Trinity Realigns Senior Execs

Trinity Industries, Inc. realigned responsibilities for some of its most senior executives, effective April 1, 2020. Specifically, Eric R. Marchetto has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, and W. Relle Howard, currently Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, will return to his previous role as Chief Information Officer.

Marchetto succeeds Melendy E. Lovett, who will return to her previous position as Chief Administrative Officer. The role of Group President, TrinityRail will be discontinued.

On the heels of the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the “rapidly evolving nature” of its own situation, Trinity also announced it has withdrawn the fiscal year 2020 guidance provided on the its year-end earnings call on Feb. 19, 2020 and related earnings press release.

“This management realignment is the first step in implementing a new organizational design developed over the past few months, which is aligned with the Company’s commitment to optimizing the rail platform in order to drive our financial performance to new levels,” said E. Jean Savage, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Trinity is transitioning its business model from a holding company structure to an operating structure. This new structure will align our organization to be more effective and efficient and to better serve our customers.”

“Eric previously served as Chief Financial Officer of TrinityRail, and has a wealth of financing and industry knowledge critical to managing the business through this important period,” said Savage. “I am thankful to Melendy for stepping into the CFO role post spinoff and working to establish important financial goals for the company to continue to execute against. I’m happy she has agreed to return as Trinity’s Chief Administrative Officer, where she will continue her focus on optimizing both our organization and operations. Additionally, Brian Madison, President TrinityRail Leasing and Management Services, Paul Mauer, President TrinityRail Products, and Gregg Mitchell, TrinityRail Chief Commercial Officer, will now report to me. This team is extremely well-aligned in Trinity’s goal to unlock value for our shareholders and customers and capture the synergies inherent in our integrated rail platform.”

“This is a challenging business environment, and we are thoughtfully managing through the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain business continuity,” said Savage. “Rail transportation in North America has been deemed critical by the United States government to moving essential goods and commodities to market, and we are taking necessary precautions to protect our thousands of employees while serving the customers that rely on us. Until we have greater visibility into the impact of COVID-19 on the North American economy and the significant price declines in the global crude oil market, we believe it is prudent to withdraw our annual guidance. However, Trinity remains committed to the previously announced $25 million to $30 million SE&A cost reduction target for 2020 and expects additional savings over time. We anticipate providing an update on our business and financial outlook to investors in conjunction with our first quarter earnings results. While we are not able to estimate the ultimate impact of COVID-19 and the decline in crude oil prices on demand for railcars and our businesses at this time, we anticipate that these events will have a negative and potentially material impact on our financial performance in the near term.”