Generac Holdings Inc. (Generac) operates as global designer, manufacturer, and provider of a wide range of energy technology solutions.
The company provides power generation equipment, energy storage systems, energy management devices & solutions, and other power products serving the residential, light commercial, and industrial markets. The company continues to expand its energy technology offerings for homes and businesses in its mission to Power a Smarter World and lead the evolution to more...
Generac Holdings Inc. (Generac) operates as global designer, manufacturer, and provider of a wide range of energy technology solutions.
The company provides power generation equipment, energy storage systems, energy management devices & solutions, and other power products serving the residential, light commercial, and industrial markets. The company continues to expand its energy technology offerings for homes and businesses in its mission to Power a Smarter World and lead the evolution to more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy solutions.
The company provides power generation products across a variety of applications, and it maintains one of the leading positions in the North American market for power equipment with an expanding presence internationally. The company has one of the widest ranges of products in the power generation marketplace, including residential, commercial, and industrial standby generators, as well as portable and mobile generators used in a variety of applications. The company is evolving its product portfolio by building out ecosystems of energy technology products, solutions, and services for homes and businesses, enabling end users to better manage their energy costs and needs. As part of this evolution, the company has made significant investments into developing markets, such as residential and commercial & industrial (C&I) energy storage, solar power inverters, energy monitoring & management devices, and electric vehicle (EV) charging. Central to these ecosystems are its advanced connectivity devices, controls capabilities, and software platforms that facilitate the integration of its products into grid services programs. In addition, the company has been leveraging its leading position in the growing market for natural gas fueled generators, which represents a cleaner fuel compared to diesel, to expand into applications beyond standby power, allowing it to participate in multi-purpose microgrid projects for C&I customers. As the traditional centralized utility model evolves over time, that a more decarbonized, digitized, and decentralized grid infrastructure will develop, and the company’s energy technology solutions are uniquely and strategically positioned to participate in this next-generation grid.
In December 2023, Generac made a minority investment in Wallbox N.V. (Wallbox) (NYSE: WBX), a global leader in smart EV charging and energy management solutions. Along with the investment, Generac and Wallbox are working together on commercial arrangements to provide Wallbox’s full suite of EV charging solutions to Generac’s customers and distribution partners. To further strengthen this relationship, the company made an additional minority investment in Wallbox in August 2024.
Generac’s efforts in expanding its energy technology solutions extend to C&I and international markets as well. In June 2021, the company acquired Deep Sea Electronics Limited (Deep Sea), a UK-based designer and manufacturer of advanced controls for a range of power generation and other applications used around the world. In September 2021, Generac acquired Off Grid Energy Ltd., a designer and manufacturer of industrial-grade mobile energy storage systems serving predominantly rental markets. The company advanced its C&I connectivity strategy with the October 2022 acquisition of Blue Pillar, an industrial internet of things (IoT) platform developer that designs, deploys, and manages industrial IoT solutions. Blue Pillar provides a foundation to connect, monitor, and manage its C&I products to further enable their use in grid services programs. In February 2023, Generac acquired REFU Storage Systems GmbH (REFU), a German-based developer and supplier of battery storage and inverter hardware products, advanced software, and platform services for the commercial and industrial markets. REFU’s energy storage systems will complement and enhance its global product offerings and are expected to further accelerate its development of new technologies in the energy technology space. Additionally, in 2024, the company strengthened its presence in the emerging North American markets for C&I behind-the-meter energy storage and multi-asset microgrids with the acquisitions of SunGrid’s C&I battery energy storage system (BESS) product offering and Ageto, a leading provider of microgrid controllers that seamlessly integrate, optimize and manage distributed energy resources (DERs). These acquisitions and related organic initiatives collectively help lay the groundwork to further advance its energy technology strategies across C&I markets around the world.
Products and Solutions
The company designs, manufactures, and distributes a broad range of energy technology products and solutions. The company designs and manufactures stationary, portable, and mobile power generators with single-engine outputs ranging between 800W and 3,250kW. It has developed a line of energy storage systems for use in residential solar-plus-storage applications. The company also has a line of stationary and mobile energy storage systems that serve global C&I markets. It has a selection of energy monitoring and management devices that it expects to serve as the central hub or controls platform for its residential and C&I energy ecosystems. The company participates in the market for grid services by providing DERs and the software to optimize and control those assets to support the grid. The company designs and manufactures other power products, including light towers and a broad line of outdoor power equipment that it refers to as chore products, which includes a variety of property maintenance equipment powered by both engines and batteries. The company classifies its products and services into three categories based on similar ranges of power output geared for varying end customer uses: Residential products, C&I products, and other products and services. The following summary outlines these categories, including their key attributes and customer applications.
Residential Products
The company’s residential automatic standby generators range in output from 7.5kW to 150kW, which predominantly operate on natural gas and liquid propane, and are permanently installed with an automatic transfer switch, which it also manufactures. Air-cooled engine residential standby generators range in outputs from 7.5kW to 26kW and serve as an emergency backup for small to medium-sized homes. Liquid-cooled engine generators serve as emergency backup for larger homes and small businesses and range in output from 22kW to 150kW.
As the product category leader, the company has the broadest line of home standby generators in the marketplace. Every home standby generator that it offers is equipped with Mobile Link. This remote monitoring capability is a standard feature that allows the company’s customers to check the status of their generator remotely from their smart phone or tablet and provides the capability to similarly receive maintenance and service alerts. This remote monitoring information can also be accessed by its dealers to help them monitor their installed base of products and proactively support their customers. The data that is provided by this remote monitoring functionality also allows the company to better understand its products in the field, while optimizing both product quality and customer satisfaction. The company also offers propane tank monitoring solutions, a technology that it acquired in 2021 via Tank Utility Inc. (Tank Utility), an IoT propane tank monitoring solutions company. This additional monitoring capability drives further incremental value to its dealers and peace of mind to owners of its home standby generators that use propane as a fuel source.
Leveraging the technologies acquired in the 2019 acquisition of Pika Energy and the subsequent organic investments the company has made in clean energy, it has developed a line of residential battery storage systems marketed under the Generac brand and using the PWRcell brand name. This system captures and stores electricity from solar panels or other power sources and helps reduce home energy costs while also protecting homes from shorter duration power outages. PWRcell systems can range in size from 9kWh up to 36kWh of storage capacity. In 2025, the company expects to launch the PWRcell 2 Series, the next generation of its PWRcell energy storage system, which includes significant improvements in performance and compatibility as compared to the first generation.
In 2021, the company acquired ecobee, a leader in sustainable smart home solutions, such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products, all designed with a focus on energy conservation, convenience, peace of mind, and comfort. ecobee’s smart home energy management devices and complementary sensors intelligently optimize heating and cooling systems, often the largest energy consuming system within a home, to deliver significant energy savings for homeowners. In 2023, ecobee launched a line of smart doorbell cameras, which integrates with ecobee’s products and helps to drive increased consumer engagement with their platform. The capabilities acquired via ecobee, paired with the company’s existing Mobile Link remote monitoring system, provide the foundation for Generac’s residential connectivity infrastructure, which will be integral in the continued development of its smart home energy ecosystem.
Importantly, the company is leveraging ecobee’s technologies and software development expertise to develop a user interface at the center of its home energy ecosystem that will allow homeowners to monitor and control Generac’s entire suite of products using a single pane of glass. In 2023, the company took its first steps towards this goal by successfully integrating its home standby generators and propane tank monitors with the ecobee platform. The company’s next-generation clean energy products and solutions, including PWRcell 2 and Wallbox’s EV charging solutions, will be fully integrated with the ecobee platform. The integration of the company’s products and solutions in a single cohesive ecosystem will drive additional peace of mind, energy efficiency, and ultimately lower utility bills for homeowners.
This functionality will also help enable connection to grid services distributed energy resource management software (DERMS), including the company’s in-house solution called Concerto. All of the company’s residential energy technology products and home standby generators come with grid-connection capabilities, enabling consumers to connect and enroll their DERs in available grid services programs. These utility-sponsored programs, when and where offered, can provide value to homeowners in the form of lower utility costs, while also helping provide grid operators incremental capacity to address supply/demand imbalances on the grid.
The company continues to develop new Generac-branded energy technology products that it expects to bring to market as it builds out a broader energy management ecosystem, giving its distributors access to a more diverse line-up of products that can serve a variety of applications. For example, the company’s investment in Wallbox has allowed it to participate in the rapidly developing home EV charging market by offering co-branded EV charging technologies through its expansive distribution network.
The company also provides a broad product line of portable and inverter generators that range in size from 800W to 18kW, as well as multiple portable battery solutions that provide clean, emission-free power at the push of a button. These products can help serve as an emergency home backup source of electricity on a limited basis, and they can also be used for construction and recreational purposes. The company’s portable generators are targeted at homeowners, with price points ranging between the consumer value end of the market through the premium homeowner market; at professional contractors, starting at the value end through the premium contractor segment; and at the recreational market with its inverter generator products, which are quieter than traditional portable generators. In addition, the company offers manual transfer switches to supplement its portable generator product offering.
The company provides a broad product line of outdoor power equipment referred to as chore products, which are used in property maintenance applications for larger-acreage residences, commercial properties, municipalities, and farms. These products include trimmers, field and brush mowers, log splitters, stump grinders, chipper shredders, lawn and leaf vacuums, pressure washers and water pumps. The company also offers commercial-grade, battery-powered turf care products through its Mean Green brand name, which was acquired in 2020. Chore products are largely sold in North America through direct-to-consumer online catalogs, retail hardware stores, and outdoor power equipment dealers, primarily under the DR brand name.
Commercial & Industrial Products
The company offers a full line of C&I generators that are sold around the world. The company is a leader in cleaner-burning natural gas fueled generators and have a full offering of C&I generators that are fueled by diesel and Bi-Fuel. It has one of the broadest product offerings in the industry with power outputs ranging from 10kW up to 3,250kW. Through the company’s Deep Sea subsidiary, it has expanded its capabilities in the design and manufacture of advanced controls for a range of C&I power generation applications. The company’s natural gas C&I stationary generators have grid-connection capabilities, enabling its customers to generate an incremental return on investment by connecting and enrolling their generator as a DERs in grid services applications where available.
The company’s light-commercial standby generators and related transfer switches include a full range of affordable systems from 22kW to 150kW, providing three-phase power sufficient for most small and mid-sized businesses, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, gas stations, pharmacies, retail banks, small health care facilities, and other small-footprint retail applications. Its light-commercial generators predominantly run on natural gas and liquid propane.
The company designs and manufactures a broad product line of modularized and configured stationary generators and related transfer switches for various industrial standby, continuous-duty, and prime rated applications. The company’s single-engine industrial generators range in output from 10kW up to 3,250kW, include stationary and containerized packages, and can include its Modular Power Systems (MPS) technology that extends its product range up to much larger multi-megawatt systems through an integrated paralleling configuration. Over the past several years, the company has introduced larger and higher-powered gaseous-fueled generators, with the highest output of 1,000kW for a single-engine set. Its industrial standby generators are primarily used as emergency backup for larger applications (such as healthcare, telecom, datacom, commercial office, retail, municipal and manufacturing, to name a few). In recent years, the company has seen interest in utilizing its gaseous-fueled generators in beyond standby applications, including distributed generation and microgrid projects and have developed purpose-built products for these applications that have grid-connected capability. This grid-connected functionality and the significant expansion of the company’s in-house advanced controls capabilities further enhances the opportunity for its generators to be used in these applications.
The company’s MPS technology combines the power of several smaller generators to produce the output of a larger generator, providing its customers with redundancy and scalability in a cost-effective manner. For larger industrial applications, the company’s MPS products offer customers an efficient, affordable way to scale their standby power needs, while offering superior reliability given their built-in redundancy which allows individual units to be taken off-line for routine maintenance while retaining coverage for critical circuits.
The company also offers a full line of industrial transfer switches to meet varying needs from light commercial applications all the way up to the most demanding mission-critical installations. In recent years, the company has significantly increased and upgraded its industrial transfer switch product offering, which will help to enhance its attachment rate and related market share for these products. Generac’s innovative feature set and flexible platforms offer a variety of switching configurations to meet almost any project needs.
The company designs and manufactures a broad product line of C&I mobile products, such as light towers and mobile generators, which provide temporary lighting and power for various end markets around the world (such as road and commercial construction, energy, mining, military, and special events). The company also offers commercial mobile pumps, heaters, and dust-suppression equipment for a wide variety of applications. The company’s mobile products are typically sold globally to national and regional rental companies who then rent the equipment to the end user.
The company has continued to expand its portfolio of energy technology solutions for C&I applications as well. In 2021, the company acquired Off Grid Energy, a European based manufacturer of mobile energy storage systems predominantly used in the rental markets. In 2023, the company acquired REFU, a European based provider of stationary C&I BESS solutions and related inverter products, which expanded its product offering to enter certain C&I BESS markets around the world. In 2024, the company strengthened its position in the North American C&I BESS market with the acquisitions of SunGrid’s C&I BESS product offering and Ageto, a leading provider of microgrid controllers that seamlessly integrate, optimize and manage DERs. These collective product offerings will enable it to capture market share in the rapidly developing markets for C&I BESS and multi-asset microgrids in North America.
The company’s C&I BESS solutions are primarily targeted at behind-the-meter applications for on-site energy storage. It expects to leverage its leading position as a provider of traditional stationary generators to gain share in the global C&I BESS market. This expertise is particularly beneficial for multi-asset microgrid solutions that combine generators with energy storage assets, providing the many benefits of behind-the-meter storage with longer duration outage protection. These microgrids can include other energy assets, such as commercial EV charging capabilities, which the company is able to offer via its partnership with Wallbox.
The company also continues to develop other energy technology products, including mobile battery-powered light towers and hybrid mobile solutions that pair a battery with a diesel engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. In addition, the company continues to provide various gaseous-engine control systems and accessories, which are used in its natural gas generators, as well as sold to other gas-engine manufacturers and aftermarket customers.
Other Products and Services
The company’s Other products and services category primarily consists of aftermarket service parts and product accessories sold to its customers, installation and maintenance services, extended warranty revenue, grid services and other software-related subscription revenue, remote monitoring subscription revenue, and other project management service offerings provided by its owned industrial distributors.
Included in this Other products and services category are certain revenues that are generated by ecobee, Blue Pillar, Ageto, and its Concerto and Mobile Link software platforms, as follows: ecobee recognizes service revenue in certain circumstances when a homeowner enrolls their smart thermostat in a grid services program offered by their utility. ecobee can provide utilities direct connection to a homeowner’s smart thermostat, thereby allowing control of a significant portion of the home’s electrical load. In exchange for this capability, utilities pay ecobee for that connection.
The 2022 acquisition of Blue Pillar expanded the company’s C&I connectivity capabilities and provided a standard protocol for all of its C&I products to be connected. In addition to connectivity device sales, Blue Pillar recognizes software subscription and support revenue resulting from the monitoring and management capabilities its platform provides to customers.
The 2024 acquisition of Ageto further enhanced the company’s advanced control capabilities, particularly in the C&I BESS and multi-asset microgrid markets. In addition to its controls hardware, Ageto’s solutions include software-as-a-service contracts for site level system integration and control of end customer energy assets that make up a microgrid.
The company’s Concerto energy-balancing software platform provides a highly flexible approach for controlling and dispatching DERs from flexible loads, backup generators, energy storage systems, and other renewable energy sources. Concerto gives utilities and grid operators the flexibility to operate virtual power plants in real-time to better manage the escalating complexities of the future electrical grid.
Finally, the company’s Mobile Link platform provides remote monitoring services for its residential home standby customers and Fleet services for its residential home standby dealers, whereby it collects subscription revenue for these services on a recurring basis.
Strategy
In 2021, the company unveiled its ‘Powering A Smarter World’ strategic plan, which serves as the framework for the significant investments it has made and will continue to make to capitalize on the long-term growth prospects of Generac. The company’s enterprise strategy is based on the combination of several key mega-trends that will drive several significant strategic growth themes for its business.
Distribution Channels and Customers
The company distributes its products through a variety of distribution channels to increase awareness of its product categories and brands, and to ensure its products reach a broad, global customer base. This omni-channel distribution network includes independent residential dealers and contractors, industrial distributors and dealers, national and regional retailers, e-commerce partners, electrical/HVAC/solar wholesalers, solar installers, catalogs, equipment rental companies, and other equipment distributors. The company also sells direct to certain national and regional account customers, as well as to individual consumers or businesses who are the end users of its products.
The company offers a broad set of tools, programs, factory support, and sales leads to help its distribution partners be successful.
The company has the industry's largest network of factory direct independent generator dealers in North America. The company’s residential dealer network is made up of electrical and HVAC contractors across the U.S. and Canada. These dealers sell, install and service its residential and light commercial generators to end users. Over the years, the company has made significant investments to grow this dealer network, and it will continue to make those investments in the future given the importance of this channel. The company continues to focus on a variety of initiatives to more effectively market and sell its home standby products and better align its dealer network with Generac. The company will continue its efforts to improve customer lead quality, nurture those leads, and develop its dealers, all with a goal of increasing close rates and lowering its cost per lead over time. Over the years, the company has made significant investments in its proprietary in-home selling system for residential dealers that it calls Power Play. The company is continuously making enhancements to this platform, again with the objective of improving the customer experience and overall close rates. Additionally, the company’s remote monitoring platform allows its residential generator dealers to monitor their installed base of customers through a feature that it calls Fleet, enabling them to offer a more proactive experience to service a customer’s generator.
In recent years, the company has been establishing a base of solar contractors that sell, install and service its PWRcell energy storage systems. Leveraging the company’s decades of expertise in partnering with its residential generator dealers, it can expand its solar installer network and increase mindshare for Generac’s products, helping it to win in the clean energy market in the future. In addition, the company has been developing distribution relationships with national solar providers to offer its equipment in their portfolio of products and services. As the company continues to launch new clean energy products in the future, it expects to accelerate its efforts to expand distribution in this market
The company’s industrial products distribution network consists of industrial power generation distributors that cover particular regions around the world. Over the past several years, it has been strengthening its industrial dealer network globally through acquisitions and organic means, to increase its C&I product sales and related market share. Since 2020, the company has acquired a number of its industrial distributors to give it direct coverage of those regions in the United States and accelerate its efforts in those markets. Industrial distributors and dealers provide C&I end users with ongoing sales, installation, service and product support. The company’s industrial distributors and dealers help maintain the local relationships with commercial electrical contractors, specifying engineers, and national account regional buying offices. The company also sells to certain EPC companies and other companies that specialize in managing more complex power generation projects, including microgrids and beyond standby applications.
The company’s retail distribution channel includes thousands of locations across the globe and includes a variety of national and regional home improvement chains, electronics retailers, clubs, buying groups, hardware & farm supply stores, and outdoor power equipment dealers. These physical retail locations are supplemented by a large presence of e-commerce retailers, along with a number of catalog retailers. The retail channel primarily sells the company’s residential standby, portable and light-commercial generators, as well as its outdoor power equipment and ecobee smart home energy management devices. The placement of the company’s products at retail locations drives significant awareness for its brands and the home standby generator product category.
The company’s wholesale network distributes its residential and light-commercial generators, residential energy storage systems, and smart home energy management devices on a two-step basis. The channel consists of selling branches of both national and local distribution houses for electrical, HVAC and solar equipment on a wholesale basis, which in turn typically sell to electricians and HVAC/solar installers who are not in its dealer network.
On a selective basis, the company has established private label and licensing arrangements with third party partners to provide residential, light-commercial and industrial generators under different brand names. These partners include leading home equipment, electrical equipment and construction machinery companies, each of which provides access to incremental channels of distribution for its products. Additionally, the company’s ecobee products are also sold through HVAC OEMs on a co-branded basis.
The distribution for the company’s C&I mobile products includes global, national, regional, and specialty equipment rental companies, equipment distributors, and construction companies which primarily serve non-residential building construction, road construction, energy markets and special events.
The company also sells direct to certain customers that are the end users of its products covering a variety of end market verticals both domestically and around the world. This includes telecommunication, retail, data centers, banking, energy, healthcare, convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, governments, and other commercial applications. The company has developed a diverse, global sales force that calls on these opportunities directly and helps customize solutions to each customer’s needs in their local markets. Additionally, certain of its residential products are sold direct to individual consumers, who are the end users of the product. In the grid services space, the company sells software and equipment direct to utilities and grid operators.
Research and Development
The company expenses research and development costs as incurred. Total expenditures incurred for research and development were $219,600, for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Competition
Residential products – Competitors include Rehlko (formerly known as Kohler Power), Briggs & Stratton, Honda, Champion, Techtronics International, Harbor Freight, Husqvarna, Ariens, Tesla, Enphase, Solar Edge, Google, Resideo, The Toro Company, Goal Zero, and Emerson along with a number of other domestic and foreign competitors; certain of which also have broad operations in other manufacturing businesses.
C&I products – Competitors include Caterpillar, Cummins, Rehlko (formerly known as Kohler Power), IGSA, AKSA, MultiQuip, Wacker, Doosan, Atlas Copco, Himoinsa, FG Wilson, Woodward, Planelec, and Co-map, as well as other domestic and foreign competitors that package engines and alternators into power generation equipment in local markets around the world; certain of which focus on the market for diesel generators as they are also diesel engine manufacturers.
Other products – Relative to service parts and extended warranty revenue, all of the above-named companies are primary competitors. Relative to grid services optimization software, Autogrid/Schneider and Energy Hub, along with other grid service solution providers, are primary competitors.
Government Incentives and Regulation, including Environmental Matters
Generac’s growing presence in energy technology solutions has increased the company’s exposure to renewable energy mandates, investment tax credits, and other demand-creation subsidies from certain existing and potential government incentives, such as incentives included in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in 2022.
The company’s products sold in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Air Resources Board (CARB) and various other state and local air quality management districts. All of the company’s engines and engine-driven products sold in the U.S. are regulated, and these governing bodies continue to pass regulations that require it to meet more stringent emission standards. In addition, certain of its products are subject to safety standards as established by various other standards and rulemaking bodies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), among others. Similarly, other countries have varying degrees of regulation for its products, depending upon product application and fuel types.
History
Generac Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation, was founded in 1959. The company was incorporated in 2006.
