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Our people are the heart and soul of FirstService and our greatest asset.
2024 was another exceptional year of accomplishment at FirstService Corporation, marked by robust top-line growth, margin expansion and strategic acquisitions.
We have consistently stated that our long-term goal is to grow our revenues at an average annual rate of at least 10% with incremental growth in EBITDA. We have exceeded this goal over the last 30 years and believe we will continue to achieve or
exceed it for the foreseeable future. In 2024 we were pleased and proud to double our goal with consolidated revenue growth of 20% and EBITDA growth of 24%.
This strong financial performance was the result of a number of drivers that I highlight below:
In December 2023, we established our newest growth platform with the acquisition of Roofing Corp of America (RCA), one of the largest commercial roofing enterprises in North America with 16 branch locations across 11 U.S. states. Roofing shares the same attractive characteristics as our other property service lines in terms of being a huge, highly fragmented industry with significant growth potential. 2024 represented our first full year in partnership with the RCA team and we accomplished much of what we set out to do in Year One. Importantly, we hit our internal financial forecasts, and we also added two key strategic tuck-unders in the important Florida market. The acquisitions of Crowther Roofing and Hamilton Roofing midway through the year were important additions that set us up for a strong 2025 at RCA.
Our restoration brands – Paul Davis and First Onsite – finished the year with momentum and together generated organic growth of 5% during 2024. If we adjust for more significant “area wide events” or “named storms”, our restoration segment showed organic growth of over 10%. We booked half the storm revenue in 2024 compared to 2023. The organic growth reflects the progress our restoration brands are making in signing new National Accounts, gaining wallet share of existing accounts and driving local branch-level day-to-day business. Our two restoration brands together have averaged organic growth of 10% over the last five years. We believe we are right on track with our original vision for this business since making the bold move into commercial restoration with the acquisition of First Onsite in 2019. We remain excited and committed to advancing our long-term strategic plan in restoration.
We are particularly pleased with our consolidated EBITDA margin for 2024 which ticked up 20 basis points in a tough environment. It is a credit to our teams at every brand that continued to create efficiencies and battle as best they could to offset cost inflation with matching price increases. I want to especially acknowledge our teams at FirstService Residential for maintaining a consistent operating margin year-to-year in the face of numerous headwinds, and California Closets for digging in and driving significant productivity improvements across our 21 owned operations. We have a strong culture of “continuous improvement” that leads to the consistent realization of cost efficiencies across our operations without sacrificing customer experience. We expect consolidated margins to expand further in 2025 and to increase annually on average going forward.
In addition to our roofing acquisitions, we were able to complete six other strategic tuck-under acquisitions as we continue to build out our geographic footprint and service lines at FirstService Residential, Century Fire, First Onsite and Paul Davis. We deployed a total of $212 million of capital in a highly competitive environment while staying disciplined on valuation. Our proven partnership model and entrepreneurial spirit continue to resonate with sellers.
Beyond acquisitions, we continued our dividend growth trend with another 10% increase – the tenth consecutive year we have hiked our dividend at least 10%. Our businesses generate strong and consistent cash flows enabling us to allocate capital to drive growth and deliver dividend returns while keeping our debt levels at conservative ratios. At 2024 year-end, our leverage sat at 2.0x net debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA, down from the prior year-end notwithstanding the significant capital deployment. We enter 2025 with significant liquidity through cash on hand and undrawn bank lines and we expect another strong year of acquisition activity.
It is not possible to drive the consistent year-over-year growth we have achieved without extraordinary teams that believe in our brands, live our values and focus on customer experience every day. We recognize the importance of every team member and prioritize their growth and development. In 2024 we again saw improvement in employee engagement and retention metrics. FirstService Residential, our largest employer brand with two-thirds of our associates, consistently achieves Great Place to Work® certification in the U.S and Canada and in 2024 for the first time was recognized as one of Fortune’s Best Workplaces for WomenTM. These recognitions speak volumes about how associates perceive the culture at FirstService.
We are very proud of our unique culture at FirstService and our mission to #FirstServeOthers remains at the heart of it. Across the organization, our teams seek ways to give back to their communities and support each other. One of the key pillars of our Social Purpose initiative is the FirstService Relief Fund which, since 2018, has awarded 2,575 grants in excess of $1.8M to team members facing personal financial hardship. This program has been especially impactful during the recent, unusually active hurricane season, offering critical support to those affected. We are proud to offer this meaningful program to our team members.
Our proven business model and strategy has generated consistent revenue growth and shareholder returns for more than three decades. We operate in huge, highly fragmented property service markets with significant running room for growth – both organically and through tuck-under acquisition. Our strong performance in 2024 again demonstrated
our ability to capitalize on the opportunity before us.
We remain committed and confident in our ability to continue to drive average annual growth of at least 10% in revenues and EBITDA. Our evolving focus on property restoration, repair and maintenance within our FirstService Brands division adds to our excitement for the future. Our restoration, roofing, painting, fire safety and floor covering brands will all benefit from tailwinds due to the increased frequency of weather events, the aging-built environment and legislated increases to property repair and maintenance across North America, particularly in coastal areas.
In closing, I want to thank our operating partners and teams for their efforts and contribution to our success in 2024. I also express appreciation to our Board and long-time shareholders for their continued support.
D. Scott Patterson
Chief Executive Officer
Our discipline and proven business model has led to more than three decades of consistent growth and solid shareholder returns.
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