Advanced Drainage Systems Inc 's

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.

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 several HDPE pipe producers in the United States.

In the United States, our primary competitors are concrete pipe producers, including Cemex, Hanson 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. 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 and Prinsco.

The superior attributes of HDPE and PP and ongoing product innovation have allowed thermoplastic pipe manufacturers generally, and us in particular, to capture market share across all end market categories. This substitution trend 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.