TRG | The Bottom Line – 1/23

TRG attended the World of Concrete this week to kick off the early year show season. Despite concrete being the 2nd most used material behind water, the show always surprises with how big it is, how many niche products and services there are, and how excited people can get about concrete. The show has concrete in the name but is largely a construction event, and that is the lens we had when in attendance. The early read on 2026 outlook was for more cautious optimism, a similar theme to start the year as last year. There was some positive commentary backed by actual data, notably an equipment manufacturer with big ticket orders already and a distributor seeing resi greenshoots in certain parts of the country, but the general outlook remains a mixed bag that aggregates to flattish. Other notable shows coming up include The Builders Show in February and CONEXPO in March that will provide further touchpoints for how the year is expected to shape up.