Wabash rebrands, drops legacy product names

Feb. 7, 2022

During its Q4 earnings call, the company also reported a record backlog of $2.5 billion, up 31% from the third quarter and up 70% year-over-year—meaning the 2022 orderbook for Wabash vans is “essentially” filled

Commercial Vehicle Staff

Wabash is now One.

Wabash has rebranded the corporation and its portfolio of brands under a single Wabash brand that unites the company’s products and services, employees, customers and business partners.

Announced initially last November, the change was made official during the company’s 2021 fourth quarter earnings conference call Feb. 2. During that call the company reported fourth quarter 2021 net sales were $479.3 million (up 18.6% from Q4 2020) as supply chain challenges “persisted.”

A record backlog of $2.5 billion was up 31% from the third quarter and up 70% year-over-year—meaning the 2022 orderbook for Wabash vans is “essentially” filled, Wabash noted. And while gross profit was $42.6 million (down 6.3%), a $28.2 million non-cash charge for impairment related to the retirement of legacy product brand names resulted in GAAP operating loss of $18.6 million for the quarter.

As to the rebrand, Wabash will no longer go to market as Wabash National or with certain trade or brand names that it acquired over the last 16 years, including Benson, Brenner, Bulk Tank, Supreme, Transcraft and Walker, the company reported. The company and its van trailers, platform trailers, tank trailers, truck bodies, process systems, and parts and services will be rebranded and marketed as Wabash.

“The decision to rebrand the company and our family of brands was a strategic choice that will help the company in its long-term growth strategy,” said President and CEO Brent Yeagy. “There is a momentous transition happening in transportation, logistics, and distribution as the industry adapts to a compilation of forces. At Wabash, we see a different future reality than our competition, and we’ve chosen to go down a substantially different path to re-shape the industry and pull that future forward for our customers.

“This rebrand reflects our own transformation and unites our legacy brands as ‛One Wabash’—the visionary leader in transportation, logistics and distribution that is making sweeping changes to prepare our customers for a very different world.”

The rebrand comes after nearly four years of organizational change that includes rallying the organization around a new purpose of “Changing How the World Reaches You”; leveraging the Wabash Management System to scale excellence; reorganizing into a customer-centric operating model; and aligning the company’s financial reporting structure with the new organizational design and go-to-market strategy.

In addition to the rebrand, Wabash is also introducing the brand name for its proprietary molded structural composite used in refrigerated transportation: EcoNex Technology.

EcoNex Technology, formerly referred to as MSC Technology, is billed as one of the most environmentally conscious materials in the transportation market, designed to advance sustainability throughout the transportation, logistics and distribution industry.

The company’s rebrand includes the launch of its new website at OneWabash.com.