difference between there and the U.S.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Unfortunately, since we had a lot of devaluation of the peso, it also made us look like Colombian sales were coming down. They did not go down that much, but the 20% devaluation really made it look that way. But the good news is, we are closing a lot of new deals in Colombia that are for the next 3 to 6 months delivery. Demand is looking as stronger and it had never looked in the last 12 months.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Just to add to that point, on our new guidance, we're not baking in any growth from Colombia Q4.So anything that we see and which we're already seeing could be an upside. I think we'll be better able to assess 2020 when we have a couple of months of growth under our belt and not just this quarter to see we have established trend.
So again I think once we announce guidance for 2020 we can give you a lot more color. But certainly things are picking up and looking better than they were in the last 12 months.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Yes. Colombia is looking a lot better now. We are closing a lot more jobs and also the Caribbean is looking better for us. We used to not have a strong sales force in the Caribbean relying on our distributors in Florida, but lately we -- in the last 6 months we hired a couple of persons to visit all the islands.
And the results have been great. I mean it's not a huge market, but it's a market that is developing and it is becoming a decent market to explore.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Thank you. And then when does the new aluminum production capacity become incremental to results and how should we think about contribution moving forward?
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Well, it is now functional and we believe that beginning in January because we were not taking any more orders as we were sold out. But we have some good commitment that we're going to start to see beginning in January for the incremental of the aluminum. And also, we have some good news in that respect as we had close for the 2019 year, the prices of aluminum at $2,100 a ton in the futures and we were now able to buy for 2020 at $1,900 a ton which we're going to see an incremental of gross profit margin on that sense. So it's looking very good.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Thank you. And then any expectations on year-end cash flow? Can we expect some working capital released here at the end of the year?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, there is actually a little bit of seasonality to cash flow, because we have some tax and interest payments on the first and third quarters of the year. The expectation would be for Q4 to be another quarter of positive working capital in cash flow from operations. So the expectation would be for us to end up higher than you saw year-to-date.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Thank you.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Rigel with FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.
Alex Rigel -- FBR & Company -- Analyst
Thank you, good morning gentlemen. Very nice quarter.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Alex. How are you?
Alex Rigel -- FBR & Company -- Analyst
Doing well. Couple of quick questions here. The residential business is doing fantastic. Can you -- so congratulations on that. But can you update us on sort of where you stand with regards to manufacturing capacity? What geographies you're selling it in? I suspect to still primarily Florida but what your plans are for expanding that residential business in 2020 and clearly 60% growth year-over-year is a level that's probably unsustainable long-term, but how should we think about growth in that business as we look out into 2020 and beyond?
Jose Manuel Daes -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Hello, this is Jose. We are expanding geographically. We are mostly selling in South Florida, meaning Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, Dade County, Broward and Palm Beach. And now we are expanding geographically to the West Coast, Naples, Sarasota. Now we're going a little bit up to Tempa and moving for next year to the Panhandle and also in the Northeast Coast up to Jacksonville. We expect 20% growth for the next year at least.
That's very conservative because the more often you move, the more clients, the new clients you get in our product, I mean people are really happy with it. It is the best product in the market, we believe. And also we have the biggest portfolio of products of any company. So dealers don't have to shop around from one to the next to the other one in order to fulfill all their needs.
Alex Rigel -- FBR & Company -- Analyst
That's excellent. And then as it relates to product price mix, as it related to EBITDA, declined $3 million in the quarter. Santiago, can you explain that a little bit?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
No, the mix was basically in line with what is normal. Last year, during the third quarter, we had an abnormally high mix of revenue coming from manufacturing as opposed to servicing. So if you look at the gross margin profile over the last few quarters, you more or less end up in low to mid 30s which is where we are right now. So in reality, like we were saying, the gross margin really is going to be a function of mix because on pricing we're not seeing a whole lot of headwinds to the contrary. If anything, we should be seeing tailwinds moving forward, but is more a function of mix rather than pricing, Alex.
Alex Rigel -- FBR & Company -- Analyst
Very helpful. Thank you.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Alex.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed with your question.
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Hi, good morning everyone.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Hi Julio. How are you?
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Good. So some of the forward indicators, we've been looking at such as the ABI, been showing some moderation in the Northeastern US, which is where I know you were making some inroads earlier in the year. Can you just talk about what you're seeing on the ground from your GC customers, especially from that geographic perspective?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, Julio, basically if you look at the composition of the backlog is actually shifting to other places like we've been talking in the last couple of calls. So starting out with a lower base, when you're growing from a small base actually, on a comparable basis, it looks very strong. It is encouraging to note that the backlog is growing outside of Florida, which has been the Company's strategy in the last couple of years. But from a bidding perspective and quoting perspective, we continue to see strong activity in the main markets that we're targeting.
– So I don't know if it's necessarily a function of the overall market expanding or is a function of market share gains, but activity as we see it continue to look strong.
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Got it. So, and on that point, the U.S. is making up 86% of sales on trailing 12 month. Given that backlog mix continuing to trend that way, do you see the U.S. making up maybe 90% plus of sales in 2021, is that a fair way to think about your mix going forward?
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
If you look at it as of September it was 88% already. What's going to take place here is that if Colombia and LatAm continued the upward trend, they might catch up a little bit and eat some of that percentage. But with the status quo, if the U.S. continues to grow the way it has been, it wouldn't be unreasonable to get there. We're already at 88% from a backlog standpoint.
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst–
Got it. And then just last one for me is can you maybe talk about some of those company-wide initiatives you're doing to temper your operating expenses. I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned some shipping and handling and personnel costs, if you could elaborate on those initiatives at all. Thank you.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Well, yes, a lot of automation is coming in at this time and we hope to bring down cost significantly, in the future, in the near future. We just don't want to make it into the calculations yet because we don't know if everything that they are telling us that these new lines will do, will really -- I mean if they can perform 70% of what they say they can do, this is going to be a game changer for Tecnoglass. So we're expecting that, and we're also revising every expense in the company to have a lot of savings. And actually we will begin to see the results for the fourth quarter and first quarter of next year. So we are really enthusiastic about the future.
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks very much and best of luck in Q4.
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
Thanks Julio. Talk to you soon.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from Zane Karimi with DA Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
A quick follow-up for you guys. Have you ever continued to successfully penetrate the new regions of U.S. market and aggressively growing in resi and Florida in particular? What is the competitive response right now and are they responding with more competitive pricing to try and get their traditional business back?
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Yes, they are aggressively reducing prices, but not everything is an issue of pricing, especially for example, in the residential. The most important is the quality of the window, the on-time deliveries and the reliability of service. And we've been learning a lot about that because it’s a new business for us. We have developed a new software for quoting and delivering on-time in five weeks and people are very happy with it.
Now in the other regions, it’s even less important to price because the buildings are worth $400 million or $500 million and the windows might be $10 million, $8 million, $20 million. And if the – if the building is late 2, 3, 5 months because of deliveries, then the cost of the window is irrelevant compared to a reliable supplier. And to penetrate, we reduce our margins. But now we get repeated business. We're doing much better in the margins and people are learning that we are reliable and we deliver a good product. And we think we're going to grow a lot in those areas.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Thank you. And then in terms of backlog growth. Are there new markets or regions in the U.S. driving that, areas that you hadn't historically served that you are now penetrating?
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Well, no. We are increasing our backlog in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Texas mainly. We have couple of jobs, small jobs in California and we see a lot of quoting in California now that people are getting to know we are reliable. It’s an experience in every market, because when they don't know you when you are far away, and they haven’t had any experience, normally even if you are lower they tend not to give you business because of the reliability. Now we have broken the hurdle, and people see that we work, we deliver, the product is good. So we’re doing repeated business and larger buildings and larger projects. So we expect California to start growing for2021, not for next year.
Whatever we have now for next year is already done. What we are quoting now and closing is for 2021.
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Great. Thank you, gentlemen.
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. It appears we have no further questions at this time. So I would like to pass the floor back over to Jose Manuel, for concluding comments.
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Well, thank you all for participating on today's call. We strive to be the best in the market. We hope to keep growing the company in a stable way, saving on SG&A and increasing the margins. Thank you.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 42 minutes
Call participants:
Rodny Nacier -- Investor Relations
Jose Manuel Daes--Chief Executive Officer and Director
Chris Daes -- Chief Operating Officer, Director
Santiago Giraldo -- Chief Financial Officer
Mike Shlisky -- Dougherty -- Analyst
Josh Wilson -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Zane Karimi -- DA Davidson -- Analyst
Alex Rigel -- FBR & Company -- Analyst
Julio Romero -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
