2016 Pavement Top Contractor: Sealcoating 75 Suffer Sales Setback over 2015

It probably shouldn’t come as a complete shock that the Sealcoating 75 suffered a setback in total sealcoating-only sales given that the increase from 2014 to 2015 was 60%.

So this year total sealcoating-only sales of the Sealcoating 75 was $201,503,509, down 19% from the $249,165,653 of last year’s list (which is still way above the $150 million sealcoating-only total from 2014).

The decline is difficult to account for, though as with the Paving 75 the huge increase in 2015 set a goal that provided plenty of room for a decline. And as with paving, a 2014 reduction in pent-up demand and a change in the companies that participated in the list certainly could explain it. We’ll see what next year brings, but do these sealcoating-only sales reflect a “down” industry? Hardly. Not only are there fewer companies competing for the sealcoating sales dollar (many contractors having left or been forced out of business during the Great Recession) but contractors across the country are reporting strong 2015 sales with many reporting a substantial amount of work bumped from 2015 into the spring of this year.

As a group the Sealcoating 75 are contractors that offer the most diverse group of services of any list. Only one company generates more than 75% of sales (90%) from sealcoating and 14 companies generating less than 10% from sealcoating sales. And 65 companies offer paving services (87%), 63 companies perform striping (84%), and 63 contractors perform pavement repair (84%).

Interestingly, while it would seem striping should go hand in hand with sealcoating, not only do 12 companies perform no striping, an additional 40 contractors (53%) generate less than 10% of sales from striping. A similar result is found in pavement repair work where, again, 12 companies (16%) perform no pavement repair and an additional 24 companies (32%) generate less than 10% of sales from pavement repair.

Click here to view the Sealcoating 75 Top Contractor lists

Where They Work

Parking lots provide most sealcoating work with 33 companies (44%) generating 75% or more of their sealcoating sales from work on parking lots -- and that includes 11 companies that work only on parking lots. Driveways generate significant work as well with 39% (29 companies) performing driveway work; 45 companies (60%) generate sales from on-road work though it’s safe to say that for the most part that work isn’t sealcoating.

The Sealcoating 75s Clients

• 73 generate sales from commercial or industrial clients (97%)
• 66 generate sales from multi-family housing clients (88%)
• 43 generate sales from municipal customers (57%)
• 38 generate sales from single-family clients (51%)

Contractors who participated in the 2016 Top Contractor survey can expect to receive the annual detailed analysis and report in August. Contractors who miss out on this year’s report can participate in the 2017 Top Contractor which will be open online from January 1 through April 30, 2017.