EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1604028
Filing Year: 2021
Filename: 1604028_10-K_2021_0001564590-21-030419.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Item 1.
Business
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Unless the context otherwise indicates or requires, as used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “we,” “our,” “us,” “ADS” and the “Company” refer to Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and its directly- and indirectly-owned subsidiaries as a combined entity, except where it is clear that the terms mean only Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. exclusive of its subsidiaries. The term “Infiltrator” refers to Infiltrator Water Technologies Ultimate Holdings, Inc., our wholly owned subsidiary. The term “Legacy ADS” refers to the combined entity excluding Infiltrator.
ADS is the leading manufacturer of innovative water management solutions in the stormwater and on-site septic wastewater industries, providing superior drainage solutions for use in the construction and agriculture marketplaces. Our innovative products, for which we hold many patents, are used across a broad range of end markets and applications, including non-residential, infrastructure and agriculture applications. We have established a leading position in many of these end markets by leveraging our national sales and distribution platform, industry-acclaimed engineering support, overall product breadth and scale plus manufacturing excellence.
We believe the ADS brand has long been associated with quality products and market-leading performance. Our trademarked green stripe, which is prominently displayed on many of our products, serves as clear identification of our commitment to the customers and markets we serve, and fortifies our brand recognition and presence.
On July 31, 2019, we completed the acquisition (the “Acquisition”) of Infiltrator, a leading national provider of plastic leachfield chambers and systems, septic tanks and accessories, primarily for use in residential applications. Infiltrator products are used in on-site water treatment systems in the United States and Canada. Infiltrator has been a longstanding supplier and customer of the Company for over 15 years of StormTech and ARC Septic Chambers.
“Our Reason is Water” and our vision is to advance the quality of life through sustainable solutions to water management challenges. We are dedicated to providing clean water management solutions to communities and delivering unparalleled service to our customers. We are process oriented and disciplined, holding ourselves to the highest expectations and are accountable for our decisions.
Our approach to water management is based on four basic areas - Capture, Conveyance, Storage, and Treatment - to manage the lifecycle of a raindrop from the moment water hits the ground until it is released back into the ecosystem. Our product portfolio is built around each step of this lifecycle. Neglecting stormwater management can result in flooding, pollution, destruction, erosion, and many other environmental and health issues. Construction of buildings, housing, roads and highways disrupts the natural ability of stormwater infiltration but is a key component of a growing society. Our solutions safely and efficiently manage stormwater with environmentally friendly products. Only Advanced Drainage Systems manages stormwater from when the rain first hits the ground until the moment it is returned to lakes and streams.
•
Capture: As the first step in preserving the planet's most precious resource, water, our products collect and direct stormwater runoff on project sites and roads to an underground conveyance system.
•
Conveyance: To prevent flooding at job sites, which could lead to significant structural and environmental problems, our pipe, fittings and other products safely move stormwater away from developed sites to be reintroduced back into the water cycle.
•
Storage: To mitigate erosion and flooding, our retention and detention systems manage infiltration and recharge stormwater prior to the treatment process.
•
Treatment: Our water quality products remove trash, debris and pollutants from the stormwater runoff collected in previous steps, ensuring only clean water is discharged back into our communities.
We estimate that the storm water industry, annually, is an approximately $6.0 billion industry. We estimate that the on-site septic market is a roughly $1.2 billion industry and that approximately 30% of new North American single-
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
family homes utilize septic systems. On a combined basis, we estimate that we had an addressable market opportunity of approximately $7 billion.
As illustrated in the charts below, we provide a broad range of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and related water management products to a highly diversified set of end markets and geographies.
Fiscal 2021 Revenue
SEGMENT INFORMATION
For a discussion of segment and geographic information, see “Note 21. Business Segment Information” to our audited consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Form 10-K.
OUR PRODUCTS
We design, manufacture and market a complete line of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and related water management products for use in a wide range of end markets. Our product line includes: single, double and triple wall corrugated polypropylene and polyethylene pipe (or “Pipe”), plastic leachfield chambers and systems, septic tanks and accessories (or “Infiltrator”), and a variety of additional water management products (“Allied Products & Other”) including: storm retention/detention and septic chambers (or “Chambers”); polyvinyl chloride drainage structures (or “Structures”); fittings (or “Fittings”); and water quality filters and separators (or “Water Quality”). We also sell various complementary products distributed through resale agreements, including geotextile products, drainage grates and other products (or “Other Resale”). The table below summarizes the percentage of Net Sales for Pipe, Infiltrator and Allied Products & Other.
Pipe
53.1
%
56.9
%
62.7
%
Infiltrator
16.6
%
10.1
%
-
International
8.0
%
8.9
%
11.6
%
Allied Products & Other
22.3
%
24.1
%
25.7
%
Our products and engineering project designs have been continuously and frequently recognized by the industry. This includes being honored many times during the past decade as the Plastics Pipe Institute’s Project of the Year. We have won numerous awards from organizations such as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for our
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
local recycling program, the American Society of Testing & Materials (“ASTM”), the American Society of Civil Engineers, and many others.
Pipe
Dual Wall Corrugated Pipe - Our N-12 pipe is a dual wall high-destiny polyethylene (“HDPE”) pipe with a corrugated exterior for strength and a smooth interior wall for hydraulics and flow capacity. Our N-12 pipe competes in the storm sewer and drainage markets that are also served by concrete pipe.
Our N-12 pipe is available in a wide range of diameters and sections of length. N-12 provides joint integrity, with integral bell and spigot joints for fast push-together installations and is sold either with watertight or soil-tight coupling and fitting systems.
Our corrugated polyethylene pipe offers many benefits including ease of installation, job-site handling and resistance to corrosion and abrasion. Corrugated pipe can easily be cut or coupled together, providing precise laying lengths while minimizing installation waste and difficulty.
HP Storm Pipe and SaniTite HP Pipe - Our HP Storm pipe utilizes polypropylene (“PP”) resin, which provides (i) increased pipe stiffness relative to HDPE; (ii) higher Environmental Stress Crack Resistance (“ESCR”); and (iii) improved thermal properties, which improves joint performance. These improved physical characteristics result in a reduced need for select backfill, which creates installation savings for customers and expands the range of possible product applications.
Our SaniTite HP pipe utilizes the same polypropylene resins as our HP Storm pipe but includes a smooth third exterior wall in 30” to 60” pipe. The highly engineered polypropylene resin along with the triple wall design enables SaniTite HP to surpass the stiffness requirement for sanitary sewer applications. SaniTite HP offers cost and performance advantages relative to reinforced concrete pipe (such as improved hydraulics and better joint integrity) and polyvinyl chloride (“PVC”) pipe (such as impact resistance).
Single Wall Corrugated Pipe - Our single wall corrugated HDPE pipe is ideal for drainage projects where flexibility, light weight and low cost are important. Single wall HDPE pipe products have been used for decades in agricultural drainage, highway edge drains, septic systems and other construction applications. In the agricultural market, improved technology has highlighted the favorable impact of drainage on crop yields. For homeowners, it is an economical and easily installed solution for downspout run-off, foundation drains, driveway culverts and general lawn drainage. Single wall pipe is also used for golf courses, parks and athletic fields to keep surfaces dry by channeling away excess underground moisture.
Standard single wall products are available in a wide range of diameters and sold in varying lengths. Pipe can be either perforated or non-perforated depending on the particular drainage application.
Triple Wall Corrugated Pipe and Smoothwall HDPE Pipe - Our ADS-3000 Triple Wall pipe, small diameter triple wall corrugated pipe, consists of a corrugated polyethylene core molded between a smooth white outer wall and a smooth black inner wall. This combination of the three wall design adds strength and stiffness, while reducing weight as compared to PVC 2729. Triple Wall is produced and sold through our distribution network. We also manufacture smoothwall HDPE pipe that are sold into the residential drainage and on-site septic systems markets.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Infiltrator
Infiltrator is the leading designer and manufacturer of highly engineered plastic chambers, synthetic aggregate leachfields, combined treatment and dispersal systems, plastic tanks, advanced treatment systems, and related accessories that are used in septic systems. The on-site wastewater (septic) market is heavily reliant on rural homes and communities that do not have access to centralized sewer and will require an on-site wastewater or septic solution. On-site wastewater technologies are scalable and can easily meet the needs of churches, schools, light commercial and small community construction projects.
Leachfield Products - Our Quick4 and ARC line of septic leachfield chambers are injection molded using recycled polyolefin materials. There are Quick4 chamber models available to meet a wide variety of regulatory and market needs. There are ARC chamber models available to meet a majority of regulatory and market needs. The Quick4 and ARC chambers are engineered for strength and performance, easy to install, and offer the user greater design flexibility, including a smaller footprint, as compared with traditional stone and pipe products. The product advantages are cost savings on labor, materials and time savings on the job.
EZflow - EZflow synthetic aggregate bundles replace stone and pipe leachfields for effluent and drainage applications. The EZflow proprietary products are a modular design that incorporates recycled polystyrene aggregate bundles and corrugated polyethylene pipe that act as a replacement to the traditional materials stone and pipe.
Tank Products - Our IM-Series line of septic tanks are injection-molded polypropylene plastic tanks manufactured from recycled materials. IM-Series septic tanks are available in various capacities for wastewater storage. Our IM-Tank is the only two-piece construction, injection molded tank design in North America. In comparison to traditional concrete tanks, our IM-Series septic tanks are easier to transport to the jobsite and require less time and energy to install.
Our IM-Series line of potable tanks are injection-molded polypropylene plastic tanks manufactured from virgin materials suitable for water reuse and drinking water storage. IM-Series potable tanks are available in various capacities for water storage. IM-Series potable tanks are commonly used in water cistern applications, such as rainwater harvesting systems.
Advanced Treatment Systems - Our Delta Treatment Systems’ (“Delta”) advanced wastewater treatment systems provide mechanical aerated wastewater treatment solutions for residential and commercial systems with daily flows up to 100,000 gallons per day.
Combined Treatment Dispersal Systems - Our Presby Environmental Enviro-Septic and Advanced Enviro-Septic systems are proprietary combined treatment and dispersal systems made with a twelve-inch diameter corrugated extrusion product that is encapsulated in fibrous materials and geotextiles. These systems when installed in a bed of sand provide combined treatment and dispersal in the same small footprint and at a reduced cost with minimal long-term maintenance. Advanced Enviro-Septic and Enviro-Septic are patented and patent-pending.
Our Advanced Treatment Leachfield (“ATL”) product is an alternative combined treatment and dispersal system that provides passive advanced wastewater treatment. The ATL is a profile of polystyrene aggregates and geotextiles installed in a bed of sand.
Allied Products & Other
We produce a range of Allied Products that are complementary to our Pipe products. Our Allied Products offer adjacent technologies to our core Pipe offering, presenting a complete drainage solution for our clients and customers. This combination of Pipe and Allied Products is a key strategy in our sales growth, profitability and market share penetration. The practice of selling a drainage system is attractive to both distributors and end users, by providing a broad package of products that can be sold on individual projects and strengthens our competitive advantage in the marketplace. We aggressively seek and evaluate new products, technologies and regulatory changes that impact our customers’ needs for Allied Products.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
The underground construction industry has historically been project (not product) driven, creating the impetus for owners, engineers and contractors to seek manufacturers that deliver solution-based product portfolios. Many of the components of underground construction are related and require linear compatibility of function, regulatory approval and technology.
Storm Chambers - Our StormTech chambers are used for stormwater retention, detention and “first flush” underground water storage on non-residential site development and public projects. These highly engineered chambers are injection molded from HDPE and PP resins into a proprietary design which provides strength, durability, and resistance to corrosion. The chambers allow for the efficient storage of stormwater volume, reducing the underground construction footprint and costs to the contractors, developers, and property owners. The chambers are open bottom, which allows for high density stacking in both storage and shipment. This freight-efficient feature drives favorable cost-competitiveness in serving long-distance export markets. These chamber systems typically incorporate our other product lines such as corrugated pipe, fabricated fittings, water quality units and geotextiles.
Structures - Our Nyloplast PVC drainage structures are used in non-residential, residential and municipal site development, road and highway construction, as well as landscaping, recreational, industrial and mechanical applications. The product family includes inline drains, drain basins, curb inlets and water control structures which move surface-collected stormwater vertically down to pipe conveyance systems. These custom structures are fabricated from sections of PVC pipe using a thermo-forming process to achieve exact site-specific hydraulic design requirements. Our Nyloplast products are a preferred alternative to heavier and larger concrete structures, by offering greater design flexibility and improved ease of installation which reduces overall project costs and timelines. The structures incorporate rubber gaskets to ensure watertight connections, preventing soil infiltration which plagues competitive products.
Fittings - We produce fittings and couplings utilizing blow molding, injection molding and custom fabrication on our pipe products. Our innovative coupling and fitting products are highly complementary to our broader product suite, and include both soil-tight and water-tight capabilities across the full pipe diameter spectrum. Our fittings are sold in all end markets where we sell our current pipe products.
Other Products - Our ARC and BioDiffuser products are chambers that are used in septic systems for residential and small volume non-residential wastewater treatment and disposal. The innovative design of our ARC chamber is generally approved for a footprint reduction, further reducing the cost of the septic system. Injection-molded from HDPE, these products are strong, durable, and chemical-resistant. These interconnecting chambers are favored by septic contractors because they are lightweight, easy to install and offer articulating features which increase site-specific design flexibility. The ARC chamber products are manufactured by Infiltrator.
Our Water Quality (formerly BaySaver) product line targets the removal of sediment, debris, oils and suspended solids throughout a stormwater rain event by separating and/or filtering unwanted pollutants.
We purchase and distribute construction fabrics and other geosynthetic products for soil stabilization, reinforcement, filtration, separation, erosion control, and sub-surface drainage. Constructed of woven and non-woven PP, geotextile products provide permanent, cost-efficient site-development solutions. Construction fabrics and geotextiles have applications in all of our end markets.
Our Inserta Tee product line consists of a PVC hub, rubber sleeve and stainless steel band. Inserta Tee is compression fit into the cored wall of a mainline pipe and can be used with all pipe material types and profiles. This product offers an easy tap-in to existing sanitary and storm sewers by limiting the excavation needed for installation compared to competitive products.
RAW MATERIALS AND SUPPLIERS
Virgin HDPE and PP resins are derivatives of ethylene and propylene, respectively. Ethylene and propylene are derived from natural gas liquids or crude oil derivatives primarily in the U.S. We currently purchase in excess of 1,100 million pounds of virgin and recycled resin annually from approximately 450 suppliers. As a high-volume buyer of resin, we achieve economies of scale to negotiate favorable terms and pricing. Our purchasing strategies differ based on the material (virgin resin versus recycled material) ordered for delivery to our production locations.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
The price movements of the different materials also vary, resulting in the need to use strategies to reduce volatility and successfully pass on cost increases to our customer through timely selling price increases when needed.
We have relationships with most of the North American producers of virgin high-density polyethylene and impact copolymer polypropylene producers that manufacture the grades we need to produce our products, including Braskem Americas, Inc., Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP, The Dow Chemical Company, Equistar Chemicals, LP, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Formosa Plastics Corporation, U.S.A., Ineos Olefins & Polyolefins, USA, and Nova Chemical. The North American capacity for ethylene derivatives has been expanded primarily as a result of supplies of natural gas liquids being produced through sustained oil and gas exploration and production.
We are focused on a program of continuous sustainability improvement, which at this time sees us using nearly 550 million pounds annually of post-consumer recycled high-density polyethylene (“HDPE”) to make our products. This industry-leading program keeps millions of used bottles out of the landfill and puts them to work again for more than a hundred years as part of our infrastructure.
We leverage our raw material blending and processing technologies to produce an HDPE pipe that incorporates recycled resin. These products, which meet an ASTM International standard and an American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials standard, replaces a majority of the virgin resin that is used with optimized recycled materials. ADS Recycling (formerly Green Line Polymers, Inc.) procures and processes recycled raw materials that can be used in products we produce and sell.
We maintain relationships with several of the largest environmental companies such as Waste Management, Inc., Republic Services, Inc., and Rumpke, Inc., which provide us with post-consumer HDPE recycled materials. We also maintain relationships with several key post-industrial HDPE suppliers, including Performance Materials NA, Inc., Silgan Plastics, Altium Packaging and Alpla, Inc., which provide us with materials that cannot otherwise be utilized in their respective production processes.
We are one of the largest domestic recyclers of HDPE. We believe that we are well positioned for future growth as we add additional recycled material processing facilities, add capacity to existing facilities, and expand our supplier base for virgin resin. We anticipate continued growth in the availability of ethylene and propylene which are used to manufacture HDPE and PP, respectively.
OUR MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM
We have a leading domestic and international manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, serving customers in the entire United States, Canada, Mexico and other countries worldwide through 65 manufacturing plants and 38 distribution centers, including eight manufacturing plants and nine distribution centers owned or leased by our joint ventures. We manufacture our corrugated pipe products using a continuous extrusion process, where molten polyethylene or polypropylene is pushed through a die into a moving series of corrugated U-shaped molds. We utilize customized and proprietary production equipment, which we believe is faster and more cost efficient than other pipe making equipment generally available in the market.
Domestically, we can produce more than one billion pounds of pipe annually. Additional capacity is in place to support seasonal production needs and expected growth. Our production equipment is built to accept transportable molds and die tooling over a certain range of sizes so each plant is not required to house the full range of tooling at any given time. This transportability provides us with the flexibility to optimize our capacity through centrally coordinated production planning, which helps to adapt to shifting sales demand patterns while reducing the capital needed for tooling. With our large manufacturing footprint in place, we can support rapid seasonal growth in demand, focusing on customer service while minimizing transportation costs.
Our manufacturing plants have no material process-related by-products released into the atmosphere, waterways, or solid waste discharge. During pipe production start-ups and size changeovers, non-compliant scrap and any damaged finished goods pipe are recycled through a grinder for internal re-use.
The standard fittings products (tees, wyes, elbows, etc.) that we produce and sell to connect our pipe on jobsites are blow molded or injection molded at three domestic plants. In addition, customized fabricated fittings (e.g., more
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
complex dual wall pipe reducers, bends or structures) are produced in 20 of our North American plants. A wide variety of production processes and expertise allow us to provide cost-effective finished goods at competitive prices delivered in a timely fashion to our customers.
We produce storm and septic chambers, tanks and accessories using injection molding machines ranging in size. Our molds and machines have been designed to maximize interchangeability to optimize flexibility, maximize efficiency and minimize downtime.
International Presence - We own manufacturing facilities in Canada to produce our products for sale in the Canadian markets. We serve international markets primarily in Mexico, Central America and South America through joint venture operations with local partners. Our joint venture strategy has provided us with local and regional access to key markets such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. Our international joint ventures produce pipe and related products to be sold in their respective regional markets. We also have wholly-owned subsidiaries that distribute our pipe and related products in Europe and the Middle East. Combining local partners’ customer relationships, brand recognition and local management talent, with our world-class manufacturing and process expertise, broad product portfolio and innovation creates a powerful solution driven platform and opportunities for continued profitable international expansion.
Quality Assurance Control - We have two internal quality assurance control laboratory facilities equipped and staffed to evaluate and confirm incoming raw material and finished goods quality in addition to the quality testing that is done at our manufacturing facilities. We conduct annual safety, product and process quality audits at each of our facilities, using centralized internal resources in combination with external third-party services. In the quality area, various national and international agencies such as National Transportation Product Evaluation Program (“NTPEP”), International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (“IAPMO”), Bureau de normalisation du Québec (“BNQ”), Intertek for Canadian Standards Association (“CSA”), Entidad Mexicana de Acreditacion A.C. (“EMA”) and NSF International and several state Departments of Transportation (“DOT”) and municipal agencies conduct both scheduled and unscheduled audits/inspections of our plants to verify product quality and compliance to applicable standards.
Fleet - For our ADS legacy business, we also operate an in-house fleet of approximately 700 tractors. Our effective shipping radius is approximately 300 miles from one of our manufacturing plants or distribution centers. The combination of a dedicated fleet and team of company drivers allows greater flexibility and responsiveness in meeting dynamic customer jobsite delivery expectations. We strive to achieve less than three-day lead-time on deliveries and have the added benefit of redeploying fleet and driver assets to respond to short-term regional spikes in sales activity. For deliveries that are outside an economic delivery radius of our truck fleet, common carrier deliveries are tendered to ensure that lowest delivered freight costs are achieved.
Our North American truck fleet incorporates approximately 1,300 trailers that are specially designed to haul our lightweight pipe and fittings products. These designs maximize payload versus conventional over the road trailers and facilitate unassisted unloading of our products at the jobsites by our drivers. The scope of fleet operations also includes backhaul of purchased raw materials providing a lower delivered cost to our plant locations. In addition, as of March 2020, we have committed to work towards a more cost-effective and environmentally efficient fleet by becoming an official U.S. EPA SmartWay partner.
Facility Network - Our scale and extensive network of Pipe and Allied Products facilities provide a critical cost advantage versus our competitors, as we are able to more efficiently transport products to our customers and end users and to promote faster product shipments due to our proximity to the delivery location. The optimized design of our Infiltrator chambers and tanks provide the ability to nest products, enabling us to manufacture products from one location and efficiently ship throughout North America.
SALES AND MARKETING
We have one of the largest and most experienced sales and engineering forces in the industry. Offering the broadest product line in the industry enables our sales force to source the greatest number of new opportunities and more effectively cross-sell products than any of our competitors. We consistently maintain thousands of touch points with customers, civil engineers and municipal authorities, continuously educating them on new product innovations and their advantages relative to traditional products. We believe we are the industry leader in these efforts, and we view
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
this work as an important part of our marketing strategy, particularly in promoting N-12 and SaniTite HP for storm and sanitary sewer systems, as regulatory approvals are essential to the specification and acceptance of these product lines.
Our sales and marketing strategy is divided into four components - comprehensive market coverage, diverse product offerings, readily-available local inventory and specification efforts. Our goal is to provide the distributor/owner with the most complete, readily available product line in our industry. We strive to use our manufacturing footprint, product portfolio and market expertise to efficiently service our customers.
Our sales and engineering objective is to influence, track and quote all selling opportunities as early in the project life cycle as possible. We strive to be meaningfully involved in all phases of the project cycle, including design, bidding, award and installation. Conceptual project visibility allows sales and engineering professionals the ability to influence design specifications and increase the probability of inclusion of our products in bid documents. The inclusion of our products in bid documents improves the probability of completing the sale. On-demand installation support allows us to maintain customer relationships and ensure positive installation experience. In addition to direct channel customers, we also maintain and develop relationships with federal agencies, municipal agencies, national standard regulators, private consulting engineers and architects. Our consistent interaction with these market participants enables us to continue our market penetration. This ongoing dialogue has positioned us as an industry resource for design guidance and product development and as a respected expert in water management solutions.
CUSTOMERS
We have a large, active customer base of approximately 20,000 customers, with two customers representing 10% or more of fiscal 2021 net sales. Ferguson Enterprises (“Ferguson”) accounted for 12.6% and Core and Main accounted for 10.3% of fiscal 2021 net sales. Our customer base is diversified across the range of end markets that we serve.
A majority of our sales are made through distributors, including many of the largest national and independent waterworks distributors, with whom we have long-standing distribution relationships. These include Ferguson and Core and Main who sell primarily to the storm sewer and sanitary sewer markets. We also utilize a network of hundreds of small to medium-sized independent distributors across the United States. We have strong relationships with major national retailers that carry drainage products, including The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware and Do it Best. We offer the most complete line of HDPE products in the industry and are the only national manufacturer that can service the “Big-Box” retailers from coast-to-coast. We also sell to buying groups and co-ops in the United States that serve the plumbing, hardware, irrigation and landscaping markets. Selling to buying groups and co-ops provides us a further presence on a national, regional and local basis for the distribution of our products. Our preferred vendor status with these groups allows us to reach thousands of locations in an effective manner. Members of these groups and co-ops generally are independent businesses with strong relationships and brand recognition with smaller contractors and homeowners in their local markets. The combination of our large sales force, long-standing retail and contractor customer relationships and extensive network of manufacturing and distribution facilities complements and strengthens our broad customer and market coverage.
Our customer service organization is supplemented by the employees of our manufacturing plants, distribution centers and drivers of our tractor-trailers. In conjunction with our field sales and engineering team, this highly trained and competent staff allows us to maintain more customer touch points and interaction than any of our competitors.
SEASONALITY
Historically, sales of our products have been higher in the first and second quarters of each fiscal year due to favorable weather and longer daylight conditions accelerating construction activity during these periods. Seasonal variations in operating results may also be impacted by inclement weather conditions, such as cold or wet weather, which can delay projects.
In the non-residential, residential and infrastructure markets in the northern United States and Canada, construction activity typically begins to increase in late March and is slower in December, January and February. In the southern and western United States, Mexico, Central America and South America, the construction markets are less seasonal.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
The agricultural drainage market is concentrated in the early spring just prior to planting and in the fall just after crops are harvested prior to freezing of the ground in winter.
PRACTICES RELATED TO WORKING CAPITAL ITEMS
Information about the Company’s working capital practices is incorporated herein by reference to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Results of Operations - Working Capital and Cash Flows” of this Form 10-K.
COMPETITION
We operate in a highly fragmented industry and hold leading positions in multiple market sectors. Competition, including our competitors and specific competitive factors, varies for each market sector.
Our products are generally lighter, more durable, more cost effective and easier to install than comparable alternatives made with traditional materials. Following our entrance into the non-residential construction market with the introduction of N-12 corrugated HDPE pipe in the late 1980s, our pipe has been displacing traditional materials, such as reinforced concrete, corrugated steel and PVC, across an ever-expanding range of end markets, including non-residential, residential, agriculture and infrastructure applications. In the United States, our nationwide footprint combined with our strong local presence and broad product offering make us the leader in an otherwise highly fragmented sector comprised of many smaller competitors.
We believe the principal competitive factors for our market sectors include local selling coverage, product availability, breadth and cost of products, technical knowledge and expertise, customer and supplier relationships, reliability and accuracy of service, effective use of technology, delivery capabilities and timeliness, pricing of products, and the provision of credit. We believe that our competitive strengths and strategy allow us to compete effectively in our market sectors.
The stormwater drainage industry, in particular, is highly fragmented with many smaller specialty and regional competitors providing a variety of product technologies and solutions. We compete against concrete pipe, corrugated steel pipe and PVC pipe producers on a national, regional and local basis. In addition, there are many HDPE pipe producers in the United States.
In the United States, our primary competitors are concrete pipe producers, including Quikrete, Forterra and Oldcastle CRH Precast, as well as smaller, regional competitors. In the corrugated steel pipe sector, our primary national competitor is Contech Engineered Solutions, and we compete with Lane Enterprises, Pacific Corrugated and Southeast Culvert on a regional level, as well as other smaller competitors. In the PVC pipe sector, we compete primarily with JM Eagle, Diamond Plastics and North American Pipe. In the septic tank and drainfield sector, we compete with Tank Holding, Orenco Systems, Eljen as well as smaller local producers. We believe we are the only corrugated HDPE pipe producer with a national footprint, and our competitors operate primarily on a regional and local level. In the corrugated HDPE pipe sector in the United States, our primary competitors on a regional basis are JM Eagle, Lane Enterprises, Prinsco, Southeast Culvert and Pacific Corrugated.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We rely upon a combination of patents, trademarks, trade names, licensing arrangements, trade secrets, know-how and proprietary technology in order to secure and protect our intellectual property rights, both in the United States and in foreign countries.
We seek to protect our new technologies with patents and trademarks and defend against patent infringement allegations. We hold a significant amount of intellectual property rights pertaining to product patents, process patents and trademarks. We continually seek to expand and improve our existing product offerings through product development and acquisitions. Although our intellectual property is important to our business operations and in the aggregate constitutes a valuable asset, we do not believe that any single patent, trademark or trade secret is critical to the success of our business as a whole. We cannot be certain that our patent applications will be issued or that any issued patents will provide us with any competitive advantages or will not be challenged by third parties.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
In addition to the foregoing protections, we generally control access to and use of our proprietary and other confidential information through the use of internal and external controls, including contractual protections with employees, distributors and others. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors - Risks Relating to Our Business - If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, or we infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, our ability to compete could be negatively impacted.”
HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES
At the core of the company’s 55-year history are the people, many of whom have been with the company for several decades. It is not uncommon to see this dedication span several family generations in our team that today numbers nearly 5,000 worldwide.
We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive culture, empowering employees and communities by embracing the dynamics of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating an environment where employees feel valued, respected, and fully engaged to contribute to our future success.
The ability to recruit, retain, develop and protect our global workforce are key to our success as a company. In addition to providing competitive compensation and benefits, this includes the following categories: Health and Safety; Values; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; and Training.
Employees - As of March 31, 2021, in our domestic and international operations, the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries had both hourly personnel and salaried employees. As of March 31, 2021, approximately 200 hourly personnel in our Mexican joint venture were covered by collective bargaining agreements.
March 31, 2021
March 31, 2020
Employees by Region
United States
4,340
4,290
Canada
Other
Total
5,000
4,950
Employees by Type
Hourly
3,420
3,410
Salary
1,580
1,540
Total
5,000
4,950
Health and Safety - Employee safety is our highest priority and a key component of our company culture. Our operations follow a comprehensive, proactive safety and health management system that includes a collaborative process to find and fix workplace hazards prior to injury occurrence. Our U.S. facilities follow all Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHA”) safety and health standards, as required by law; and our Canadian facilities follow the Canadian Federation of Construction Safety Association (“CFCSA”) Certificate of Recognition (“COR”) program, as required by law
Our first priority in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the health and safety of our employees. Primarily deemed an essential business, we implemented social distancing and appropriate health protocols across all our facilities so we could remain open to deliver critical water management solutions to our customers and the communities they serve. To further minimize risk, we transitioned employees to working from home where possible to limit physical interaction and used a thorough case management process to work through and mitigate any potential cases.
Values - Our success as a company is built on the Honesty, Professionalism, and Core Values of our employees, directors, and agents. These three tenets serve as the guiding principles of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the “Ethics Code”).
•
Honesty: We believe in always being honest in dealing with our customers, suppliers, and others and complying with all laws and regulations applicable to our business at all levels.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
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Professionalism: We believe in providing our products and services in a prompt and professional manner, gaining the loyalty and trust of our customers and suppliers.
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Core Values: We believe in certain “core values” centered upon ensuring quality throughout our product and organization for long-term growth and profitability.
The Ethics Code provides a framework by which we maintain the highest ethical standards in the conduct of our business and is an integral part of implementing our vision of ethically and sustainably maximizing value. All members of our organization are expected to adhere to each of the policies of the Ethics Code, while also employing good ethical judgment. The Ethics Code provides guidelines in relation to conflicts of interest, fair dealing, confidential information and intellectual property, fair employment practices, environmental health and safety, and improper payments to third parties, among many other areas of ethical business conduct.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - As a global company, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive culture, empowering employees and communities by embracing the dynamics of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating an environment where employees feel valued, respected, and fully engaged to contribute to our future success.
We base hiring and promotional decisions on job qualifications, such as work records, performance history and length of service, to ensure equal opportunity to all. We also ensure equal opportunity across all relevant aspects of employment such as recruiting, job assignment, compensation, benefits, transfers, promotional opportunities, company sponsored training, and recreation programs, among others.
Training - Our operational and management training programs are core to our commitment and enablement of a safe and productive manufacturing environment. Through our ADS Academy, we deliver targeted role-specific training to our operations team members through a blended curriculum of online and hands-on training experiences covering safety, quality, product knowledge and manufacturing process. Our learning management system, which hosts approximately 450 custom modules, serves as the foundation of our operational training programs and provides us with appropriate scale, efficiency, and governance to support our growth. We have a strong commitment to the training of our manufacturing supervisors and managers in technical, management, and leadership subjects through intense role-based assimilation plans, e-learning and classroom-based development experiences.
REGULATION
Our operations are affected by various statutes, regulations and laws in the markets in which we operate, which historically have not had a material effect on our business. We are subject to various laws applicable to businesses generally, including laws affecting land usage, zoning, the environment, health and safety, transportation, labor and employment practices, competition, immigration and other matters. Additionally, building codes may affect the products our customers are allowed to use, and, consequently, changes in building codes may affect the salability of our products. The transportation and disposal of many of our products are also subject to federal regulations. We are subject to safety requirements governing interstate operations prescribed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (“U.S. DOT”). Vehicle dimensions and driver hours of service also remain subject to both federal and state regulation.
We have been able to consistently capitalize on changes in both local and federal regulatory statutes relating to storm and sanitary sewer construction, repair and replacement. Most noteworthy is the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 and the subsequent EPA Phase I, II and sustainable infrastructure regulations relating to storm sewer construction, storm water quantity, storm water quality, and combined sewer separation. Our diversity of products offering a solution-based selling approach coupled with detailed market knowledge makes us an integral industry resource in both regulatory changes and compliance.
An important element of our growth strategy has been our focus on industry education efforts to drive regulatory approvals for our core HDPE products at national, state and local levels. We employ field-based engineers who work closely with government agencies to obtain regulatory approvals for our products, and also with civil engineering firms to specify our products on non-residential construction and road-building projects. Additional state and local regulatory approvals will continue to present new growth opportunities in new and existing
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
geographic markets for us. The trend of substituting traditional materials for HDPE and PP is expected to continue as more states and municipalities recognize the benefits of our HDPE N-12 pipe and our polypropylene HP pipe by approving it for use in a broader range of applications.
Our Infiltrator products are used primarily in on-site septic and decentralized wastewater treatment systems. The products used in these systems cannot be sold without a regulatory approval. We have a dedicated regulatory team with a track record of gaining favorable regulatory approvals and advancing policy and legislation. Over the past 10 years the team has successfully embarked in over 100 regulatory initiatives increasing the addressability and size of markets across the U.S. and Canada.
ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY MATTERS
We are subject to a broad range of foreign, federal, state and local environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those pertaining to air emissions, water discharges, the handling, disposal and transport of solid and hazardous materials and wastes, the investigation and remediation of contamination and otherwise relating to health and safety and the protection of the environment and natural resources. To a limited extent, our current and past operations, and those of many of the companies we have acquired, involve materials that are, or could be classified as, toxic or hazardous. There is inherent risk of contamination and environmental damage in our operations and the products we handle, transport and distribute. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors - Risks Relating to Our Business - We could incur significant costs in complying with environmental, health and safety laws or permits or as a result of satisfying any liability or obligation imposed under such laws or permits.”
CORPORATE AND AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We were founded in 1966 and are a Delaware corporation. Our principal executive offices are located at 4640 Trueman Boulevard, Hilliard, Ohio 43026, and our telephone number at that address is (614) 658-0050. Our corporate website is www.adspipe.com.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (“Exchange Act”) are filed with the SEC. We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and file or furnish reports, proxy statements, and other information with the SEC. Such reports and other information filed by the Company with the SEC are available free of charge on our website at www.adspipe.com when such reports are available on the SEC’s website. We use our www.adspipe.com website as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor such portions of www.adspipe.com in addition to following press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts.
The contents of the websites referred to above are not incorporated into this filing. Further, our references to these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Item 1A.
Risk Factors
Please carefully consider the risks described below, together with all other information included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly.
Risks Relating to Our Business
Fluctuations in the price and availability of resins, our principal raw materials, and our inability to obtain adequate supplies of resins from suppliers and pass on resin price increases to customers could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
The principal raw materials that we use in our products are virgin and recycled resins. Our ability to operate profitably depends, to a large extent, on the markets for these resins. In particular, as resins are derived either directly or indirectly from crude oil derivatives and natural gas liquids, resin prices fluctuate substantially as a result of changes in crude oil and natural gas prices, changes in existing processing capabilities and the capacity of resin
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
suppliers. Polypropylene resin suppliers are limited, and high-density polyethylene suppliers are geographically concentrated. Unanticipated changes in and disruptions to existing petrochemical capacities could also significantly increase resin prices, often within a short period of time, even if crude oil and natural gas prices remain low. In addition, supply interruptions could arise from labor disputes or weather conditions affecting supplies or shipments, transportation disruptions or other factors beyond our control, including disruptions resulting from the impact of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic or extreme weather events. An extended disruption in the timely availability of raw materials from our key suppliers would result in a decrease in our revenues and profitability.
Our ability to maintain profitability heavily depends on our ability to pass through to our customers any increase in raw material costs, which are a large portion of our overall product costs. We may be unable to do so in a timely manner, or at all, due to competition in the markets in which we operate. In addition, certain of our largest customers historically have exerted significant pressure on their outside suppliers to keep prices low because of their market share. If increases in the cost of raw materials cannot be passed on to our customers, or the duration of time associated with a pass through becomes extended, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows will be adversely affected.
The COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to mitigate the pandemic, and the related weakening economic conditions, could have a significant negative impact on our operations, liquidity, financial condition and financial results.
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global economy, in addition to disrupting global supply chains and workforce participation. Quarantines and "stay in place" orders, the timing and length of containment and eradication solutions, travel restrictions, absenteeism by infected workers, labor shortages or other disruptions to our supply chain or our customers could adversely impact our sales and operating results and has resulted in some project delays.
In addition, the pandemic has resulted in an economic downturn that could affect the ability of our customers to obtain financing for projects and therefore impact demand for our products and services. Order lead times could be extended or delayed and our pricing or pricing of suppliers for needed materials could increase. Some critical materials, products or services may become unavailable if the regional or global spread were significant enough to prevent alternative sourcing.
While manufacturing and manufacturing-related industries are considered an "essential service" in most jurisdictions in which we operate, site closures or project delays have occurred and increased social distancing and health-related precautions are required on many work sites, which may cause additional project delays and additional costs to be incurred. To the extent that our customers and suppliers are adversely impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, this could reduce the availability, or result in delays, of materials or supplies, or delays in customer payments, which in turn could materially interrupt our business operations and/or impact our liquidity.
Any disruption or volatility in general business and economic conditions in the markets in which we operate could have a material adverse effect on the demand for our products and services.
The markets in which we operate are sensitive to general business and economic conditions in the United States and worldwide, including availability of credit, interest rates, fluctuation in capital and business and consumer confidence. Furthermore, the U.S. and global economy as well as the markets in which we operate face the adverse impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, as referenced above. The difficult conditions in these markets and the overall economy affect our business in a number of ways. For example:
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The volatility of the United States economy in general (including as a result of COVID-19) can have an adverse effect on our sales that are dependent on the non-residential construction market. Continued uncertainty about current economic conditions may pose a risk to our business units that serve the non-residential construction market, as participants in this industry may postpone spending.
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Our business depends to a great extent upon general activity levels in the agriculture market. The nature of the agriculture market is such that a downturn in demand can occur suddenly, resulting in excess inventories, un-utilized production capacity and reduced prices for pipe products. These downturns may be prolonged, and our revenue and profitability would be harmed.
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Our business depends on the residential construction market. While new housing starts demonstrated a compounded annual growth rate of 4.4% from 2015 to 2020, current levels remain below the long-term average of 1.4 million starts since the U.S. Census Bureau began reporting the data demand for our products and services in this market, and may be further adversely impacted by the COVID-19
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pandemic, which in turn would result in a significant adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
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Demand for our products and services depend to a significant degree on spending on infrastructure, which is inherently cyclical. Infrastructure spending is affected by a variety of factors beyond our control, including interest rates, availability and commitment of public funds for municipal spending and highway spending and general economic conditions. Our products sales may be adversely impacted by budget cuts by governments, including as a result of lower than anticipated tax revenues.
We cannot predict the duration of current economic conditions, or the timing or strength of any future recovery of activities in our markets. Continued weakness in the markets in which we operate could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We may have to close under-performing facilities from time to time as warranted by general economic conditions and/or weakness in the markets in which we operate. In addition to a reduction in demand for our products, these factors may also reduce the price we are able to charge for our products and restrict our ability to pass raw material cost increases to our customers. This, combined with an increase in excess capacity, will negatively impact our profitability, cash flows and our financial condition, generally.
Demand for our products and services could decrease if we are unable to compete effectively, and our success depends largely on our ability to convert current demand for competitive products into demand for our products.
We compete with both manufacturers of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and manufacturers of alternative products, such as concrete, steel and PVC pipe products, on the basis of a number of considerations, including product characteristics such as durability, design, ease of installation, price on a price-to-value basis and service.
We expect that new competitors may develop over time. No assurance can be given that we will be able to respond effectively to such competitive pressures. Increased competition by existing and future competitors could result in reductions in sales, prices, volumes and gross margins that would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Furthermore, our success will depend, in part, on our ability to maintain our market share and gain market share from competitors.
Certain of our competitors have financial and other resources that are greater than ours and may be better able to withstand price competition, especially with respect to traditional products. In addition, consolidation by industry participants could result in competitors with increased market share, larger customer bases, greater diversified product offerings and greater technological and marketing expertise, which would allow them to compete more effectively against us. Moreover, our competitors may develop products that are superior to our products or may adapt more quickly to new technologies or evolving customer requirements. In many markets in which we operate there are no significant entry barriers that would prevent new competitors from entering the market, especially on the local level, or existing competitors from expanding in the market.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by the effects of weather.
Most of our business units experience seasonal variation as a result of the dependence of our customers on suitable weather to engage in construction projects. Generally, during the winter months, construction activity declines due to inclement weather, frozen ground and shorter daylight hours. In addition, to the extent that hurricanes, severe storms, floods, other natural disasters or similar events occur in the geographic regions in which we operate, our results of operations may be adversely affected. We anticipate that fluctuations of our operations results from period to period due to seasonality will continue in the future.
The loss of any of our significant customers could adversely affect our business.
Our ten largest customers generated approximately 38% of our net sales in fiscal 2021. We cannot guarantee that we will maintain or improve our relationships with these customers or that we will continue to supply these customers at historical levels. Because we do not have long-term arrangements with many of our customers, such customers may cease purchasing our products without notice or upon short notice to us. In addition, consolidation among customers could also result in a loss of some of our present customers to our competitors. The loss of one or more of
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our significant customers, a significant customer’s decision to purchase our products in significantly lower quantities than they have in the past, or deterioration in our relationship with any of them could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Because our business is working capital intensive, we rely on our ability to manage our supply purchasing and customer credit policies.
The majority of our net sales volume is facilitated through the extension of credit to our customers whose ability to pay is dependent, in part, upon the economic strength of the industry in the areas where they operate. Our business units offer credit to customers, either through unsecured credit that is based solely upon the creditworthiness of the customer, or secured credit for materials sold for a specific job where the security lies in lien rights associated with the material going into the job. The type of credit offered depends both on the financial strength of the customer and the nature of the business in which the customer is involved. End users, resellers and other non-contractor customers generally purchase more on unsecured credit than secured credit. The inability of our customers to pay off their credit lines in a timely manner, or at all, would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Furthermore, our collections efforts with respect to non-paying or slow-paying customers could negatively impact our customer relations going forward.
Our operations are working capital intensive, and our inventories, accounts receivable and accounts payable are significant components of our net asset base. We manage our inventories and accounts payable through our purchasing policies and our accounts receivable through our customer credit policies. If we fail to adequately manage our supply purchasing or customer credit policies, our working capital and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We may be unable to successfully integrate our and Infiltrator’s businesses in order to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition or do so within the intended timeframe.
The success of the acquisition, including anticipated synergies, benefits and cost savings, will depend, in part, on our ability to successfully combine and integrate our current operations with Infiltrator’ business. If we experience difficulties with the integration process or other unforeseen costs, the anticipated benefits and cost savings of the acquisition may not be realized fully or may take longer to realize than expected. The integration planning and implementation process will result in significant costs and divert management attention and resources. These integration matters could have an adverse effect on our combined company for an undetermined period after completion of the acquisition. In addition, the actual cost savings of the acquisition could be less than anticipated, or otherwise offset by other factors.
Additional difficulties we may encounter as part of the integration process include the following:
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The volatility of the United States economy in general (including as a result of COVID-19) can have an adverse effect on our sales that are dependent on the non-residential construction market. Continued uncertainty about current economic conditions may pose a risk to our business units that serve the non-residential construction market, as participants in this industry may postpone spending;
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the costs of integration and compliance and the possibility that the full benefits anticipated to result from our acquisition of Infiltrator will not be realized;
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any delay in the integration of management teams, strategies, operations, products and services;
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diversion of the attention of each company’s management as a result of our acquisition of Infiltrator;
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differences in business backgrounds, corporate cultures and management philosophies that may delay successful integration;
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the ability to retain key employees;
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the ability to create and enforce uniform standards, controls, procedures, policies and information systems;
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the challenge of integrating complex systems, technology, networks and other assets of Infiltrator into those of ours in a seamless manner that minimizes any adverse impact on customers, suppliers, employees and other constituencies;
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potential unknown liabilities and unforeseen increased expenses or delays associated with the acquisition, including costs to integrate Infiltrator beyond current estimates; and
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the disruption of, or the loss of momentum in, each company’s ongoing businesses or inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures and policies.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Any of these factors could adversely affect each company’s ability to maintain relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and other constituencies or our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisition or could reduce each company’s earnings or otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results after the acquisition. These risks are not limited to our acquisition of Infiltrator and could also apply to our future acquisitions.
Our international operations expose us to political, economic and regulatory risks not normally faced by businesses that operate only in the United States. As a result of our international operations, we could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar foreign anti-corruption laws.
Some of our operations are outside the United States, with manufacturing and distribution facilities in Canada and several Latin American countries. Our international operations are subject to risks similar to those affecting our operations in the United States in addition to a number of other risks, including: difficulties in enforcing contractual and intellectual property rights; impositions or increases of withholding and other taxes on remittances and other payments by subsidiaries and affiliates; exposure to different or changing legal standards, including potential changes in government mandated regulatory product standards in those countries in which we or our joint ventures operate; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; impositions or increases of investment and other restrictions by foreign governments; the requirements of a wide variety of foreign laws; political and economic instability; war; and difficulties in staffing and managing operations, particularly in remote locations.
The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and similar foreign anti-corruption laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments or providing anything of value to wrongfully influence foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or obtaining an unfair advantage, and generally require companies to maintain accurate books and records and internal controls, including at foreign controlled subsidiaries.
We have operations in Canada as well as existing joint ventures in Mexico and South America. Our internal policies provide for compliance with all applicable anti-corruption laws for both us and for our joint venture operations. Our continued operation and expansion outside the United States, including in developing countries, could increase the risk of such violations in the future. Despite our training and compliance programs, our internal control policies and procedures may not always protect us from unauthorized, reckless or criminal acts committed by our employees, agents or joint venture partners.
Conducting a portion of our operations through joint ventures exposes us to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of our control.
With respect to our existing joint ventures, any differences in views among the joint venture participants may result in delayed decisions or in failures to agree on major issues. We also cannot control the actions of our joint venture partners, including any nonperformance, default or bankruptcy of our joint venture partners. As a result, we may be unable to control the quality of products produced by the joint ventures or achieve consistency of product quality as compared with our other operations. In addition to net sales and market share, this may have a material negative impact on our brand and how it is perceived thereafter. Moreover, if our partners also fail to invest in the joint venture in the manner that is anticipated or otherwise fail to meet their contractual obligations, the joint ventures may be unable to adequately perform and conduct their respective operations, requiring us to make additional investments or perform additional services to ensure the adequate performance and delivery of products and/or services to the joint ventures’ customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
We may not be able to successfully expand into new product or geographic markets.
We may expand into new product markets based on our existing manufacturing, design and engineering capabilities and services. Our business depends in part on our ability to identify future products and product lines that complement existing products and product lines and that respond to our customers’ needs. We may not be able to compete effectively unless our product selection keeps up with trends in the markets in which we compete or trends in new products. In addition, our ability to integrate new products and product lines into our distribution network could impact our ability to compete. Furthermore, the success of new products and new product lines will depend on market demand and there is a risk that new products and new product lines will not deliver expected results, which could negatively impact our future sales and results of operations.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Our expansion into new geographic markets may present competitive, distribution and regulatory challenges that differ from current ones. We may be less familiar with the target customers and may face different or additional risks, as well as increased or unexpected costs, compared to existing operations. Expansion into new geographic markets may also bring us into direct competition with companies with whom we have little or no past experience as competitors. To the extent we rely upon expansion into new geographic markets for growth and do not meet the new challenges posed by such expansion, our future sales growth could be negatively impacted, our operating costs could increase, and our business operations and financial results could be adversely affected.
We continue to invest in strategic and operational initiatives. If we fail to implement these initiatives as expected, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our financial performance and future growth depend on our management’s ability to successfully implement our strategic and operational initiatives. Our initiatives are focused on improving productivity to facilitate growth and align production to customer demand. Any failure to successfully implement these initiatives and related strategies could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations, including increases in our severance and impairment charges.
Increased fuel and energy prices, and our inability to obtain sufficient quantities of fuel to operate our in-house delivery fleet.
Prices and availability of petroleum products are subject to political, economic and market factors that are outside our control. We consume a large amount of energy and petroleum products in our operations, including the manufacturing process and delivering a significant volume of products to our customers by our in-house fleet. While we utilize a diesel hedging program associated with our in-house fleet to mitigate against higher fuel prices, our operating profit will be adversely affected if we are unable to obtain the energy and fuel we require or to fully offset the anticipated impact of higher energy and fuel prices through increased prices or surcharges to our customers or through other hedging strategies. If shortages occur in the supply of energy or necessary petroleum products and we are not able to pass along the full impact of increased energy or petroleum prices to our customers, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows would be adversely affected.
Internally manufacturing our products at our own facilities subjects our business to risks associated with manufacturing processes.
We internally manufacture our own products at our facilities with substantial fixed costs. While we maintain insurance covering our manufacturing and production facilities and have significant flexibility to manufacture and ship our own products from various facilities, a catastrophic loss of the use of certain of our facilities due to accident, fire, explosion, labor issues, weather conditions, pandemics (including the current COVID-19 pandemic), other natural disaster or otherwise, whether short or long-term, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Unexpected failures of our equipment and machinery may result in production delays, revenue loss and significant repair costs, injuries to our employees, and customer claims. Any interruption in production capability may limit our ability to supply enough products to customers and may require us to make large capital expenditures to remedy the situation, which could have a negative impact on our profitability and cash flows. Our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to offset the lost revenues or increased costs that we may experience during a disruption of our operations.
The nature of our business exposes us to construction defect and product liability claims as well as other legal proceedings.
We are exposed to construction defect and product liability claims relating to our various products if our products do not meet customer expectations. Such liabilities may arise out of the quality of raw materials we purchase from third-party suppliers, over which we do not have direct control. We also operate a large fleet of trucks and other vehicles and therefore face the risk of traffic accidents.
While we currently maintain insurance coverage to address a portion of these types of liabilities, we cannot make assurances that we will be able to obtain such insurance on acceptable terms in the future, if at all, or that any such insurance will provide adequate coverage against potential claims. Further, while we intend to seek indemnification against potential liability for products liability claims from relevant parties, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to recover under any such indemnification agreements. Product liability claims can be expensive to defend and can
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
divert the attention of management and other personnel for significant time periods, regardless of the ultimate outcome. An unsuccessful product liability defense could be highly costly and accordingly result in a decline in revenues and profitability. In addition, even if we are successful in defending any claim relating to the products we distribute, claims of this nature could negatively impact customer confidence in us and our products.
From time to time, we are also involved in government inquiries and investigations, as well as consumer, employment, tort proceedings and other litigation. We cannot predict with certainty the outcomes of these legal proceedings and other contingencies, including potential environmental remediation and other proceedings commenced by government authorities. The outcome of some of these legal proceedings and other contingencies could require us to take actions which would adversely affect our operations or could require us to pay substantial amounts of money. Additionally, defending against these lawsuits and proceedings may involve significant expense and diversion of management’s attention and resources from other matters.
Our operations are affected by various laws and regulations in the markets in which we operate, including government mandated regulatory product standards, and our failure to obtain or maintain approvals by municipalities, state departments of transportation, engineers and developers may affect our results of operations.
While we are not engaged in a regulated industry, we are subject to various laws applicable to businesses generally, including laws affecting land usage, zoning, the environment, health and safety, transportation, labor and employment practices (including pensions), competition, immigration and other matters. Additionally, approvals by municipalities, the U.S. and state departments of transportation, engineers and developers may affect the products our customers are allowed to use, and, consequently, failure to obtain or maintain such approvals may affect the saleability of our products. Building codes may also affect the products our customers use, and, consequently, changes in building codes may also affect the saleability of our products. Changes in applicable regulations governing the sale of some of our products, including changes in government mandated regulatory product standards in countries in which we or our joint ventures operate, could increase our costs. In addition, changes to applicable tax laws and regulations could increase our costs of doing business. We cannot provide assurance that we will not incur material costs or liabilities in connection with regulatory requirements.
We deliver products to many of our customers through our own fleet of vehicles. The U.S. DOT regulates our operations in domestic interstate commerce. We are subject to safety requirements governing interstate operations prescribed by the U.S. DOT. Vehicle dimensions and driver hours of service also remain subject to both federal and state regulation. More restrictive limitations on vehicle weight and size, trailer length and configuration, or driver hours of service could increase our costs, which, if we are unable to pass these cost increases on to our customers, would reduce our gross profit and net income (loss) and increase our selling, general and administrative expenses.
We cannot predict whether future developments or changes in law, regulations or government mandated product standards concerning our business units or products will affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in a negative manner. Similarly, we cannot assess whether our business units will be successful in meeting future demands of regulatory agencies in a manner which will not materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Interruptions in the proper functioning of information technology systems could disrupt operations and cause unanticipated increases in costs, decreases in revenues, or both. The implementation of our technology initiatives could disrupt our operations in the near term, and our technology initiatives might not provide the anticipated benefits or might fail.
Because we use our information technology (“IT”) systems to, among other things, manage inventories and accounts receivable, make purchasing decisions and monitor our results of operations, the proper functioning of our IT systems is important to the successful operation of our business. Although our IT systems are protected through physical and software safeguards and remote processing capabilities exist, IT systems are still vulnerable to natural disasters, power losses, unauthorized access, telecommunication failures and other problems. If critical IT systems fail, or are otherwise unavailable, our ability to process orders, track credit risk, identify business opportunities, maintain proper levels of inventories, collect accounts receivable and pay expenses and otherwise manage our business units would be adversely affected.
Management uses IT systems to support decision making and to monitor business performance. We may fail to generate accurate financial and operational reports essential for making decisions at various levels of management. Failure to adopt systematic procedures to maintain quality IT general controls could disrupt our business. In
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
addition, if we do not maintain adequate controls such as reconciliations, segregation of duties and verification to prevent errors or incomplete information, our ability to operate our business could be limited.
We have made, and will continue to make, significant technology investments in each of our business units and in our administrative functions. Our technology initiatives are designed to streamline our operations to allow our associates to continue to provide high quality service to our customers and to provide our customers a better experience, while improving the quality of our internal control environment. The cost and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of our technology initiatives could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations in the near term. In addition, our new or upgraded technology might not provide the anticipated benefits, it might take longer than expected to realize the anticipated benefits or the technology might fail altogether. The occurrence of such interruptions could have a material adverse effect on our business financial condition and results of operations.
Cybersecurity attacks may threaten our confidential information, disrupt operations and result in harm to our reputation and adversely impact our business and financial performance.
Cybersecurity attacks across industries, including ours, are increasing in sophistication and frequency and may range from uncoordinated individual attempts to measures targeted specifically at us. These attacks include but are not limited to, malicious software or viruses, including “ransomware” attempts to gain unauthorized access to, or otherwise disrupt, our information systems, attempts to gain unauthorized access to business, proprietary or other confidential information, and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in critical systems, unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information and corruption of data. Cybersecurity failures may be caused by employee error, malfeasance, other corporate or governmental actors, system errors or vulnerabilities, including vulnerabilities of our vendors, suppliers, and their products. While we have been subject to cybersecurity attacks in the past, that (based on information known to date) did not have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations, we may experience such attacks in the future, potentially with more frequency or sophistication which may have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
Failures of our IT systems as a result of cybersecurity attacks or other disruptions could result in a breach of critical operational or financial controls and lead to a disruption of our operations, commercial activities or financial processes. Cybersecurity attacks or other disruptions impacting significant customers and/or suppliers could also lead to a disruption of our operations or commercial activities. Despite our attempts to safeguard our systems and mitigate potential risks, there is no assurance that such actions will be sufficient to prevent cyberattacks or security breaches that manipulate or improperly use our systems or networks, compromise confidential or otherwise protected information, destroy or corrupt data, or otherwise disrupt our operations. The occurrence of such events could have a material adverse effect on our business financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends upon our ability to control labor costs and to attract, train and retain highly qualified employees and key personnel.
To be successful, we must attract, train and retain a large number of highly qualified employees while controlling related labor costs. Our ability to control labor costs is subject to numerous external factors, including prevailing wage rates and health and other insurance costs. There is no assurance that we will be able to attract or retain highly qualified employees in the future, including, those employed by companies we acquire. None of our domestic employees are currently covered by collective bargaining or other similar labor agreements. However, if a number of our employees were to unionize, the effect on us may be negative.
In addition, our business results of operations depend largely upon our chief executive officer and senior management team as well as our plant managers and sales personnel, including those of companies acquired, and their experience, knowledge of local market dynamics and specifications and long-standing customer relationships. Our inability to retain or hire qualified plant managers or sales personnel at economically reasonable compensation levels would restrict our ability to grow our business, limit our ability to continue to successfully operate our business and result in lower operating results and profitability.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, or we infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, our ability to compete could be negatively impacted.
Our ability to compete effectively depends, in part, upon our ability to protect and preserve proprietary aspects of our intellectual property, which we attempt to do, both in the United States and in foreign countries, through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements and third-party
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
nondisclosure and assignment agreements. Because of the differences in foreign trademark, patent and other laws concerning proprietary rights, our intellectual property rights may not receive the same degree of protection in foreign countries as they would in the United States. Our failure to obtain or maintain adequate protection of our intellectual property rights for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We could incur significant costs in complying with environmental, health and safety laws or permits or as a result of satisfying any liability or obligation imposed under such laws or permits.
Our operations are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Among other things, these laws regulate the emission or discharge of materials into the environment, govern the use, storage, treatment, disposal and management of hazardous substances and wastes, protect the health and safety of our employees and the end users of our products, regulate the materials used in and the recycling of products and impose liability for the costs of investigating and remediating, and damages resulting from, present and past releases of hazardous substances. Violations of these laws and regulations, failure to obtain or maintain required environmental permits or non-compliance with any conditions contained in any environmental permit can result in substantial fines or penalties, injunctive relief, requirements to install pollution or other controls or equipment, civil and criminal sanctions, permit revocations and/or facility shutdowns. We could be held liable for the costs to address contamination of any real property we have ever owned, leased, operated or used, including as a disposal site. We could also incur fines, penalties, sanctions or be subject to third-party claims for property damage, personal injury or nuisance or otherwise as a result of violations of or liabilities under environmental laws in connection with releases of hazardous or other materials.
In addition, changes in, or new interpretations of, existing laws, regulations or enforcement policies, the discovery of previously unknown contamination, or the imposition of other environmental liabilities or obligations in the future, including additional investigation or other obligations with respect to any potential health hazards of our products or business activities or the imposition of new permit requirements, may lead to additional compliance or other costs that could have material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
We may be affected by global climate change or by legal, regulatory or market responses to such potential change.
Concern over climate change, including the impact of global warming, has led to significant federal, state, and international legislative and regulatory efforts to limit greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Even in the absence of such legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency, spurred by judicial interpretation of the Clean Air Act, may regulate GHG emissions, especially diesel engine emissions, and this could impose substantial costs on us. These costs include an increase in the cost of the fuel and other energy we purchase and capital costs associated with updating or replacing our internal fleet of trucks and other vehicles prematurely. In addition, new laws or future regulation could directly and indirectly affect our customers and suppliers (through an increase in the cost of production or their ability to produce satisfactory products) and our business (through the impact on our inventory availability, cost of sales, operations or demands for the products we sell). Until the timing, scope and extent of any future regulation becomes known, we cannot predict its effect on our cost structure or our operating results. Notwithstanding our dedication to being a responsible corporate citizen, it is reasonably possible that such legislation or regulation could impose material costs on us.
Risks Relating to Our Indebtedness
Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our business, financial conditions or results of operations and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under the agreements governing the terms of our indebtedness.
Our indebtedness could have risks. For example, it could:
•
make it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to the Company's existing 5.0% senior notes due 2027 (the "Senior Notes") and our Senior Secured Credit Facility;
•
increase our vulnerability to and compromise our flexibility to plan for, or react to, general adverse economic, industry or competitive conditions, including interest rate fluctuations, because a portion of our borrowings will be at variable rates of interest;
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
•
cause us to be unable to meet the financial covenants contained in our debt agreements, or to generate cash sufficient to make required debt payments, which circumstances would have the potential of accelerating the maturity of some or all of our outstanding indebtedness;
•
require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, joint ventures and investments and other general corporate purposes, that could improve our competitive position, results of operations or share price;
•
require us to sell debt or equity securities or to sell some of our core assets, possibly on unfavorable terms, to meet payment obligations;
•
expose us to the risk of increased interest rates, as certain of our borrowings are at variable rates of interest;
•
increase our vulnerability to downturns or adverse changes in general economic, industry or competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulations;
•
place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that do not have the same level of indebtedness as we do and competitors that may be in a more favorable position to access additional capital resources;
•
limit our ability to execute business development and acquisition activities to support our strategies;
•
limit our ability to obtain additional indebtedness or equity financing for working capital, capital expenditures, service line development, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes due to applicable financial and restrictive covenants in our debt agreements; and
•
limit our ability to refinance our substantial indebtedness on more favorable terms.
We expect to pay expenses and to pay principal and interest on current and future debt from cash provided by operating activities. Therefore, our ability to meet these payment obligations will depend on future financial performance and cash availability, which is subject in part to numerous economic, business and financial factors beyond our control. If our cash flow and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay expansion plans and capital expenditures, limit payment of dividends, sell material assets or operations, obtain additional capital or restructure our debt.
Risks Relating to Our Common Stock
Future sales of shares by existing stockholders, including our Employee Stock Ownership Plan, could cause our stock price to decline.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. Based on shares outstanding as of March 31, 2021, we have 72.0 million outstanding shares of common stock, including 0.4 million outstanding shares of our restricted stock, a significant portion of which are freely tradeable without restriction under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (“Securities Act”) unless held by “affiliates,” as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. As of March 31, 2021, there were stock options outstanding to purchase a total of approximately 1.3 million shares of our common stock. In addition, approximately 1.3 million shares of common stock are available for grant under our 2017 Omnibus Plan.
Certain of our significant stockholders may distribute shares that they hold to their investors who themselves may then sell into the public market. Such sales may not be subject to the volume, manner of sale, holding period and other limitations of Rule 144 of the Securities Act (“Rule 144”). As resale restrictions end, the market price of our common stock could decline if the holders of those shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them.
As of March 31, 2021, there were approximately 19.3 million shares of convertible preferred stock held by our ESOP, which in aggregate could be converted into approximately 14.8 million shares of our common stock. All of the shares of our convertible preferred stock held by our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”) may be converted into our common stock at any time by action of the ESOP trustee, and will be automatically converted into our common stock upon distributions of such shares allocated to the ESOP accounts of ESOP participants upon a distribution event such as retirement or other termination of employment. All of these shares will be eligible for future sale, either by the ESOP trustee or by ESOP participants, subject to the limitations of Rule 144.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
In the future, we may issue additional shares of common stock or other equity or debt securities convertible into common stock in connection with a financing, acquisition, litigation settlement or employee arrangement or otherwise. Any of these issuances could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
Our directors, officers and principal stockholders have significant voting power and may take actions that may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders. The trustee of our ESOP has certain limited powers to vote a large block of shares on matters presented to stockholders for approval.
As of May 18, 2021, our directors, officers and principal stockholders and their affiliates collectively own approximately 35% of our outstanding shares of common stock. Additionally, our ESOP holds convertible preferred stock that converts into a substantial number of shares of our common stock and, prior to conversion, is entitled to vote on a one-for-one basis on any matter requiring the vote or consent of our stockholders, voting together with our common stock as a single class unless otherwise required by law. Thus, the collective voting power of our directors, officers and principal stockholders and their affiliates as of May 18, 2021 is approximately 49%, inclusive of the outstanding shares of convertible preferred stock held by the ESOP. As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, may be able to control our management and affairs and most matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control and might adversely affect the market price of our common stock. This concentration of ownership may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders.
In general, the ESOP trustee votes the shares of convertible preferred stock held by the ESOP as directed by the ESOP’s participants. Consequently, the ESOP trustee has the ability to vote a significant block of shares on certain matters presented to stockholders for approval. Each participant in the ESOP may direct the ESOP trustee on how to vote the shares of convertible preferred stock allocated to the participant’s ESOP accounts; and the ESOP trustee must vote any unallocated stock and allocated stock for which no participant instructions were received in the same proportion as the allocated stock for which participants’ voting instructions have been received is voted.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of us and may affect the trading price of our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include a number of provisions that may discourage, delay or prevent a change in our management or control over us that stockholders may consider favorable. For example, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, each as further amen: authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that could be issued by our board of directors to thwart a takeover attempt; maintain a classified board of directors, for the next three years, until such time that our de-classified board structure is fully implemented at the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders; provide that vacancies on our board of directors, including newly-created directorships, may be filled only by a majority vote of directors then in office; prohibit stockholders from calling special meetings of stockholders; prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all actions to be taken at a meeting of the stockholders; do not give the holders of our common stock cumulative voting rights with respect to the election of directors, which means that the holders of a majority of our outstanding shares of common stock can elect all directors standing for election; establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings; require a super-majority stockholders vote of 75% to approve any reorganization, recapitalization, share exchange, share reclassification, consolidation, merger, conversion or sale of all or substantially all assets to which we are a party that is not approved by the affirmative vote of at least 75% of the members of our board of directors; and require the approval of holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of our voting common stock to amend the bylaws and at least 75% of the outstanding shares of our voting common stock to amend certain provisions of the certificate of incorporation.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws or Delaware General Corporation Law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may also make it difficult for stockholders to replace or remove our management. These provisions may facilitate management entrenchment
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
that may delay, deter, render more difficult or prevent a change in our control, which may not be in the best interests of our stockholders.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed to us or our stockholders by our directors, officers, employees or agents; any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our common stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation described above. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents, which may discourage such lawsuits against us or our directors, officers, employees or agents. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
General Risk Factors
As a publicly-traded manufacturing company, we are subject to a variety of risks in addition to the risks described above, each of which could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
These risks include but are not limited to:
•
taxation by multiple jurisdictions and the impact of such taxation on the effective tax rate and the amount of taxes paid;
•
material liabilities under our self-insured programs for workers’ compensation, automobile and product/general liability coverage as well as health coverage to our employees;
•
fluctuations in our effective tax rate, including from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act and any future tax legislation;
•
new or modified legislation related to health care;
•
the review of potential weaknesses or deficiencies in the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures, and discovering further weaknesses of which we are not currently aware or which have not been detected;
•
we cannot assure our stockholders that an active market for shares of our common stock can be sustained and the market price of our common stock may be volatile and could decline in the future; and
•
failure to meet the expectations of investors, including as a result of factors beyond our control.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Item 1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Item 2.Properties
Property
We have a network of 65 manufacturing plant locations and 38 distribution centers, summarized in the following table:
Manufacturing Plants
Distribution Centers
Total
United States
Canada
Mexico (1)
South America (1)(2)
Other (3)
-
Total
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
(1)
Manufacturing plants and distribution centers in Mexico and South America are owned or leased by our joint ventures.
(2)
Manufacturing plants and distribution centers owned or leased by our South America joint venture are not consolidated.
(3)
The other facility is located in the Netherlands.
We currently own approximately 36,000 square feet and lease approximately 27,000 square feet of office space in Hilliard, Ohio for our corporate headquarters and lease an office space in Old Saybrook, Connecticut for our Infiltrator headquarters.
Our network of 65 manufacturing plants consist of 45 that are owned and 20 that are leased. We generally prefer to own our manufacturing plant locations, with a typical pipe manufacturing facility consisting of approximately 40,000 square feet and 15-20 acres of land for storage of pipe and related products. Our network of 38 distribution centers consisted of 2 owned and 36 leased locations. We believe that our properties have been adequately maintained and are generally in good condition. The extent to which we use our properties varies by property and from time to time, but we believe the capacity of our facilities is adequate for the level of production and distribution activities necessary in our business as presently conducted. Each distribution center carries single wall and dual wall pipe and fittings and Allied Products per needs of the local market.
In-House Fleet
As of March 31, 2021, our in-house fleet consists of approximately 700 tractors and approximately 1,300 trailers that are specially designed to haul our lightweight pipe and fittings products.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Item 3.
Legal Proceedings
The Company is involved from time to time in various legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of our business, including but not limited to commercial disputes, environmental matters, employee related claims, intellectual property disputes and litigation in connection with transactions including acquisitions and divestitures. The Company does not believe that such litigation, claims, and administrative proceedings will have a material adverse impact on our financial position or our results of operations. The Company records a liability when a loss is considered probable, and the amount can be reasonably estimated.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
Item 4.
Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
Item 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information for Common Stock
Our common stock is listed and traded on the NYSE under the symbol “WMS”.
During each quarter of fiscal 2021, the Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per share to all common stockholders. During the first quarter of fiscal 2020, the Board of Directors approved a special dividend of $1.00 per share payable on June 14, 2019 to stockholder of record at the close of business on June 3, 2019. In addition, during each quarter of fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019, the Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per share and $0.08 per share, respectively, to all common stockholders.
During the first quarter of fiscal 2022, the Company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.11 per share of common stock. The dividend is payable on June 15, 2021 to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 1, 2021.
Holders of Record
As of May 18, 2021, we had 643 holders of record of our common stock. The number of holders of record is based upon the actual number of holders registered as of such date and does not include holders of shares in “street name” or persons, partnerships, associates, corporations or other entities in security position listings maintained by depositories.
Stock Performance Graph
The following graph presents a comparison from March 31, 2016 through March 31, 2021 of the cumulative return of our common stock, the Standard and Poor’s Index (“S&P 500”) and the Russell 2000 Index (“Russell 2000”). The graph assumes investment of $100 on March 31, 2016 in our common stock and in each of the two indices and the reinvestment of dividends.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
Since the completion of our IPO, we have not sold any securities without registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
In February 2017, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $50 million of our common stock. Repurchases of common stock will be made in accordance with applicable securities laws. The stock repurchase program does not obligate us to acquire any particular amount of common stock and may be suspended or terminated at any time at our discretion. During the first quarter of fiscal 2022, the Company announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program for the repurchase of up to $250 million in shares of the Company’s common stock, in addition to the $42 million outstanding under a previous authorization.
Equity Compensation Plan Information
For equity compensation plan information, refer to “Part III, Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Item 6. Selected Financial and Operating Data
Not applicable.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terms such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “seeks,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not related to present facts or current conditions or that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K and include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, our consolidated results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth strategies, and the industries in which we operate and include, without limitation, statements relating to our future performance.
Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. We caution that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual consolidated results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, and industry development may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, even if our actual consolidated results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, and industry development are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those reflected in forward-looking statements relating to our operations and business, the risks and uncertainties discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (including under the heading “Item 1A. Risk Factors”) and those described from time to time in our other filings with the SEC. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those reflected in forward-looking statements relating to our operations and business include, among other things:
•
fluctuations in the price and availability of resins and other raw materials and our ability to pass any increased costs of raw materials on to our customers in a timely manner;
•
volatility in general business and economic conditions in the markets in which we operate, including the adverse impact on the U.S. and global economy of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and the impact of COVID-19 in the near, medium and long-term on our business, results of operations, financial position, liquidity or cash flows, and other limitation factors relating to availability of credit, interest rates, fluctuations in capital and business and consumer confidence;
•
cyclicality and seasonality of the non-residential and residential construction markets and infrastructure spending;
•
the risks of increasing competition in our existing and future markets, including competition from both manufacturers of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and manufacturers of products using alternative materials, and our ability to continue to convert current demand for concrete, steel and polyvinyl chloride (“PVC”) pipe products into demand for our high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe and Allied Products;
•
uncertainties surrounding the integration and realization of anticipated benefits of acquisitions and similar transactions, including Infiltrator;
•
the effect of any claims, litigation, investigations or proceedings, including those described under “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” of this Annual Report;
•
the effect of weather or seasonality;
•
the loss of any of our significant customers;
•
the risks of doing business internationally;
•
the risks of conducting a portion of our operations through joint ventures;
•
our ability to expand into new geographic or product markets, including risks associated with new markets and products associated with our recent acquisition of Infiltrator; our ability to achieve the acquisition component of our growth strategy;
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
•
the risk associated with manufacturing processes;
•
our ability to manage our assets;
•
the risks associated with our product warranties;
•
our ability to manage our supply purchasing and customer credit policies;
•
our ability to control labor costs and to attract, train and retain highly qualified employees and key personnel;
•
our ability to protect our intellectual property rights;
•
changes in laws and regulations, including environmental laws and regulations;
•
the risks associated with our current levels of indebtedness, including borrowings under our existing credit agreement and outstanding indebtedness under our existing senior notes;
•
fluctuations in our effective tax rate, including from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act;
•
our ability to meet future capital requirements and fund our liquidity needs; and
•
other risks and uncertainties, including those listed under “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”
Please read this Annual Report on Form 10-K completely and with the understanding that actual future results may be materially different from expectations. All forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are qualified by these cautionary statements. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and we do not undertake any obligation, other than as may be required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments. Comparisons of results for current and any prior periods are not intended to express any future trends, or indications of future performance, unless expressed as such, and should only be viewed as historical data.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Item 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Our fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31. Unless otherwise noted, references to “year” pertain to our fiscal year. For example, 2021 refers to fiscal 2021, which is the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of our operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that are based on the beliefs of our management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, our management. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below, and those discussed in the sections titled “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Please read the following discussion together with the sections titled “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and our consolidated financial statements, including the related notes, included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Form 10-K.
Overview
We are the leading manufacturer of high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe, providing a comprehensive suite of water management products and superior drainage solutions for use in the underground construction and infrastructure marketplace. Our innovative products are used across a broad range of end markets and applications, including non-residential, residential, agriculture and infrastructure applications. We have established a leading position in many of these end markets by leveraging our national sales and distribution platform, our overall product breadth and scale and our manufacturing excellence. In the United States, our national footprint combined with our strong local presence and broad product offering make us the leader in an otherwise highly fragmented sector comprised of many smaller competitors. With the acquisition of Infiltrator in the second quarter of fiscal 2020, we are now a leading provider of plastic leachfield chambers, septic tanks and accessories for use primarily in residential applications.
Impact of COVID-19
In March 2020, the World Health Organization categorized the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) as a pandemic, and it continues to spread throughout the United States and globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted, and is likely to continue to result, in significant economic disruptions and may have an adverse effect on our business. Significant uncertainty exists concerning the magnitude of the impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In efforts to maintain a safe work environment and help contain the spread of COVID-19, we have transitioned to a work-from-home policy for those that are able and suspended all nonessential employee travel and events. We have also proactively implemented further safety and risk mitigation practices, including:
•
Educating associates on COVID-19 related symptoms and encouraging vaccination;
•
Regularly assessing deliveries and orders in virus “hot zones” and higher-risk geographic regions;
•
Employing strict social distancing practices across all departments and divisions; and
•
Instituting additional health screenings such as temperature checks at facilities, which currently all remain open.
Importantly, we are following all guidelines and directives from governmental and regulatory agencies across manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, and delivery fleets in order to continue operating safely and responsibly, while meeting the needs of customers.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Factors deriving from the COVID-19 response that may negatively impact sales and operating profit in the future include, but are not limited to: limitations on our ability to procure raw materials, declines in product demand, limitations on our ability to meet delivery requirements and commitments, limitations on the ability of our employees to perform their work due to illness caused by the pandemic or local, state, or federal orders requiring employees to remain at home and limitations on the ability of our customers to pay us on a timely basis.
While we may experience unfavorable impacts to our business, given the dynamic nature of these circumstances, the full extent of the COVID-19 pandemic on our ongoing business, results of operations and overall financial performance is difficult to forecast at this time. Also, we have deferred payment of the Company’s share of Social Security payroll taxes as permitted under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), which allows for the deferral of these payments through the end of 2020 and requires repayment of the deferred amounts in 2021 and 2022.
Key Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations
Product Demand - There are numerous factors that influence demand for our products. Our businesses are cyclical in nature and sensitive to general economic conditions, primarily in the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America. The non-residential, residential, agricultural and infrastructure markets we serve are affected by the availability of credit, lending practices, interest rates and unemployment rates. Demand for new homes, farm income, commercial development and highway infrastructure spending have a direct impact on our financial condition and results of operations. Accordingly, the following factors may have a direct impact on our business in the markets in which our products are sold:
•
the strength of the economy;
•
the amount and type of non-residential and residential construction;
•
funding for infrastructure spending;
•
farm income and agricultural land values;
•
inventory of improved housing lots;
•
changes in raw material prices;
•
the availability and cost of credit;
•
non-residential occupancy rates;
•
commodity prices; and
•
demographic factors such as population growth and household formation.
Product Pricing - The price of our products is impacted by competitive pricing dynamics in our industry as well as by raw material input costs. Our industry is highly competitive and the sales prices for our products may vary based on the sales policies of our competitors. Raw material costs represent a significant portion of the cost of goods sold for our products. We aim to increase our product selling prices in order to cover raw material price increases, but the inability to do so could impact our profitability. Movements in raw material, logistics or other overhead costs and resulting changes in the selling prices may also impact changes in period-to-period comparisons of net sales.
Material Conversion - Our HDPE and PP pipe, plastic leachfield chambers, septic tanks and related water management product lines compete with other manufacturers of corrugated polyethylene pipe as well as manufacturers of alternative products made with traditional materials, such as concrete, steel and PVC. Our net sales are driven by market trends, including the continued increase in adoption of thermoplastic corrugated pipe products as a replacement for traditional materials. Thermoplastic corrugated pipe is generally lighter, more durable, more cost effective and easier to install than comparable products made from traditional materials. We believe customers will continue to acknowledge the superior attributes and compelling value proposition of our thermoplastic products and expanded regulatory approvals allow for their use in new markets and geographies. In addition, we believe that PP pipe products will also help accelerate conversion given the additional applications for which our PP pipe products can be used.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
We believe the adoption of HDPE and PP pipe outside of the United States is still in its early stages and represents a significant opportunity for us to continue to increase the conversion to our products from traditional products in these markets, including Canada, Mexico and South America where we operate.
Growth in Allied Products & Other - Our Allied Products & Other include storm and septic chambers, PVC drainage structures, fittings, stormwater filters and water separators. These products complement our pipe product lines and allow us to offer a comprehensive water management solution to our customers and drive organic growth. Our leading market position in pipe products allows us to cross-sell Allied Products & Other effectively. Our comprehensive offering of Allied Products & Other also helps us increase pipe sales in certain markets. Our Allied Products & Other are less sensitive to increases in resin prices since resin prices represent a smaller percentage of the cost for Allied Products & Other.
Our leading position in the pipe market has allowed us to increase organic growth of our Allied Products & Other. We also expect to expand our Allied Product offerings through acquisitions.
Raw Material Costs - Our raw material cost and product selling prices fluctuate with changes in the price of resins utilized in production. We actively manage our resin purchases and pass fluctuations in the cost of resin through to our customers, where possible, in order to maintain our profitability. Fluctuations in the price of crude oil and natural gas prices may impact the cost of resin. In addition, changes in and disruptions to existing ethylene or polyethylene capacities could also significantly increase resin prices, often within a short period of time, even if crude oil and natural gas prices remain low. Our ability to pass through raw material price increases to our customers may, in some cases, lag the increase in our costs of goods sold. Sharp rises in raw material prices over a short period of time have historically occurred with a significant supply disruption (hurricanes or fires at petrochemical facilities), which may increase prices to levels that cannot be fully passed through to customers due to pricing of competing products made from different raw materials or the anticipated length of time the raw material pricing will stay elevated. For more information regarding risks relating to our raw material costs, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors - Risks Relating to Our Business.”
We currently purchase in excess of 1,100 million pounds of virgin and recycled resin annually from over 450 suppliers in North America. As a high-volume buyer of resin, we are able to achieve economies of scale to negotiate favorable terms and pricing. Our purchasing strategies differ based on the material (virgin resin versus recycled material) ordered for delivery to our production locations. The price movements of the different materials also vary, resulting in the need to use a number of strategies to reduce volatility.
In order to reduce the volatility of raw material costs in the future, our raw material strategies for managing our costs include the following:
•
increasing the use of less price-volatile recycled HDPE resin in our pipe products in place of virgin resin while meeting or exceeding industry standards;
•
internally processing an increasing percentage of our recycled HDPE resin in order to closely monitor quality and minimize costs (approximately 70% of our recycled HDPE resin was internally processed (enhanced) in fiscal 2021);
•
managing a resin price risk program that may entail both physical fixed price and volume contracts; and
•
maintaining supply agreements with our major resin suppliers that provide multi-year terms and volumes that are in excess of our projected consumption.
We also consume a large amount of energy and other petroleum products in our operations, including the electricity we use in our manufacturing process as well as the diesel fuel consumed in delivering a significant volume of products to our customers through our in-house fleet. As a result, our operating profit also depends upon our ability to manage the cost of the energy and fuel we require, as well as our ability to pass through increased prices or surcharges to our customers.
Seasonality - Our operating results are impacted by seasonality. Historically, sales of our products have been higher in the first and second quarters of each fiscal year due to favorable weather and longer daylight conditions
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
accelerating construction project activity during these periods while fourth quarter results are impacted by the timing of spring in the northern United States and Canada. Seasonal variations in operating results may also be significantly impacted by inclement weather conditions, such as cold or wet weather, which can delay projects, resulting in decreased net sales for one or more quarters, but we believe that these delayed projects generally result in increased net sales during subsequent quarters.
In the non-residential, residential and infrastructure markets in the northern United States and Canada, the construction season typically begins to gain momentum in late March and lasts through November, before winter sets in, significantly slowing the construction markets. In the southern and western United States, Mexico, Central America and South America, the construction markets are less seasonal. The agricultural drainage market is concentrated in the early spring just prior to planting and in the fall just after crops are harvested prior to freezing of the ground in winter.
Currency Exchange Rates - Although we sell and manufacture our products in many countries, our sales and production costs are primarily denominated in U.S. dollars. We have wholly-owned facilities in Canada, the Netherlands and joint venture facilities in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru. The functional currencies in the areas in which we have wholly-owned facilities and joint venture facilities other than the U.S. dollar are the Canadian dollar, Euro, Mexican peso, Chilean peso, Brazilian real and Colombian peso. In fiscal 2019, we converted the functional currency of joint venture facilities using the Argentine peso to the Chilean peso. From time to time, we use derivatives to reduce our exposure to currency fluctuations.
Executive Summary of Our Fiscal Year 2021 Results
Fiscal Year 2021 Results
•
Net sales increased 18.5% to $2.0 billion
•
Net income increased to $226.1 million, compared to a net loss of $191.8 million in the prior year
•
Adjusted EBITDA increased 56.7% to $567.0 million
•
Cash provided by operating activities increased 47.7% to $452.2 million
•
Free cash flow increased 56.6% to $373.5 million
Net sales increased $309.0 million, or 18.5%, to $2.0 billion, as compared to $1.7 billion in the prior year. Domestic pipe sales increased $104.6 million, or 11.0%, to $1.1 billion. Domestic allied products & other sales increased $39.2 million, or 9.7%, to $442.4 million. These increases were driven by growth in both the U.S. construction and agriculture end markets. Infiltrator sales increased $186.8 million, or 88.5%, to $397.8 million, as compared to $211.0 million in the prior year.
Gross profit increased $373.6 million to $690.1 million as compared to $316.5 million in the prior year. The prior year gross profit includes $168.6 million of ESOP special dividend compensation expense. In addition, the gross profit includes an incremental benefit from a full year of results from the Infiltrator Water Technologies business, as compared to eight months of results in the prior year due to the timing of the acquisition. The remaining increase in gross profit was due to favorable pricing and material cost; increases in both pipe and allied product sales; and operational improvements offsetting inflationary costs.
Description of our Segments
We operate our business in three distinct reportable segments: “Pipe”, “International” and “Infiltrator.” “Allied Products & Other” represents our Allied Products and all other business segments.
We generate a greater proportion of our net sales and gross profit in our Pipe segment, which consists of Pipe product sales in all regions of the United States. We expect the percentage of total net sales and gross profit derived from our other segments to continue to increase in future periods as we continue to expand non-Pipe product and our
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
international presence. See “Note 21. Business Segment Information,” to our audited consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Form 10-K.
Pipe - Our Pipe segment manufactures and markets high performance thermoplastic corrugated pipe throughout the United States. We maintain and serve these markets through product distribution relationships with many of the largest national and independent waterworks distributors, buying groups and co-ops, major national retailers as well as an extensive network of hundreds of small to medium-sized distributors across the United States.
Infiltrator - Infiltrator is a leading national provider of plastic leachfield chambers and systems, septic tanks and accessories, primarily for use in residential applications. Infiltrator products are used in on-site septic wastewater treatment systems in the United States and Canada.
International - Our International segment manufactures and markets products in regions outside of the United States, with a strategy focused on our owned facilities in Canada and those markets serviced through our joint ventures in Mexico and South America. Pipe manufactured in these countries is primarily sold into the same region. Our joint venture strategy has provided us with local and regional access to new markets. The unconsolidated sales of the South American Joint Venture were $45.6 million, $52.5 million, and $47.6 million, in fiscal 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.
Allied Products & Other - Our other operating segments manufacture a range of Allied Products & Other that are complementary to our Pipe products. Our Allied Products & Other offer adjacent technologies to our core Pipe offering, presenting a complete drainage solution for our clients and customers.
Results of Operations
Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2021 Compared with Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2020
The following table summarizes our operating results as a percentage of net sales that have been derived from our Consolidated Financial Statements for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2020. We believe this presentation is useful to investors in comparing historical results.
Consolidated Statements of Operations data:
Net sales
$
1,982,780
100.0
%
$
1,673,805
100.0
%
Cost of goods sold
1,292,698
65.2
1,188,716
71.0
Cost of goods sold - ESOP special dividend compensation
-
-
168,610
10.1
Gross profit
690,082
34.8
316,479
18.9
Selling, general and administrative expenses
267,574
13.5
271,338
16.2
Selling, general and administrative - ESOP special dividend compensation
-
-
78,142
4.7
Loss on disposal of assets and costs from exit
and disposal activities
4,275
0.2
5,338
0.3
Intangible amortization
73,708
3.7
57,010
3.4
Income (loss) from operations
344,525
17.4
(95,349
)
(5.7
)
Interest expense
35,658
1.8
82,711
4.9
Derivative (gains) losses and other (income) expense, net
(3,404
)
(0.2
)
1,554
0.1
Income (loss) before income taxes
312,271
15.7
(179,614
)
(10.7
)
Income tax expense
86,382
4.4
14,092
0.8
Equity in net (income) of unconsolidated affiliates
(201
)
-
(1,909
)
(0.1
)
Net income (loss)
226,090
11.4
(191,797
)
(11.5
)
Less: net income attributable to the non-
controlling interest
1,860
0.1
1,377
0.1
Net income (loss) attributable to ADS
$
224,230
11.3
%
$
(193,174
)
(11.5
)%
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Net sales - The following table presents net sales to external customers by reportable segment for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2020.
(Amounts in thousands)
$ Variance
% Variance
Pipe
$
1,052,920
$
952,603
$
100,317
10.5
%
Infiltrator
329,144
169,348
159,796
94.4
International
158,269
148,581
9,688
6.5
Allied Products & Other
442,447
403,273
39,174
9.7
Total Consolidated
$
1,982,780
$
1,673,805
$
308,975
18.5
%
Our fiscal 2021 consolidated net sales increased by $309.0 million, or 18.5%, compared to fiscal 2020. The increase in net sales was primarily a result of growth in our domestic Pipe segment along with the impact of including a full year of Infiltrator sales as we acquired Infiltrator on July 31, 2019 and did not report sales prior to August 2019.
Our Pipe segment experienced above-market growth in the residential, agriculture and construction markets which was mainly through higher volumes and to a lesser extent improved pricing/mix of products sold. As our product offerings included in our Allied Products & Other segment are ancillary to the Pipe segment sales as part of the complete water management solution, we experienced similar growth to Pipe segment, driven mainly by higher volumes and improved price/mix of products offerings.
Cost of goods sold and Gross profit - The following table presents gross profit by reportable segment for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2020.
(Amounts in thousands)
$ Variance
% Variance
Pipe
$
247,266
$
179,722
$
67,544
37.6
%
Infiltrator
178,296
82,922
95,374
115.0
International
44,463
30,666
13,797
45.0
Allied Products & Other
220,560
193,674
26,886
13.9
690,585
486,984
203,601
41.8
Cost of goods sold - ESOP special dividend compensation
-
(168,610
)
168,610
(100.0
)
Intersegment eliminations
(503
)
(1,895
)
1,392
(73.5
)
Total gross profit
$
690,082
$
316,479
$
373,603
118.0
%
Our fiscal 2021 consolidated Cost of goods sold decreased by $64.6 million, or 4.7%, and our consolidated Gross profit increased by $373.6 million, or 118.0%, compared to fiscal 2020. The ESOP special dividend compensation expense that occurred in fiscal 2020 of $168.6 million significantly impacted our gross margin for that year. Other factors impacting our gross margin included the increase in net sales from higher volumes and improved pricing, lower material costs, improved manufacturing costs driven from higher volume and leveraging our overhead costs, and the impact of including a full year of Infiltrator gross profit as we acquired Infiltrator on July 31, 2019 and did not report earnings prior to August 2019.
Selling, general and administrative expenses - The following table presents selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2020.
(Amounts in thousands)
$ Variance
% Variance
Selling, general and administrative
$
267,574
$
271,338
$
(3,764
)
(1.4
)%
% of Sales
13.5
%
16.2
%
(2.7
)
Selling, general and administrative - ESOP special dividend compensation
-
78,142
(78,142
)
(100.0
)
% of Sales
-
%
4.7
%
(4.7
)
Selling, general and administrative expenses for fiscal 2021 decreased $3.8 million from the prior year and as a percentage of sales, decreased by 2.7%. This decrease was a result of $21.5 million in transaction costs that occurred in fiscal 2020 relating to the Infiltrator acquisition which did not recur in fiscal 2021. In addition, ADS experienced
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
reductions in various administrative categories as a result of COVID-19 restrictions on travel and entertainment, and as well as lower medical insurance costs. These decreases in selling, general and administrative expenses were partially offset by higher ESOP and stock-based compensation expenses.
Selling, general and administrative - ESOP special dividend compensation - In fiscal 2020, ESOP special dividend compensation expense of $78.1 million was allocated to selling, general and administrative expenses which did not recur in fiscal 2021.
Loss on disposal of assets and costs from exit and disposal activities - In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, we recorded $4.3 million of expense related to loss on disposal of assets and costs from exit and disposal activities compared to $5.3 million in the year ended March 31, 2020. The decrease in Loss on disposal of assets and costs from exit and disposal activities is due to asset disposals in fiscal 2020. See “Note 2. Loss on Disposal of Assets and Costs from Exit and Disposal Activities” for additional discussion.
Intangible amortization - Intangible amortization increased as a percentage of net sales primarily due to the inclusion of a full year of Infiltrator intangible asset amortization as we acquired Infiltrator on July 31, 2019.
Interest expense - Interest expense decreased $47.1 million in fiscal 2021 as compared to fiscal 2020. The decrease was primarily due to $33.2 million of the write-off of deferred financing costs and $4.2 million prepayment penalty related to the extinguishment of debt instruments in the fiscal 2020. The remainder of the decrease is due to decreased debt levels. See “Note 13. Debt” for additional discussion.
Derivative (gains) losses and other (income) expense, net - In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, we recorded a $3.4 million gain on Derivative (gains) losses and other (income) expenses, net, compared to a $1.6 million loss for the same period in fiscal 2020. The change is primarily due to changes in realized and unrealized diesel hedges.
Income tax expense - The following table presents the effective tax rates for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2020.
Effective tax rate
27.7
%
(7.9
)%
The increase in the effective tax rate was primarily due to stock appreciation from the additional ESOP shares and the Acquisition during fiscal year 2020. See “Note 18. Income Taxes” for additional information.
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliates - Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliates represents our proportionate share of income or loss attributed to our unconsolidated joint venture in which we have significant influence, but not control, over operations. The equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliates decreased $1.7 million for fiscal 2021 compared for fiscal 2020. The decrease is primarily due to a decrease in the current period income at our South American Joint Venture.
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest - Income attributable to noncontrolling interest increased by $0.5 million from net income of $1.4 million in fiscal 2020 to $1.9 million in fiscal 2021. The change is primarily attributable to fluctuations in the profitability of ADS Mexicana.
The discussion of our results of operations for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 compared with the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019 can be found in our fiscal 2020 Form 10-K. See Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Discussion and Results of Operations in our fiscal 2020 Form 10-K for further information on our prior period results of operations.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin - EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin, non-GAAP financial measures, have been presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as supplemental measures of financial performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with GAAP. We calculate EBITDA as net income before interest, income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We calculate
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
adjusted EBITDA as net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, non-cash charges and certain other gains and expenses. We calculate Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by net sales.
EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K because they are key metrics used by management and our Board of Directors to assess our financial performance. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties to evaluate companies in our industry. In addition to covenant compliance and executive performance evaluations, we use EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin to supplement GAAP measures of performance to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures.
EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not GAAP measures of our financial performance and should not be considered as alternatives to net income as measures of financial performance or cash flows from operations or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, and it should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin contain certain other limitations, including the failure to reflect our cash expenditures, cash requirements for working capital needs and cash costs to replace assets being depreciated and amortized. In evaluating EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin, you should be aware that in the future we will incur expenses that are the same as or similar to some of the adjustments in this presentation, such as stock-based compensation expense, derivative fair value adjustments, and foreign currency transaction losses. Management compensates for these limitations by relying on our GAAP results in addition to using EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin on a supplemental basis. Our measure of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to different methods of calculation.
(Amounts in thousands)
Net income (loss)
$
226,090
$
(191,797
)
$
81,466
Depreciation and amortization
145,586
124,940
71,900
Interest expense
35,658
82,711
18,618
Income tax expense
86,382
14,092
30,049
EBITDA
493,716
29,946
202,033
Loss on disposal of assets and
costs from exit and disposal activities
4,275
5,338
3,647
ESOP and stock-based compensation expense
65,434
32,395
21,828
ESOP special dividend compensation (a)
-
246,752
-
Transaction costs (b)
1,415
22,896
Inventory step up related to the Acquisition
-
7,880
-
Strategic growth and operational improvement initiatives (c)
3,304
6,659
3,450
COVID-19 related expenses (d)
5,081
-
Restatement-related costs (e)
-
(1,924
)
Other adjustments (f)
(1,995
)
4,913
2,227
Adjusted EBITDA
$
566,955
$
361,868
$
231,960
Adjusted EBITDA Margin
28.6
%
21.6
%
16.8
%
(a)
In the first quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company paid a special dividend of $1.00 per share. The dividend was used to pay back a portion of the ESOP loan resulting in $246.8 million in additional stock-based compensation. See “Note 19. Net Income Per Share and Stockholders’ Equity” for additional information.
(b)
Represents expenses recorded related to legal, accounting and other professional fees incurred in connection with business or asset acquisitions and dispositions.
(c)
Represents professional fees incurred in connection with our strategic growth and operational improvement initiatives, which include various market feasibility assessments and acquisition strategies, along with our operational improvement initiatives, which include evaluation of our manufacturing network and improvement initiatives.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
(d)
Includes expenses in connection with our response to the COVID-19 pandemic including pandemic pay, see “Note 16. Employee Benefit Plans” for additional information, and crisis management.
(e)
Represents expenses recorded related to legal, accounting and other professional fees incurred in connection with the restatement of our prior period financial statements. The benefit recognized in fiscal 2019 is the result of insurance proceeds received in fiscal 2019.
(f)
Includes derivative fair value adjustments, foreign currency transaction (gains) losses, the proportionate share of interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization related to the South American Joint Venture, which is accounted for under the equity method of accounting, contingent consideration remeasurement, executive retirement expense (benefit) and legal settlements. The other adjustments in fiscal 2020 also includes expenses related to the ADS Mexicana’s investigation as described in “Note 15. Commitments and Contingencies”.
The following table presents our Adjusted EBITDA for the Company prior to the Acquisition (“Legacy ADS”), which consists of the combination of the Segment Adjusted Gross Profit for Pipe, Allied Products & Other, and International plus the portion of selling, general and administrative expenses which impacts Adjusted EBITDA and Infiltrator prior to the Acquisition (“Legacy Infiltrator”), which consists of the combination of the Segment Adjusted Gross Profit for Infiltrator plus the portion of selling, general and administrative expenses which impacts Adjusted EBITDA.
(Amounts in thousands)
Legacy ADS Adjusted EBITDA
Pipe Adjusted Gross Profit
$
322,846
$
239,531
$
191,002
International Adjusted Gross Profit
49,921
36,999
37,191
Allied Products & Other Adjusted Gross Profit
225,052
201,206
168,729
Unallocated selling, general and administrative expenses
(194,775
)
(190,353
)
(164,962
)
Legacy ADS Adjusted EBITDA
$
403,044
$
287,383
$
231,960
Legacy Infiltrator Adjusted EBITDA
Infiltrator Adjusted Gross Profit
191,163
98,245
-
Unallocated selling, general and administrative expenses
(27,135
)
(21,865
)
-
Legacy Infiltrator Adjusted EBITDA
$
164,028
$
76,380
$
-
Intersegment eliminations
(117
)
(1,895
)
-
Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA
$
566,955
$
361,868
$
231,960
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Historically we have funded our operations through internally generated cash flow supplemented by debt financings, equity issuance and finance and operating leases. These sources have been sufficient historically to fund our primary liquidity requirements, including working capital, capital expenditures, debt service and dividend payments for our convertible preferred stock and common stock. From time to time, we may explore additional financing methods and other means to raise capital. There can be no assurance that any additional financing will be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.
The following table presents key liquidity metrics utilized by management. The table includes the Non-GAAP measure, Free cash flow, which is further discussed and defined below.
(Amounts in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities
$
452,216
$
306,189
Capital expenditures
(78,757
)
(67,677
)
Free cash flow
373,459
238,512
Total debt (debt and finance lease obligations)
841,502
Cash
195,009
Net debt (total debt less cash)
646,493
Leverage ratio
1.1
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
The following table summarizes our available liquidity under our Revolving Credit Facility as of March 31, 2021:
(Amounts in thousands)
March 31, 2021
Revolver capacity
$
350,000
Less: outstanding borrowings
-
Less: letters of credit
11,005
Revolver available liquidity
$
338,995
In addition to the available liquidity above, we have the ability to borrow up to $1.3 billion under our Term Loan Facility, subject to leverage ratio restrictions.
As of March 31, 2021, we had $12.7 million in cash that was held by our foreign subsidiaries, including $4.8 million held by our Canadian subsidiaries. We continue to evaluate our strategy regarding foreign cash, but our earnings in foreign subsidiaries still remain indefinitely reinvested, except for Canada. See “Note 18. Income Taxes” for additional discussion of our plans to repatriate earnings from Canada.
Free Cash Flow - Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that comprises cash flow from operations less capital expenditures. Free cash flow is a measure used by management and our Board of Directors to assess our ability to generate cash. Accordingly, free cash flow has been presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as a supplemental measure of liquidity that is not required by, or presented in accordance with GAAP, because management believes that free cash flow provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our ability to generate cash flow from operations after capital expenditures.
Free cash flow is not a GAAP measure of our liquidity and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of liquidity or any other liquidity measure derived in accordance with GAAP. Our measure of free cash flow is not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to different methods of calculation.
(Amounts in thousands)
Cash flow from operating activities
$
452,216
$
306,189
$
151,678
Capital expenditures
(78,757
)
(67,677
)
(43,412
)
Free cash flow
$
373,459
$
238,512
$
108,266
Working Capital and Cash Flows
Our source of funds in fiscal 2021 was primarily driven by an increase in cash provided by operating activities due to increased income from continuing operations. Our use of cash in fiscal 2021 was primarily due to payments on our Term Loan Facility and Revolving Credit Facility, payments on our finance leases and dividend payments. During fiscal 2020, our net increase in cash amounted to $165.3 million compared to a net decrease of $8.7 million during fiscal 2019. Our sources of funds in fiscal 2020 were primarily driven by borrowings under the Term Loan Facility, Senior Notes and Revolving Credit Facility, proceeds from our Common Stock Offering and an increase in cash provided by operating activities. Our use of cash during fiscal 2020 was primarily related to the Acquisition and repayment of our previous debt arrangements.
As of March 31, 2021, we had $534.0 million in liquidity, including $195.0 million of cash, $339.0 million in borrowings available under our Revolving Credit Facility, excluding $11.0 million of outstanding letters of credit. We believe that our cash on hand, together with the availability of borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility and cash generated from operations, will be sufficient to meet our working capital requirements, anticipated capital expenditures, scheduled interest payments on our indebtedness and required dividend payment for our convertible preferred stock for at least the next twelve months.
As of March 31, 2021, we had consolidated indebtedness (excluding finance lease obligations) of approximately $791.3 million, a decrease of $308.5 million compared to March 31, 2020.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Working Capital - Working capital is an indication of liquidity and potential need for short-term funding. We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities.
Working capital decreased to $424.7 million as of March 31, 2021, from $428.0 million as of March 31, 2020, primarily due to an increase in accounts payable, due to improved payment terms, offset by increased accounts receivable and inventory due to increased sales.
Working capital increased to $428.0 million as of March 31, 2020, from $260.2 million as of March 31, 2019, primarily due to an increase in cash of $165.3 million.
Operating Cash Flows - During fiscal 2021, cash provided by operating activities was $452.2 million as compared with cash provided by operating activities of $306.2 million for fiscal 2020. Cash flow from operating activities during fiscal 2021 was primarily impacted by increased income from continuing operations and improvements in payment terms on accounts payable.
During fiscal 2020, cash provided by operating activities was $306.2 million as compared with cash provided by operating activities of $151.7 million for fiscal 2019. Cash flow from operating activities during fiscal 2020 was primarily impacted by changes in working capital, including improved collections from accounts receivable, faster inventory turns and extension of terms of our accounts payable.
Investing Cash Flows - During fiscal 2021, cash used for investing activities was $77.9 million. The decrease in cash used for investing activities was primarily due to the Acquisition of Infiltrator Water in fiscal 2020. Capital expenditures was $78.8 million compared to $67.7 million in fiscal 2020. Our capital expenditures in fiscal 2021 were used primarily to support facility expansions, equipment replacements, our recycled resin and technology improvement initiatives.
During fiscal 2020, cash used for investing activities was $1,150.5 million. The decrease in cash used for investing activities was primarily due to the Acquisition of Infiltrator, net of cash acquired, in fiscal 2020. Capital expenditures was $67.7 million compared to $43.4 million in fiscal 2019. Our capital expenditures in fiscal 2020 were used primarily to support facility improvements, equipment replacements, our recycled resin and operating efficiency initiatives and technology.
During fiscal 2019, cash used for investing activities was $42.5 million, primarily due to $43.4 million for capital expenditures and additions to capitalized software. Our most significant capital expenditures were $10.8 million for increased capacity related to manufacturing facility expansion and additional production lines, as well as $4.8 million for additional processing and utilization of recycled resin.
We currently anticipate that we will make capital expenditures of approximately $130 to $150 million in fiscal 2022. Such capital expenditures are expected to be financed using funds generated by operations.
Financing Cash Flows - During fiscal 2021, cash used in financing activities was $354.5 million, due to payments on the Term Loan Facility of $207.0 million and the Revolving Credit Facility of $100.0 million. In addition, we made dividend payments of $32.1 million and $21.5 million on our finance lease obligations.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
During fiscal 2020, cash provided by financing activities was $1,011.6 million, due to the new Term Loan Facility, Senior Notes and Common Stock Offering. These cash inflows were offset by the repayment of the PNC Credit Agreement and Prudential Senior Notes, the special and quarterly dividend payments of $92.1 million and payments on our finance lease obligations of $27.1 million. The table below summarizes the cash flows from the Acquisition, and the related debt and equity transactions.
(Amounts in thousands)
Sources
Uses
Bridge Loan Facility
$
1,300,000
$
-
Bridge Revolving Credit Facility
145,000
-
PNC Credit Agreement draw
104,429
-
Prudential Senior Notes payoff
-
(104,429
)
PNC Credit Agreement payoff
-
(239,240
)
Acquisition of Infiltrator, fair value of consideration transferred
-
(1,146,526
)
Common stock offering, net of offering costs
293,648
-
Bridge Loan Facility - payment
-
(300,000
)
Proceeds from Senior Notes Issuance
350,000
-
Bridge Loan Facility - payment
-
(300,000
)
Term Loan Facility
700,000
-
Bridge Loan Facility - payment
-
(700,000
)
Debt issuance costs
-
(34,606
)
Cash to Balance Sheet
-
(68,276
)
Total
$
2,893,077
$
(2,893,077
)
During fiscal 2019, cash used in financing activities was $117.7 million, primarily for net debt payments of $62.1 million related to the repayments of the Secured Bank Loans and Senior Notes Payable, payments on our finance lease obligations of $24.3 million, dividend payments of $26.1 million and the acquisition of all the noncontrolling interest in BaySaver for $8.8 million.
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”)
The Company established the Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. ESOP (the “ESOP” or the “Plan”) effective April 1, 1993 to enable eligible employees to acquire stock ownership in ADS in the form of redeemable convertible preferred shares. The Plan was funded by an existing tax-qualified profit-sharing retirement plan, as well as a 30-year term loan from ADS. Within 30 days following the repayment of the ESOP loan, which will occur no later than March 2023, the ESOP committee can direct the shares of redeemable convertible preferred stock owned by the ESOP to be converted into shares of the Company’s common stock.
The Company is obligated to make contributions to the Plan, which, when aggregated with the Plan’s dividends, equal the amount necessary to enable the Plan to make its regularly scheduled payments of principal and interest due on its term loan to ADS. Compensation expense is recognized based upon the average annual fair value of the shares during the period which ADS receives payments on the term loan, and the number of ESOP shares allocated to participant accounts.
As disclosed in “Note 16. Employee Benefit Plans”, redeemable convertible preferred stock can convert to common stock upon retirement, disability, death, or vested terminations over the life of the Plan. As stated above, within 30 days following the repayment of the ESOP loan, all redeemable convertible preferred stock will be converted to common stock, which will be no later than March 2023.
Following the repayment of the ESOP loan discussed above, the ESOP’s conversion of redeemable convertible preferred stock into common stock will impact the Company’s net income, net income per share and common shares outstanding as follows (with the outstanding shares of common stock being approximately 24% greater after conversion):
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Impact on Net Income - Provided that the converted common stock do not qualify as participating securities, the Company will no longer be required to apply the two-class method to determine Net income per share once all of the redeemable convertible preferred stock is converted into common stock. After the preferred shares are fully allocated upon the repayment of the ESOP loan and all of the redeemable convertible preferred stock is converted into common stock, the Company will no longer incur the fair value of ESOP deferred compensation attributable to the shares of redeemable convertible preferred shares.
The impact of the ESOP on net income includes the fair value of ESOP deferred compensation attributable to the shares of redeemable convertible preferred stock allocated to employee ESOP accounts during the applicable period, which is a non-cash charge to our earnings and not deductible for income tax purposes.
(Amounts in thousands)
Net (loss) income attributable to ADS
$
224,230
$
(193,174
)
$
77,772
ESOP special dividend compensation
-
246,752
-
ESOP deferred stock-based compensation
44,981
20,126
15,296
Impact on Common Stock Outstanding - The impact on the number of common shares outstanding will be as shares are converted, the number of common shares outstanding will increase.
(Shares in millions)
Weighted average common shares outstanding
70.2
63.8
57.0
Conversion of redeemable convertible shares
16.0
17.1
17.6
The repayment of a significant portion of the ESOP loan had an impact on the Company’s net income per share in fiscal 2020.
Debt and Capitalized Lease Obligations
See “Note 6. Leases” and “Note 13. Debt” to our consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of the Company’s financing transactions, including the Secured Bank Loans, the Senior Notes and the Company’s finance lease obligations.
Financing Transactions
Bridge Credit Facility - On July 31, 2019, we entered into the Base Credit Agreement with Barclays Bank PLC, as administrative agent and the several lenders from time to time party thereto. The Base Credit Agreement provides for up to $1.3 billion as a Term Loan Facility, up to $350 million as a Revolving Facility, up to $50 million as an L/C Facility and up to $50 million, as a sublimit of the Revolving Facility.
On July 31, 2019, the Company borrowed under the Base Credit Agreement which was used to (i) finance the Merger Consideration paid in connection with the closing of the acquisition of Infiltrator by us which occurred on July 31, 2019 (the “Merger”), (ii) repay the total outstanding amount as of the Closing Date under its credit agreements, (iii) repay outstanding amounts of existing indebtedness incurred by Infiltrator under its outstanding credit facility in effect prior to the Acquisition, and (iv) pay certain transaction fees and expenses associated with the Acquisition and the Base Credit Agreement.
New Senior Secured Credit Facility - On September 24, 2019, the joint lead arrangers informed the Company that the parties had successfully completed a syndication of the remaining balance of the Bridge Credit Facility. The Senior Secured Credit Facility provided for a Term Loan Facility with an initial aggregate amount of $700 million, up to $350 million as a Revolving Facility, and up to $50 million as a letter of credit facility, as a sublimit of the Revolving Facility.
The Term Loan Facility has an amortization feature equal to 1% of the original $700 million balance paid in equal quarterly installments commencing on January 1, 2020 and continuing on the first day of each consecutive April, July, October and January thereafter. To the extent not previously paid, all then-outstanding amounts under the Term
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Loan Facility are due and payable on the maturity date of the Term Loan Facility, which is September 26, 2026. Borrowings under the Revolving Facility are available beginning on the Closing Date and, to the extent not previously paid, all then-outstanding amounts under the Revolving Facility are due and payable on the maturity date of the Revolving Facility, which is September 29, 2024.
The Senior Secured Credit Facility includes customary representations, warranties, covenants and events of default.
At the option of the Company, borrowings under the Term Loan Facility and under the Revolving Facility (subject to certain limitations) bear interest at either a base rate (as determined pursuant to the Senior Secured Credit Facility) or at a Eurocurrency Rate, based on LIBOR (as defined in the Senior Secured Credit Facility), plus the applicable margin as set forth therein from time to time. In the case of the Revolving Facility, the applicable margin is based on the Company’s consolidated senior secured net leverage ratio (as defined in the Senior Secured Credit Facility). All borrowings under the Term Loan Facility used to finance the Merger Consideration as described above initially bear interest at a Eurocurrency Rate (as defined in the Senior Secured Credit Facility).
The Company’s obligations under the Credit Agreement have been secured by granting a first priority lien on substantially all of the Company’s assets (subject to certain exceptions and limitations), and each of StormTech, LLC, Advanced Drainage of Ohio, Inc. and Infiltrator Water Technologies, LLC (collectively the “Guarantors”) has agreed to guarantee the obligations of the Company under the Senior Secured Credit Facility and to secure the obligations thereunder by granting a first priority lien in substantially all of such Guarantor’s assets (subject to certain exceptions and limitations).
Issuance of Senior Notes due 2027 - On September 23, 2019, the Company issued $350.0 million aggregate principal amount of its Senior Notes, pursuant to the Indenture among the Company, the Guarantors and the Trustee. The Senior Notes are guaranteed by each of the Company’s present and future direct and indirect wholly owned domestic subsidiaries that is a guarantor under the Company's Senior Secured Credit Facility. The Senior Notes were offered and sold either to persons reasonably believed to be “qualified institutional buyers” pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act or to persons outside the United States under Regulation S of the Securities Act.
Interest on the Senior Notes will be payable semi-annually in cash in arrears on March 31 and September 30 of each year, commencing on March 31, 2020, at a rate of 5.000% per annum. The Senior Notes will mature on September 30, 2027. The Company used the majority of the net proceeds from the offering of the Senior Notes for the repayment of $300.0 million of its outstanding borrowings under the Company’s Bridge Credit Facility.
The Company may redeem the Senior Notes, in whole or in part, at any time on or after September 30, 2022 at established redemption prices. At any time prior to September 30, 2022, the Company may also redeem up to 40% of the Senior Notes with net cash proceeds of certain equity offerings at a redemption price equal to 105.000% of the principal amount of the Senior Notes to be redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the redemption date. In addition, at any time prior to September 30, 2022, the Company may redeem the Senior Notes, in whole or in part, at a redemption price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Senior Notes to be redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the redemption date plus an applicable “make-whole” premium.
The Indenture contains customary events of default, including, among other things, payment default, failure to comply with covenants or agreements contained in the Indenture or the Senior Notes and certain provisions related to bankruptcy events. The Indenture also contains customary negative covenants.
Covenant Compliance
The Senior Secured Credit Facility requires, if the aggregate amount of outstanding exposure under the Revolving Facility exceeds $122.5 million at the end of any fiscal quarter, the Company to maintain a consolidated senior secured net leverage ratio (commencing with the fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2020) not to exceed 4.25 to 1.00 for any four consecutive fiscal quarter periods.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
The Senior Secured Credit Facility also includes other covenants, including negative covenants that, subject to certain exceptions, limit the Company’s and its restricted subsidiaries’ (as defined in the Credit Agreement) ability to, among other things: (i) incur additional debt, including guarantees; (ii) create liens upon any of their property; (iii) enter into any merger, consolidation or amalgamation, liquidate, wind up or dissolve, or dispose of all or substantially all of their property or business; (iv) dispose of assets; (v) pay subordinated debt; (vi) make certain investments; (vii) enter into swap agreements; (viii) engage in transactions with affiliates; (ix) engage in new lines of business; (x) modify certain material contractual obligations, organizational documents, accounting policies or fiscal year; or (xi) create or permit restrictions on the ability of any subsidiary of any Loan Party (as defined in the Senior Secured Credit Facility) to pay dividends or make distributions to the Company or any of its subsidiaries.
The Senior Secured Credit Facility also contains customary provisions requiring the following mandatory prepayments (subject to certain exceptions and limitations): (i) annual prepayments (beginning with the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021) with a percentage of excess cash flow (as defined in the Senior Secured Credit Facility); (ii) 100% of the net cash proceeds from any non-ordinary course sale of assets and certain casualty or condemnation events; and (iii) 100% of the net cash proceeds of indebtedness not permitted to be incurred under the Senior Secured Credit Facility.
For further information, see “Note 13. Debt” to the Consolidated Financial Statements. We were in compliance with our debt covenants as of March 31, 2021.
Contractual Obligations as of March 31, 2021
Payments Due by Period
(Amounts in thousands)
Total
Less than
1 Year
1-3 Years
3-5 Years
More than
5 Years
Contractual obligations:
Long-term debt (1)
$
791,250
$
7,000
$
14,000
$
14,000
$
756,250
Interest payments (2)
171,903
28,713
56,949
56,447
29,794
Operating leases
40,317
10,947
13,946
8,459
6,965
Finance leases
56,865
21,202
24,661
8,899
2,103
Total
$
1,060,335
$
67,862
$
109,556
$
87,805
$
795,112
(1)
The Secured Bank Loans mature in June 2027.
(2)
Based on applicable rates and pricing margins as of March 31, 2021.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, with the exception of the guarantee of 50% of certain debt of our unconsolidated South American Joint Venture, as further discussed in “Note 12. Related Party Transactions” of our Consolidated Financial Statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Form 10-K. Our maximum potential obligation under this guarantee totals $11 million as of March 31, 2021. The maximum borrowing permitted under the South American Joint Venture’s credit agreement is $22 million. As of March 31, 2021, our South American Joint Venture had approximately $10.0 million of outstanding debt subject to our guarantee, resulting in our guarantee of 50%, or $5.0 million, of that amount. We do not believe that this guarantee will have a current or future effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, or capital resources.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations are based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of the consolidated financial statements requires management to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes.
Certain of our accounting policies involve a higher degree of judgment and complexity in their application, and therefore, represent the critical accounting policies used in the preparation of our financial statements. If different
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
assumptions or conditions were to prevail, the results could be materially different from our reported results. We believe the following accounting policies may involve a higher degree of judgment and complexity in their application and represent the critical accounting policies used in the preparation of our financial statements. For additional discussion of our significant accounting policies, see “Note 1. Background and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” included in this Form 10-K.
Policy
Judgments and Estimates
Effect if Actual Results Differ from Assumptions
Goodwill- Goodwill is reviewed annually for impairment as of March 31 or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. The fair value of goodwill is determined by considering both the income and market approach.
Determining the fair value of a reporting unit is judgmental in nature and involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions.
•Estimates and assumptions including revenue growth rates and EBITDA used to calculate projected future cash flows, risk-adjusted discount rates, future economic and market conditions, and determination of appropriate market comparables.
•The fair value estimates are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable but are inherently uncertain.
We performed our annual impairment test for goodwill as of March 31, 2021. We performed the test for all reporting units with goodwill, which include our Domestic pipe reporting unit, the International reporting units, the Infiltrator reporting unit, and the various Allied Product reporting units.
We determined for our Domestic Pipe Reporting Unit and all Allied Products and Other reporting units that it was not more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit was less than its carrying value. Based on our quantitative analysis for the Canada reporting unit and Infiltrator reporting unit, the estimated fair value of each reporting unit exceeded its carrying value.
For our Infiltrator and Canada reporting units the estimated fair value exceeded the carrying value by more than 25%. For our Infiltrator and Canada reporting units, we utilized a discount rate of 13% and 15%, respectively, in determining the discounted cash flows in our fair value analysis and a long-term growth rate of 3.0% and 2.0%, respectively.
In addition, these discounted cash flow analyses are dependent upon achieving forecasted levels of net sales and profitability. If performance were to fall below forecasted levels, or if market conditions were to decline in a material or sustained manner, impairment would be indicated at these reporting units, and potentially at our other reporting units.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Policy
Judgments and Estimates
Effect if Actual Results Differ from Assumptions
Definite-lived intangible assets-Definite-lived intangible assets are tested for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that carrying amounts of the asset group may not be recoverable. Asset groups are established primarily by determining the lowest level of cash flows available. If the estimated undiscounted future cash flows are less than the carrying amounts of such assets, an impairment loss is recognized to the extent the fair value of the asset less any costs of disposition is less than the carrying amount of the asset.
Indefinite-lived intangible assets-Indefinite-lived intangible assets are tested for impairment annually as of March 31 or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may be greater than fair value. Determining the fair value of these assets is judgmental in nature and involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. We base our fair value estimates on assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but that are inherently uncertain. To estimate the fair value of these indefinite-lived intangible assets, we use an income approach, which utilizes a market derived rate of return to discount anticipated performance. An impairment loss is recognized when the estimated fair value of the intangible asset is less than the carrying value.
Determining the fair value of the definite-lived and indefinite-lived intangible assets is judgmental in nature and involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. Future events and unanticipated changes to assumptions could require a provision for impairment in a future period.
We did not record any impairment charges for definite-lived intangible assets in fiscal 2021, 2020, or 2019. Due to the retirement of the “Hancor” trademark in fiscal 2020, we accelerated the amortization of our “Hancor” trademark recording additional amortization expense.
We performed our annual impairment test for indefinite-lived intangible assets as of March 31, 2021. We determined for our indefinite-lived intangible assets that it was not more likely than not that the fair value of the assets exceeded carrying value for fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2019. Based on our quantitative analysis for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, we determined for our indefinite-lived intangible assets that the fair value of the assets exceeded its carrying value. Accordingly, we did not incur any impairment charges for indefinite-lived intangible assets in fiscal 2021, 2020 or 2019. Future events and unanticipated changes to assumptions could require a provision for impairment in a future period.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Policy
Judgments and Estimates
Effect if Actual Results Differ from Assumptions
Revenue Recognition- We generate revenue by selling pipe and related water management products primarily to distributors, retailers, buying groups and co-operative buying groups. Products are shipped predominately by our internal fleet, and we do not provide any additional revenue generating services after product delivery. Payment terms and conditions vary by contract.
Revenue is recognized at the point in-time obligations under the terms of a contract with a customer are satisfied, which generally occurs upon the transfer of control of the promised goods. In substantially all of our contracts with customers, control is transferred to the customer upon delivery. We recognize revenue in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services.
We estimate and allocate variable consideration, such as right of return, credits or incentives, based on numerous factors, including the customer agreements and past transaction history.
If our historical experience differs from future experience, our estimates of variable consideration could differ.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
For a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements, see “Note 1. Background and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Item 7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We are subject to various market risks, primarily related to changes in interest rates, credit risk, raw material supply prices, and, to a lesser extent, foreign currency exchange rates. Our financial position, results of operations or cash flows may be negatively impacted in the event of adverse movements in the respective market rates or prices in each of these risk categories. Our exposure in each category is limited to those risks that arise in the normal course of business, as we do not engage in speculative, non-operating transactions.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Interest Rate Risk - We are subject to interest rate risk associated with our bank debt. Changes in interest rates impact the fair value of our fixed-rate debt, but there is no impact to earnings and cash flow. Alternatively, changes in interest rates do not affect the fair value of our variable-rate debt, but they do affect future earnings and cash flow. The Revolving Credit Facility and the Term Note, notes bear variable interest rates. The Revolving Credit Facility and Term Note bear interest either at LIBOR or the Prime Rate, at our option, plus applicable pricing margins. A 1.0% increase in interest rates on our variable-rate debt would increase our annual forecasted interest expense by approximately $4.4 million based on our borrowings as of March 31, 2021. Assuming the Revolving Credit Facility is fully drawn, each 1.0% increase or decrease in the applicable interest rate would change our interest expense by approximately $7.9 million, for the year ended March 31, 2021.
Credit Risk - Financial instruments that potentially subject us to a concentration of credit risk consist principally of accounts receivable. We provide our products to customers based on an evaluation of the customers’ financial condition, generally without requiring collateral. Exposure to losses on receivables is principally dependent on each customer’s financial condition. We monitor the exposure for credit losses and maintain allowances for anticipated losses. Concentrations of credit risk with respect to our accounts receivable are limited due to the large number of customers comprising our customer base and their dispersion among many different geographies and end markets. One customer has an accounts receivable balance equal to approximately 20% of our Receivables balance as of March 31, 2021.
Raw Material and Commodity Price Risk - Our primary raw materials used in the production of our products are HDPE and PP resins. As these resins are hydrocarbon-based materials, changes in the price of feedstocks, such as crude oil derivatives and natural gas liquids, as well as changes in the market supply and demand may cause the cost of these resins to fluctuate significantly. Raw materials account for the majority of our cost of goods sold. Given the significance of these costs and the inherent volatility in supplier pricing, our ability to reflect these changes in the cost of resins in our product selling prices in an efficient manner contributes to the management of our overall risk and the potential impact on our results of operations. A 1% increase in the price of resin would increase our cost of goods sold by approximately $4.5 million.
We have a resin price risk management program with physical fixed price contracts which are designed to apply to a significant portion of our annual virgin resin purchases. We also maintain supply agreements with our major resin suppliers that provide multi-year terms and volumes that are in excess of our projected consumption. These supply agreements generally do not contain minimum purchase volumes or fixed prices. Accordingly, our suppliers may change their selling prices or other relevant terms on a monthly basis, exposing us to pricing risk.
Inflation Risk - Our cost of goods sold is subject to inflationary pressures and price fluctuations of the raw materials we use, primarily HDPE and PP resins. Historically, we have generally been able, over time, to recover the effects of inflation and price fluctuations through sales price increases and production efficiencies related to technological enhancements and improvements. However, we cannot reasonably estimate our ability to successfully recover any price increases.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk - We have operations in countries outside of the United States, which primarily use the respective local foreign currency as their functional currency. Each of these operations may enter into contractual arrangements with customers or vendors that are denominated in currencies other than its respective functional currency. Consequently, our results of operations may be affected by exposure to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and economic conditions in the regions in which we sell or distribute our products. Exposure to variability in foreign currency exchange rates from these transactions is managed, to the extent possible, by natural hedges which result from purchases and sales occurring in the same foreign currency within a similar period of time, thereby offsetting each other to varying degrees.
In addition to the foreign currency transaction-related gains and losses that are reflected within the results of operations, we are subject to foreign currency translation risk, as the financial statements for our foreign subsidiaries are measured and recorded in the respective subsidiary’s functional currency and translated into U.S. dollars for consolidated financial reporting purposes. The resulting translation adjustments are recorded net of tax impact in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss).
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Item 8.
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm, Consolidated Financial Statements and supplementary financial data required for this Item are set forth on pages through of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
Item 9.
Changes in and Disagreements with Accountant on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.

---

ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, we evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as of March 31, 2021. Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act are recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified under Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rules and forms. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives, and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.
Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of March 31, 2021.
Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f).
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2021. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013). A material weakness in internal controls is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Because of its inherent limitations, even appropriate internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.
Based on this assessment, management has concluded that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of March 31, 2021.
Deloitte & Touche LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, has issued an audit report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2021 and this report is included herein.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Remediation of Previously Identified Material Weakness
As of March 31, 2021, we have remediated the material weakness previously identified in our Fiscal 2019 Form 10-K.
In fiscal 2020, ADS Mexicana hired a new general manager and controller, as well as a manager of financial reporting and compliance. The manager of financial reporting and compliance reports to ADS finance personnel. Responsibilities within ADS Mexicana have been segregated among senior management individuals responsible for sales; quality and product development; and manufacturing. Supplemental training on ADS Mexicana’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics has been provided to ADS Mexicana personnel and additional training has been provided to ADS Mexicana personnel who provide oversight of claims submitted to the Ethics Hotline. We have leveraged new technology implemented at ADS Mexicana that has strengthened controls and allows for further oversight by ADS, Inc. The hiring of additional ADS Mexicana personnel as described above occurred during fiscal year 2020 and necessitated additional time in fiscal 2021 for such personnel to positively impact the control environment, improve process and execute controls for a sufficient period of time such that the operating effectiveness of those changes were demonstrated through testing. We have evaluated the design and operating effectiveness of the controls implemented and concluded that the controls are adequately designed and have operated effectively for a sufficient period of time during fiscal 2021.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
As of March 31, 2021, management evaluated and integrated the internal controls of the acquired Infiltrator business into the Company's existing operations. Other than the controls enhanced or implemented to integrate the Infiltrator business and the remediation of the material weakness discussed above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in management’s evaluation pursuant to Rules 13a15(d) or 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act during the quarter ended March 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 9B.
Other Information
None.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
PART III

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Item 10.
Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The information contained under the captions “EXECUTIVE OFFICERS”, “ELECTION OF DIRECTORS” and “OTHER DIRECTOR INFORMATION, COMMITTEES OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE INFORMATION” in our definitive Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed with the SEC pursuant to Regulation 14A promulgated under the Exchange Act (the “Proxy Statement”), is incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Item 11.
Executive Compensation
The information contained under the captions “COMPENSATION OF MANAGEMENT,” “OTHER DIRECTOR INFORMATION, COMMITTEES OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE INFORMATION”, “REPORT OF THE COMPENSATION COMMITTEE” and “COMPENSATION DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS" in the Proxy Statement is incorporated herein by reference. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the information contained in the Proxy Statement under the caption “REPORT OF THE COMPENSATION COMMITTEE” shall be deemed furnished, and not filed, in this Report on Form 10-K and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into any filing we make under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
Item 12.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
The information contained under the caption “SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT” and "EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION" in the Proxy Statement is incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
Item 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
The information contained under the captions “CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS” and “OTHER DIRECTOR INFORMATION, COMMITTEES OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE INFORMATION” in the Proxy Statement is incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Item 14.
Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The information contained under the caption “AUDIT AND OTHER SERVICE FEES” in the Proxy Statement is incorporated herein by reference.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15.
Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules
(a)1.
Financial Statements. See “Table of Contents” on page.
(a)2.
Financial Statement Schedules. Schedule II - Consolidated Valuation and Qualifying Accounts.
Other schedules are omitted because they are not required or applicable, or the required information is included in our consolidated financial statements or related notes.
(a)3. Exhibits. See “Index to Exhibits.”
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
INDEX TO EXHIBITS
Exhibit
Number
Description
2.1
Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of July 31, 2019, among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., ADS Ocean Merger Sub, Inc., Infiltrator Water Technologies Ultimate Holdings, Inc. and 2461461 Ontario Limited, an Ontario corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 2.1 to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 1, 2019).
3.1
Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 30, 2014).
3.1A
Certificate of Amendment to Certificate of Incorporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 24, 2020).
3.2
Second Amended and Restated Bylaws of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 30, 2014).
3.2A
First Amendment to Second Amended and Restated Bylaws of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 24, 2020).
4.1
Form of Preferred Stock Certificate (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to Amendment No. 5 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 14, 2014).
4.2
Form of Common Stock Certificate (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to Amendment No. 5 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 14, 2014).
4.3
Registration Rights Agreement, dated as of July 30, 2014, by and among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and the stockholders from time to time party thereto (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 30, 2014).
4.4
Description of Registrant's Securities.
4.5
Indenture, dated September 23, 2019, among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., each of the guarantors party thereto and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 23, 2019).
4.6
Form of 5.000% Senior Notes due 2027 (included with Indenture, dated September 23, 2019, among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., each of the guarantors party thereto and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee) (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 23, 2019).
4.7
First Supplemental Indenture, dated March 31, 2021 among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., each of the guarantors party thereto and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee.#
10.1
Credit Agreement, dated as of July 31, 2019, by and among Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, as administrative agent, the several lenders from time to time party thereto, Barclays Bank PLC and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., as joint lead arrangers, joint bookrunners, syndication agents and documentation agents (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 1, 2019).
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Exhibit
Number
Description
10.1A
First Amendment to Credit Agreement, by and among the Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., the banks and other financial institutions or entities parties thereto, constituting all the Lenders under the Credit Agreement, the Issuing Lenders party thereto and Barclays Bank PLC, as administrative agent (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 30, 2019).
10.2
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. Guarantee and Collateral Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 1, 2019).
10.4†
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. Amended 2000 Incentive Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.9 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.4A†
First Amendment to Amended 2000 Incentive Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 15, 2014).
10.5†
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. 2008 Restricted Stock Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.10 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.5A†
First Amendment to the 2008 Restricted Stock Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to Form 8-K filed February 10, 2017).
10.6†
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. 2013 Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.11 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.6A†
First Amendment to 2013 Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 15, 2014).
10.6B†
Form of Amendment to Pre-2017 Stock Option Agreements (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.11B of Form 10-K filed May 10, 2017).
10.6C†
Form of Amendment to Pre-2017 Stock Option Agreements (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.11B of Form 10-K filed May 10, 2017).
10.7†
Executive Employment Agreement, dated as of September 1, 2017, by and between Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and D. Scott Barbour (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to Form 8-K filed August 17, 2017).
10.10†
Amended and Restated Executive Employment Agreement, dated as of June 20, 2014, by and between Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and Ronald R. Vitarelli (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.15 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.11†
Amended and Restated Executive Employment Agreement, dated as of June 20, 2014, by and between Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and Robert M. Klein (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.16 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.12†
Form of Indemnification Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.6 to Amendment No. 2 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 6, 2014).
10.10†
Form of Incentive Stock Option Agreement pursuant to 2000 Incentive Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.18 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Exhibit
Number
Description
10.10A†
Form of Incentive Stock Option Agreement (post-IPO) pursuant to 2000 Incentive Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.18A to Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2015 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 29, 2016).
10.14†
Form of Non-Qualified Stock Option Agreement (other than for Joseph A. Chlapaty) pursuant to 2013 Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.19 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.15†
Form of Restricted Stock Agreement (other than for Joseph A. Chlapaty) pursuant to 2008 Restricted Stock Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.20 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.16†
Form of Director Stock Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.21 to Amendment No. 4 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 2, 2014).
10.17
Participation Agreement, dated as of July 17, 2000, by and between ADS Worldwide, Inc., Grupo Altima S.A. de C.V., and ADS Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. (formerly known as Sistemas Ecologicos de Drenaje, S.A. de C.V.), as amended on April 19, 2010, May 19, 2011, May 24, 2011, April 26, 2013 and January 31, 2014 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.22 to Amendment No. 2 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 6, 2014).
10.18
Interestholders Agreement, dated as of June 5, 2009, by and among Tubos y Plasticos ADS Chile Limitada, Tigre Chile S.A., and Tuberias T-A Limitada, joined by Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and Tigre S.A. - Tubos e Conexoes, as amended on July 31, 2009, October 2009, December 15, 2009, May 18, 2010, August 10, 2010, April 1, 2011 and January 25, 2012, with First Addendum to Interestholders Agreement, dated as of June 27, 2011 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.23 to Amendment No. 3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-194980) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20, 2014).
10.18A
Second Addendum to Interestholders Agreement, dated as of December 1, 2013 but entered into on September 30, 2014, by and among Tubos y Plasticos ADS Chile Limitada, Tigre Chile S.A., Tuberias Tigre-ADS Limitada, Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and Tigre S.A. - Tubos e Conexoes (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the Registrant’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 10, 2014).
10.19†
Executive Employment Agreement dated November 9, 2015, by and between the Company and Scott A. Cottrill (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to Form 8-K filed November 9, 2015).
10.21†
Form of Restricted Stock Agreement (other than for Joseph A. Chlapaty) pursuant to 2008 Restricted Stock Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to Form 8-K filed February 10, 2017).
10.22
Form of Non-Qualified Stock Option Agreement pursuant to 2013 Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.5 to Form 8-K filed February 10, 2017).
10.23
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. 2017 Omnibus Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, File No. 001-36557, filed on September 8, 2017).
10.24
Form of Restricted Stock Award Notice and Award Agreement pursuant to 2017 Omnibus Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, File No. 001-36557, filed on September 8, 2017).
10.25
Form of Notice of Grant of Stock Options and Stock Option Award Agreement pursuant to 2017 Omnibus Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, File No. 001-36557, filed on September 8, 2017).
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
Exhibit
Number
Description
10.26
Form of Director Restricted Stock Award Notice and Award Agreement pursuant to 2017 Omnibus Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, File No. 001-36557, filed on November 6, 2017).
10.27
Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement pursuant to 2017 Omnibus Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 of Form 8-K, filed on May 30, 2018).
10.28
Confidentiality Agreement by and between the Company and Joseph A. Chlapaty (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to our Current Report on Form 8-K, File No. 001-36557, filed on August 17, 2017).
10.30†
Executive Employment Agreement, dated as of November 10, 2016, by and between Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. and Kevin C. Talley (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.36 of Form 10-K, filed on May 30, 2019).
10.31†
Amended and Restated Employment Agreement, effective as of May 27, 2015, by and between Infiltrator Water Technologies, LLC and Roy E. Moore, Jr. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.31 of Form 10-K, filed on June 1, 2020).
10.32†
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan, as amended May 30, 2019 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 001-36557) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 1, 2019.
21.1
List of Subsidiaries. #
23.1
Consent of Deloitte & Touche LLP. #
24.1
Power of Attorney. #
31.1
Certification of President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. #
31.2
Certification of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. #
32.1
Certification of Principal Executive Officer of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. #
32.2
Certification of Principal Financial Officer of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. #
101.INS
XBRL Instance Document. #
101.SCH
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema. #
101.CAL
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase. #
101.DEF
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase. #
101.LAB
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase. #
101.PRE
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase. #
Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted in Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101)
†
Management contract or compensatory plan.
#
Filed herewith.