Earnings Call
Construction Partners, Inc. (ROAD)
Earnings Call Transcript - ROAD Q1 2021
Operator, Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Construction Partners, Inc. First Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rick Black, Investor Relations for Construction Partners. Thank you. You may begin.
Rick Black, Investor Relations
Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for the Construction Partners conference call to review first quarter fiscal year 2021 results. This call is also being webcast and can be accessed through the audio link on the Events and Presentations page of the Investor Relations section on constructionpartners.net. Information recorded on this call speaks only as of today, February 5, 2021. So, please be advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the date of any replay. I would also like to remind you that the statements made in today's discussion that are not historical facts, including statements of expectations or future events or future financial performance are all considered forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We will be making forward-looking statements as part of today's call that, by their nature, are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the earnings press release that was issued today for our disclosure on forward-looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in detail in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management will also refer to non-GAAP measures, including adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP measures can be found at the end of our earnings press release. Construction Partners assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Construction Partners' CEO, Charles Owens. Charles?
Charles Owens, CEO
Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. With me on the call today are Jule Smith, our Chief Operating Officer; Alan Palmer, our Chief Financial Officer; and Ned Fleming, our Executive Chairman. We are pleased with our performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. We had solid demand in both our private and public project work during the quarter. In addition, our disciplined approach in bidding, project management, effective utilization of equipment and crews, and vertical integration synergies drove the strong financial performance. We see strength in the funding programs across the states in which we operate, where the demand for road repair and maintenance is ongoing. We also expanded our geographic footprint in the first quarter with four bolt-on acquisitions in North Carolina. We now operate 48 hot-mix asphalt plants, which represent distinct markets across the five southeastern states that we serve. From a federal infrastructure funding perspective, we remain optimistic about the prospect of a long-term funding mechanism in light of bipartisan support for infrastructure legislation. We are confident that our nation's infrastructure will continue to be a primary focus for our country as an economic driver and a critical component of public safety. Based on our current backlog and near-term visibility of the business, we are maintaining our previously announced outlook for the year, which indicates strong growth for CPI. Before turning the call over to Jule, I'd like to thank our leadership team and more than 2,500 employees for their commitment, dedication, and hard work that enables us to successfully execute our strategy. I'll now turn the call over to Jule to comment on operations and acquisitions. Jule?
Jule Smith, Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Charles. Good morning, everyone. Operationally, our business is performing very well. Our organization continues to demonstrate excellence across our markets and states. This performance is due to the hard work and dedication of our employees and their continued attention to safety protocols as we manage through the COVID pandemic. I want to thank each of them for their dedication to keeping their teammates safe and our company productive. Now, let's take a look at demand and funding for our services. Overall, in the state where we currently operate, demand remained strong for the road repair and maintenance projects that comprise the public side of our business. State budgets and gas tax collections are strengthening. We currently expect potential upside in infrastructure spending in Florida, Alabama, and North Carolina, with Georgia staying relatively flat. As we mentioned last quarter, the North Carolina DOT has returned to a normal funding program. Commercial work throughout our states remains steady, and we do not currently see downward pressure or pullback on project bidding in the private market. While the bidding environment across our states remains very competitive, I believe we are well positioned to execute our strategy throughout our geographic footprint. Turning now to acquisitions, we have fully integrated all four of the companies we acquired during the first quarter. I'm very pleased with these new additions and the smooth transition of these businesses into our company. Moving forward, in addition to having access to new markets, we expect to benefit from geographic and cultural synergies provided by these acquisitions. As a consolidator in our space, we continue to see many opportunities and to have conversations throughout our existing states and some adjacent states with potential acquisition candidates. I'd like now to turn the call over to Alan to discuss our financial results.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Thank you, Jule, and good morning everyone. I want to start by highlighting our key performance metrics in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020, revenue was $190.0 million, up 8.9%. Acquisitions that were completed during the quarter contributed $7.1 million of revenue. Gross profit was $30.6 million, up 28.8%. Net income was $7.9 million, up 44.1%, and adjusted EBITDA was $23.1 million, up 34.4%. And finally, our adjusted EBITDA margin was 12.1%, up 230 basis points. While continuing to operate using safety protocols implemented to address the pandemic, our managers, crews, and corporate support are doing a great job of managing the business. We have continued to grow the company and maintain solid margins. From a profitability perspective during the quarter, we had excellent execution on our construction projects, and also benefited from efficient utilization of crews and equipment, as well as high utilization of our hot-mix asphalt plants and liquid asphalt terminal. We continued to have favorable pricing on liquid asphalt and diesel fuel during most of the quarter, but are beginning to see the expected price increases in both of these products as the economy begins to recover. Turning now to the balance sheet, at December 31, 2020, we had $51.7 million of cash and $38.3 million of availability under our revolving credit facility after the reduction for outstanding letters of credit. At the end of the quarter, our debt to trailing 12-months EBITDA ratio was 0.98. This liquidity provides financial flexibility in today's uncertain economic environment, and provides capital for potential future acquisitions, allowing us to respond quickly to growth opportunities when they arise. Cash provided by operating activities was $709,000 for the three months ended, December 31, 2020, compared to $1.7 million for the same period last year. Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2021 were $10.5 million. We still anticipate total capital expenditures for the year of $47 million to $50 million. Project backlog at December 31, 2020 was $655.6 million, compared to $608.1 million at December 31, 2019. Approximately 79% of the backlog will be completed in fiscal year 2021. Turning now to the outlook for fiscal year 2021, we are maintaining the ranges we provided last quarter, revenue of $950 million to $1 billion, net income of $42 million to $46.5 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $109 million to $118 million. In summary, we are pleased with our first quarter results. I'll now turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Ned Fleming.
Ned Fleming, Executive Chairman
Thank you, Alan. Before we open the call to your questions, it is important to recognize the outstanding performance by all of our leaders, managers, and employees at CPI who continue to produce great financial results. The team does an excellent job of managing the business for growth and profitability while simultaneously building record backlog. CPI operates at a highly effective level while also expanding its geographic footprint into new markets. Many of the macroeconomic dynamics and positive internal factors that we experienced in the fourth quarter have persisted into this year. In addition, we significantly expanded the number of markets in which we operate through the acquisition of 13 hot-mix asphalt plants in the past four months. The recent acquisitions demonstrate CPI's strategic focus as the premier consolidator in a very fragmented industry. The company is well positioned both organizationally and financially for continued growth. We remain confident in further expansion opportunities in our Southeastern states, with a vision to grow beyond our current footprint. Under the leadership and direction of our experienced management team, and with our strong growth outlook for the year, we are extremely bullish on the future of the company. With that, we'll now take questions.
Operator, Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Wittmann with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Great, good morning, guys. Hi. I thought I'd start out with a question on the profit margins in the quarter. Looks like an area, at least to our model that came in above expectations. And so Alan, I was wondering what some of the factors that drove the significant gross margin improvement were year-over-year in a little bit more detail. Last quarter you talked about the fact that you did less subcontracting work was the reason for the surprise last quarter. But were there any other things, like significant positive project completions versus your prior percentage of completion estimates in the quarter? Can you maybe talk about oil prices' impact on the quarter? And then given that they're certain to rise, how much of a headwind that could present for the balance of the fiscal year. I think some of those issues would be helpful for us to understand.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes, Andy, as far as the job performance, it really was consistent with the percentages last year and what we've seen in our second, third, and fourth quarter of 2020, but we did continue to benefit from the favorable pricing in the petroleum products, the liquid asphalt, and the diesel fuel. And as we said in our last call, we see that those are beginning to rise. That happened more at the very end of the first quarter and going into the second quarter. So we continue to benefit just like we did in the third and fourth quarter of last year from that. We also, in this quarter, had a significant increase in the amount of asphalt work that we did. Our mix of work includes asphalt paving, and this year we were able to run more tons through our plants and sell more tons of FOB asphalt and aggregates to third parties than we did at the same time last year, so both of those and the utilization of equipment. But as far as going into the future quarters, there definitely is that petroleum product prices are increasing. That's going to turn more from a tailwind into a headwind, and that's really what we expected to begin happening in the latter part of that first quarter and into the second and third, and possibly even into the fourth quarter this year.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Got it, that's helpful. I guess as it relates then to build off of that as it relates to the guidance that you maintain here this quarter, I was just wondering if you could just kind of take us through the thought process there. I think since you last spoke to us, it is only the acquisitions in the Outer Banks that have been added, but I would think that those might be at least little bit additive. Can you talk about decision not to raise EBITDA with what you are seeing here today and rather maintain where it is?
Alan Palmer, CFO
Well, when we talked the last time, to clarify the acquisition in the Outer Banks was built into our guidance for the year, because we actually closed that just a couple of days after we had the calls. So, when we put together our budget, we knew that was imminent, but obviously we couldn't talk about it till it was public information. Thus, our guidance had all four acquisitions built into it. And so, there is really no change to the guidance because of a new acquisition because it was already built in. Typically, we don't update our guidance until after the second quarter unless something extremely significant happens. As we talked about many times before, there can be a pretty good fluctuation between our first and second quarter. So, until we get through that second quarter, whether we are down in the first quarter compared to the prior year, or up in the first quarter compared to the prior year, we typically don't update our guidance for anything related to that quarter. We pretty much look at the first six months and the last six months. At this point, we see the year playing out very similar to what we had expected.
Ned Fleming, Executive Chairman
And Andy, this is Ned. We think that from a guidance standpoint, we have a strong growth in our guidance. We are operating at a very high level. We have positive macro with strong demand and state funding and a robust private sector kind of as a tailwind. So, we feel like our guidance is we are excited about performing.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Great. Thanks, guys. Good luck.
Ned Fleming, Executive Chairman
Thank you.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Stanley Elliott with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Stanley Elliott, Analyst
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, guys, for taking the question. Earlier in the call you mentioned moving into adjacent market, I mean is that something that conceivably can happen this year, is it more that you are laying the groundwork for something to happen in '22? I am just curious as to how you are thinking about expansion at this point.
Charles Owens, CEO
Hi, this is Charles. We are a growth company and remain focused on expanding. We are engaging in numerous discussions with various individuals across different sectors. At this moment, we can only confirm our intention to maintain our strategy, which typically aligns with new opportunities as they arise. The timing and decision-making process rely significantly on the sellers, more than on us, so we are approaching this on a case-by-case basis. We are actively seeking to make any additions to the company when the right opportunities present themselves, and we currently see many potential prospects.
Stanley Elliott, Analyst
Perfect. You mentioned that the state budget and public funding are looking good. We had heard that some states might be a bit cautious early in the year due to the pandemic, even with healthy budgets. Are you seeing any signs that they might accelerate payments as the construction season picks up? Is that something you're considering in your outlook today?
Charles Owens, CEO
We've got all this kind of baked into our guidance, but we've got looking at the states we operate in, let's just take Alabama for example, it's going to be a quite a bid and how we are bidding. Georgia is going to be flat basically, and Florida is still in a downturn, but basically the downturn is these mega jobs that they are not going to have, but they are committed to do a lot of resurfacing in 2021 through 2025, about $5.5 billion worth of work. So, in North Carolina, to give you an example, DOT left probably less than about $150 million this year that on track to let about 100 and about $1.6 billion. So that's going to be a substantial turnaround. So, when you look at the states we operate in, and we're seeing traffic and we're seeing tax receipts come in at near levels, where they were before the pandemic. And just throw on top of that with the COVID-19 relief bill, there's another $1.2 billion that went out to where we operate to the DOTs. And when we don't think all of that obviously will turn into critical funding because we think the DOTs are safe with what they have, but we do expect over the next few years to see additional funding there. And then, the good thing about North Carolina is we're very bullish. Obviously, we made a lot of acquisitions there, but their cash balance and their DOT at minimum is about $300 million. And they're sitting at about $1.1 billion right now. So, we see a lot of good things that's going to come out of not only Carolinas, but all of the states we operate in. And so, we're very bullish on our data for this year.
Stanley Elliott, Analyst
Great, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Josh Wilson with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.
Josh Wilson, Analyst
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Thank you, Josh.
Josh Wilson, Analyst
Wanted to clarify something, I think last quarter you said you're the year-over-year increase in sales for the full-year and your guidance was about half from acquisitions and half from organic growth. Is that still the case or has the balance of acquired and organic shifted now that you're at one quarter in?
Alan Palmer, CFO
No, it hasn't at all. And one of the things that I think was a little confusing, and of course, obviously there was only so much information we could put out. We gave everyone an indication of what the acquisition revenue would be by the statement you just repeated, but I think people probably kind of been putting out their god, it's assumed that the cadence would be similar to ours, where there's about 20%, the first and second quarter each and 30% the last, but these acquisitions, two of them weren't made, one of them, we operated at one week, then we were shut down for Christmas. The other one was the first of December. So they really only contributed about $7.1 million to the first quarter revenue, but 90% or more of what they will contribute will be in the second, third, and fourth quarter. But the split has not changed at all.
Josh Wilson, Analyst
And then, your days receivable improved a fair amount year-over-year? Where are we at as far as the cash flows coming out of the DOTs, and do we assume these sort of days continue going forward?
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes. We've pretty much stabilized with that. I mentioned before, something that can throw that off a little bit is how much we do in the last month of the quarter. And that can have an impact because basically all of that revenue was in receivables plus a little bit carried over, but the way we calculate it, our days receivables are actually down probably about a half to one day. When you calculate it based on the actual month that closed out. So we've seen throughout the pandemic, the states and the counties have really worked hard to make sure they don't get behind in their payments. So we're very pleased with that.
Josh Wilson, Analyst
Okay. I'll turn it over to others. Good luck for the next quarter.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Thank you.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Michael Feniger, Analyst
Yes, hi everyone. Thanks for squeezing me in and taking my questions. At the end of the year ended December, we saw that COVID-19 relief package, it included $10 billion, I think of aid to DOTs. I think you even just mentioned, I think is the number $1.2 billion that is going to DOTs in your five states. And maybe you can just talk about that, if I understand that, that billion might not go specifically to road maintenance or road paving, but what that actually helps with the bidding environment, if there's more bids out there, but you compete with maybe going for certain projects. So it would open up better opportunities elsewhere, just trying to think about how this recent stimulus that went directly to the DOTs at the end of the year, is that a 2021 impact? Does it take a long time, so that might filter through, help us understand how much of a benefit that can be?
Charles Owens, CEO
All right, as you know, the states received the $10 billion in emergency aid from the COVID-19 relief, and we anticipate the DOTs getting their house in order whereby they may have had a little bit of shortfall, but we do anticipate this $1.2 billion that's going into the four states where we operate will start trickling in during the latter part of the 2021 fiscal year. We think that we're going to see a little bit there, but what we're looking at more than anything is kind of what's happening in each one of the states without this relief, particularly North Carolina, which is coming back with a huge program. And we see Florida being up, considering the mega jobs that are going to be committed to resurfacing in 2021 through 2025, about $5.5 billion worth of work. In North Carolina, the DOT has probably less than about $150 million this year that's on track to let about $1.6 billion. That's going to be a substantial turnaround. So when you look at the states we operate in, we're seeing traffic and tax receipts returning to levels seen before the pandemic. And the COVID-19 relief bill has allocated another $1.2 billion to DOTs where we operate. Although we don’t expect all of that to translate into critical funding immediately, we do expect additional funding over the next several years. We're very optimistic about North Carolina, especially considering our recent acquisitions, as their DOT cash balance is about $300 million and they’re currently sitting at about $1.1 billion. So we see a lot of good developments coming from all of the states we operate in, and we maintain a very bullish outlook for this year.
Michael Feniger, Analyst
That's helpful. That's great. And I think going back to one of the earlier questions, the concern for the stock, and for the company is that the margins have been incredibly strong, because of this impact we've seen with diesel fuel, petroleum, and liquid asphalt prices. And now all of a sudden, the strong margin expansion that you guys have been reporting is going to swing the other way, because of the rise of crude and diesel. Can you help us understand, Alan, some of the benefits you're seeing on the margins? Maybe quantify how much is it coming from better utilization, better mix, those feel like that's more structural going forward while raw materials are going to swing from quarter-to-quarter? So if there's any way you could help maybe quantify how much the benefits over the last few quarters for margins have been from diesel, so we can see how much of it is from the lower material prices versus actually getting better utilization of your equipment and better mix? Thank you.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes, I've said before, I've tried to quantify a little bit in general terms because we can't calculate a specific amount, but I think the example I've used in the past is that if prices are moving down on those products, then generally, we're going to have a tailwind. It may be around $1 million to $1.5 million less say in the course of a year. When you have the headwind, when they're going up, you may have $1 million or $1.5 million of headwinds. As we look at it, it's not very significant except during that period where you switch from a tailwind to a headwind. So part of what drove our margins this quarter is that we had a lot more tons of asphalt, which boosts revenue. This year we have run more tons through our plants, so both of those contributed to fixed costs. The jobs themselves don't vary in percentage of profit, but the fixed cost areas, such as our shop and asphalt plants, produced additional margin. That can turn into a significant margin increase. Over the course of the year, we expect it to normalize, and we will continue to provide annual guidance. And we see our outlook for the year occurring.
Michael Feniger, Analyst
That makes sense. And I guess just lastly with what you have seen maybe in January is, are you seeing a more competitive bidding environment? Is it more stable? I know it's still early days this year. I'm just curious if you're seeing anything unusual. That's kind of played out, I guess early in your second quarter? Thanks.
Charles Owens, CEO
Hi, this is Charles. Jule, you want to take that question, now we've done a lot of handling that please.
Jule Smith, Chief Operating Officer
Sure. Thanks, Charles. Yes, the bidding environment that we are experiencing and seeing in all of our states continues to remain very competitive, as it always is. And that's not changed. North Carolina obviously, with them resuming lettings, starts out very competitive, and we hope it'll normalize through the winter and spring as it normally does. However, we had a very successful fall building backlog, and not only performing, but building backlog. We've got a lot of people doing a great job in these four states, not only doing work but getting work for the future.
Michael Feniger, Analyst
Thank you.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis. Please proceed with your question.
Adam Thalhimer, Analyst
Hi. Good morning, guys. Hi, Jule, I actually wanted to continue on with that competitive environment discussion, just curious if it impacted the margins in your backlog at all?
Jule Smith, Chief Operating Officer
Adam, yes, I mean, we continue to build backlog, and when it's competitive, our backlog margin can shrink a few basis points, but typically, especially with North Carolina being a big part of what we do, right now that's affecting it, but we see it normalizing. We see the markets we acquired in North Carolina being very good markets. Thus when it normalizes, we think that we'll see those margins continue to grow, but it continues to be a very competitive bidding environment in all the states, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
Adam Thalhimer, Analyst
When does that normally change by the way, like with a state like North Carolina, where it went from very few bids to more bids, I mean does it kind of after 12 months of things normalizing, the margins might get better?
Jule Smith, Chief Operating Officer
Well, Adam, I think whenever you have a very unique situation where the state stops bidding work for over 12 months, contractors need to cover the fixed cost of their plants. So when they start back letting work, people are going to be aggressive in getting work on their books. I think with the North Carolina program, they've come out with a very strong program and we see that continuing on. I think it won't take 12 months to normalize, people will get work to cover their fixed costs, and as that happens, prices will return to normal fairly quickly.
Adam Thalhimer, Analyst
Are you noticing any changes in seller expectations considering the potential for a significant federal infrastructure bill? Are sellers requesting a higher price?
Alan Palmer, CFO
I mean, this is Alan, I mean, all we can talk about is historically with regard to that, and we've had periods where there were downturns, and even during COVID, I mean, we were negotiating these four companies that we bought during COVID and if there was any kind of uncertainty or whatever like we've never seen, it was probably during that. It really did not impact the prices that they were expecting nor the way that we price companies to bottom. Historically, when sellers are looking at selling and they're talking about the bright future, we tell them if you want to achieve that bright future, you keep running the company and you can make that money. But if we've got to go out and make it, we're not going to pay you for it. So, we generally don't see major changes in prices that we pay. That doesn't mean expectations of sellers don't change, but we're very disciplined in how we value companies.
Adam Thalhimer, Analyst
Great answer. Okay. Thanks, Alan. Talk to you later.
Charles Owens, CEO
Hi Adam, this is Charles. Let me just add on the competitiveness that Jule was talking about. Keep in mind that we have 48 distinct market areas and all of those market areas are different and have different managers, and they have different top work beyond maintenance. So when you look at our, talk about the competitiveness, it's going to be a unique situation depending on market conditions.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Brent Thielman, Analyst
Hey, thank you. Good morning.
Charles Owens, CEO
Good morning, Brent.
Brent Thielman, Analyst
Hey, Alan, regarding the increase in SG&A, should we expect that to include costs associated with the acquisition activities this quarter?
Alan Palmer, CFO
In the quarter, there's really about just under $400,000 related to acquisitions. But for the most part, that should be pretty close to the cadence for the rest of this year, if we don't have another quarter, we've been adding some personnel due to the significant growth that we see in the organic side and some opportunities that we see as far as strengthening our teams. So some of that is related to that, and then of course, the acquisitions. During this quarter, we're only partial in there for the quarter. So there'll be four quarters going forward, just like the revenue was only about 10% of what they would get for the year, the same thing was with our overheads, but that amount should be fairly consistent throughout this year for the next three quarters.
Brent Thielman, Analyst
And Alan, but you're talking absolute dollars, or as a percentage of it?
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes, I'm talking about dollars, not percentages. The percentages will obviously change in the months, in the quarters that we've got 50% more revenue than we do this quarter. I'm talking about the dollars.
Brent Thielman, Analyst
Okay. Okay, and then lot of questions around yes, the pipeline M&A? Can you guys update us just on plans on the Greenfield side, what you're thinking about over the next 12 to 24 months, new liquid asphalt plants, things like that, it'd be interesting to hear?
Charles Owens, CEO
Hey, this is Charles, from our growth strategy. Obviously, we're vertically integrated. We'll be looking at all of the materials that come in making hot-mix asphalt and building construction jobs. We have a lot of opportunities to look at for going down operation and building out our integration. We just have a lot of targets out there that we've been talking to, and we feel good about our growth situation. And we will, like I said, the timing of those got to be right for the buyer and the seller. So we're excited about what we're seeing in the opportunities right now.
Alan Palmer, CFO
And we are to further comment with that, relative to that. I mean, we're constantly looking at other Greenfield sites, both for our vertical integration strategy as far as getting more into aggregates or getting more into liquid asphalt. When that makes sense, we'll execute it. And then just additional asphalt plants, a lot of that came from the timing of markets that we're wanting to go into, when they're growing, or their new markets that things are happening. It is not unusual for us to have Greenfield sites that we own at some point, we'll put an asphalt plant and it might be one that we acquire in an acquisition, because of the proximity to one of our plants that frees up another one. Those are things we're constantly trying to do, but their timing there is somewhat dependent on market conditions and it makes sense to go in there because of available work opportunities.
Brent Thielman, Analyst
Got it. Okay. Well, thanks for all the color. Best of luck.
Operator, Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Wittmann with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Great. Thanks guys for letting me in with a couple of these follow-ups. The first one is just more of a technical question, but it has to do with the acquisitions. I think in the script, Alan, you said that the revenue from companies acquired in the quarter was like $7 something million. I thought there was another acquisition that was announced that wasn't closed in this quarter. And in fact, I think when you guys announced the Florida hot-mix asphalt plants last March. I think they also contributed, so I guess the question was, I think $7 million in the first quarter, is that the total inorganic revenue contribution, or was that just from the deals? And if not, could you tell us what the total inorganic contribution to revenue and actually to backlog in the quarter that'd be helpful?
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes, the total revenue was $12.2 million. So, there was $5.1 million from the one in Florida that was the two asphalt plants that you referred to. The $7.1 million related to the four that were made in this quarter, and that only were in there for a partial period. So that's why I've singled that out. But the total amount was $12.2 million. So that left us with just over $3 million of organic growth, which we were very pleased with, because last year our first quarter was a very strong quarter where we ended up doing almost 22% of our full-year revenue. So, this year to last year to grow that much organically, we were very pleased with that.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
The backlog contribution from the deals would be helpful as well. Do you have it handy?
Alan Palmer, CFO
Andy, I don't have that exactly. I will say that it was very small backlog that we acquired with these companies. Now we have added a good bit of backlog in markets that these companies represent. So there's a substantial portion of our backlog that includes jobs that were won in these markets in North Carolina, because they resumed bidding. But as far as acquired backlog, I don't have an exact number on that. But it was where in an acquisition, we would typically acquire about six months' worth of revenue. I would say here we probably averaged 60 to 90 days because they were all in North Carolina, which is you referred to having virtually no work in the last 12 months.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Thank you for your insight. I wanted to follow up on your comment regarding FOB volumes, which are up 25% while revenue has only increased by nine. This difference seems significant. I know historically you have been cautious about FOB revenues, with valid reasons for and against it. I'm curious why there was such a notable increase in this quarter compared to previous periods when you may have chosen not to fulfill those orders.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Yes, to clarify one thing there that approximately 22% was of all tons sold. So we were up in our own self-performed tons as well as the FOB tons. So that goes back to the self-perform tons increasing drove more tons. We're always striving to increase our FOB tons which sells well as it runs more volume through the plant, and generally are sold to smaller companies that do some of the jobs. The reason that I've stated for the larger volume this quarter was we had favorable conditions, and were able to run more work in asphalt plants considering climate. We had more opportunity to put down tons, and we had contractors doing some of that smaller private work projects. The weather was good in October, November, and even in December. A significant portion of our increase in sales compared to last year actually happened in December, when typically in many of our markets, you really can't lay much asphalt due to the temperature requirements.
Andrew Wittmann, Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you for the explanations. Have a good day and good weekend.
Alan Palmer, CFO
Thank you, Andy.
Operator, Operator
There are no further questions in the queue. I'd like to hand the call back to management for closing remarks.
Charles Owens, CEO
Okay. Thank you very much and thank you everyone for joining the call today. We look forward to speaking with you on the next conference call. Everyone have a safe and good day. Good-bye.
Operator, Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.