and construction activity and can shift demand for its products to a later period. As part of its normal business practice and consistent with industry practice, Trex Residential Products has historically offered incentive programs to its distributors and dealers to build inventory levels before the start of the prime deck-building season in order to ensure adequate availability of its product to meet anticipated seasonal consumer demand. The seasonal effects are often offset by the positive effect of the incentive programs. The operating results for Trex Commercial have not historically varied from quarter to quarter as a result of seasonality. However, they are driven by the timing of individual projects, which may vary significantly each quarterly period.

items are addressed. A fully empowered Plant Safety Committee performs safety audits and observations, reviews and trends all incidents, writes their own Safety Work Orders, and participates in all PSSRs. Each member is required to successfully complete an Occupational Safety and Health Training course in General Industry Safety and Health, which is sanctioned and accredited by the U.S. Department of Labor/Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In addition, each manufacturing operation has an Employee Health and Safety Manager who is a Certified Occupational Safety Specialist and Certified Occupational Safety Manager. The Company is a member of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association, the National Safety Council, and the National Fire Protection Association.

Our ability to identify and respond to emerging consumer demands and preferences depends, in part, on how successfully we develop, manufacture and market new products. If our products do not meet emerging demands and preferences, we could lose market share, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, substantially all of our revenues are derived from sales of our proprietary wood/polyethylene composite material. Although we have developed, and continue to develop, new products made from other materials, if we should experience significant problems, real or perceived, with acceptance of the Trex wood/polyethylene composite material, our lack of product diversification could have a significant adverse impact on our net sales levels.

Although Trex Commercial is a leading national provider of custom-engineered railing and staging systems for the commercial and multi-family market, including performing arts venues and sports stadiums, there is intense competition for projects. In order to effectively compete, we must continually produce and install high quality products and innovate with new products. If our products do not keep up with consumer trends, demands, and preferences we could lose market share, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may not be able to fully maintain our wholesaler and dealer channels.

Our Trex Residential growth strategy depends on maintaining our network of wholesale and dealer channels, and on our ability to compete with other entities for these channels. In order to successfully compete for wholesaler distributors and dealers, we must accurately assess their customers’ needs and preferences. If we fail to compete successfully, our business could experience material adverse effects.

Our prospects for sales growth and profitability may be adversely affected if we fail to maintain product quality and product performance at an acceptable cost.

In order to expand our net sales and sustain profitable operations we must maintain the quality and performance of our products. If we are unable to produce high-quality products at standard manufacturing rates and yields, unit costs may be higher. A lack of product performance could impede acceptance of our products in the marketplace and negatively affect our profitability. We continue to receive and settle claims and maintain a warranty reserve related to decking product produced at our Nevada facility prior to 2007 that exhibits surface flaking. We have limited our financial exposure by settling a nationwide class action lawsuit that provides that a consumer’s remedy is limited to the replacement of product and a partial labor reimbursement. However, because the establishment of reserves is an inherently uncertain process involving estimates of the number of future claims and the average cost of claims, our ultimate losses may differ from our warranty reserve. Increases to the warranty reserve and payments for related claims have had a material adverse effect on our profitability and cash flows. Future increases to the warranty reserve could have a material adverse effect on our profitability and cash flows.

A number of class action lawsuits alleging defects in our products have been brought against us, all of which have been settled. In the event future lawsuits relating to alleged product quality issues are brought against us, such lawsuits may be costly and could cause adverse publicity, which in turn could result in a loss of consumer confidence in our products and reduce our sales. Product quality claims could increase our expenses, have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and decrease net sales, net income and liquidity.

Our business is subject to risks in obtaining the raw materials we use at acceptable prices.

The manufacture of our Trex Residential wood-alternative decking and railing products requires substantial amounts of wood fiber and scrap polyethylene. Our business strategy is to create a substantial cost advantage over our competitors by using scrap polyethylene. Our ability to obtain adequate supplies of wood fiber and scrap polyethylene depends on our success in developing new sources that meet our quality requirements, maintaining favorable relationships with suppliers and managing the collection of supplies from geographically dispersed locations. In addition to wood fiber and scrap polyethylene, we also use a small percentage of other materials in

making our products, which are sometimes subject to volatility in supply and pricing and could negatively affect our profitability. The manufacture of our Trex Commercial products requires substantial amounts of aluminum, steel, glass and wood. These materials are also sometimes subject to volatility in pricing, which could negatively affect our profitability.

Our business could suffer from the termination of significant sources of raw materials, the payment of higher prices for raw materials, the quality of available raw materials, or from the failure to obtain sufficient additional raw materials to meet planned increases in production.

Certain of our residential product customers account for a significant portion of our sales, and the loss of one or more of these customers could have an adverse effect on our business.

A limited number of our residential product customers account for a significant percentage of our sales. Specifically, sales through our 15 largest customers accounted for approximately 85.0% and 90.0% of gross sales during fiscal years 2018 and 2017, respectively.

We expect that a significant portion of our residential sales will continue to be sold through a small number of customers, and certain customers will continue to account for a significant portion of our sales. The loss of a significant customer could have a significant negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We have limited ability to project inventorybuild-ups in our distribution channel that can negatively affect our sales in subsequent periods.

The seasonal nature of, and changing conditions in, our industry can result in substantial fluctuations in inventory levels of Trex Residential products carried in ourtwo-step distribution channel. We have limited ability to precisely project inventorybuild-ups, which can adversely affect our net sales levels in subsequent periods. We sell to wholesale distributors, who, in turn, sell our products to local dealers. Because of the seasonal nature of the demand for our products, our distribution channel partners must forecast demand for our products, place orders for the products, and maintain Trex product inventories in advance of the prime deck-building season, which generally occurs in the latter part of the first calendar quarter through the third calendar quarter. Accordingly, our results for the second and third quarters are difficult to predict and past performance will not necessarily indicate future performance. Inventory levels respond to a number of changing conditions in our industry, including product price increases, increases in the number of competitive producers, the rapid pace of product introduction and innovation, changes in the levels of home-building and remodeling expenditures and the cost and availability of consumer credit.

The demand for our Trex Residential products is negatively affected by adverse weather conditions.

Our Trex Residential products are generally purchased shortly before installation and used in outdoor environments. As a result, there is a correlation between the amount of product we sell and weather conditions during the time they are to be installed. Adverse weather conditions may interfere with ordinary construction, delay projects or lead to cessation of construction involving our products. These interferences may shift sales to subsequent reporting periods or decrease overall sales, given the limited decking season in many locations. Prolonged adverse weather conditions could have a negative impact on our results of operations and liquidity.

We depend on third parties for transportation services and the lack of availability of transportation and/or increases in cost could materially adversely affect our business and operations.

Our business depends on the transportation of both finished goods to our distributors and the transportation of raw materials to us. We rely on third parties for transportation of these items. In particular, a significant portion of our finished goods are transported by flatbed trucks, which are occasionally in high demand (especially at the end of calendar quarters) and/or subject to price fluctuations based on market conditions and the price of fuel.

If the required supply of transportation services is unavailable when needed, we may be unable to sell our products at full value, or at all. Similarly, if any of these providers were unavailable to deliver raw materials to us in a timely manner, we may be unable to manufacture our products in response to customer demand. This could harm our reputation, negatively impact our customer relationships and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, a material increase in transportation rates or fuel surcharges could have a material adverse effect on our profitability.

The demand for our products is influenced by general economic conditions and could be adversely affected by economic downturns.

The demand for Trex Residential wood-alternative decking and railing products is influenced by the general health of the economy, the level of home improvement activity and, to a much lesser extent, new home construction. These factors are affected by home equity values, credit availability and interest rates, consumer confidence, income and spending habits, employment, inflation and general economic conditions. Devaluation in home equity values can adversely affect the availability of home equity withdrawals and result in decreased home improvement spending. We cannot predict general economic conditions or the home remodeling and new home construction environment. Any economic downturn or adverse changes in any of these factors could reduce consumer income or equity capital available for spending on discretionary items, which could adversely affect the demand for our products.

The demand for Trex Commercial railing and staging system products is influenced by the general health of the economy and the level of commercial construction activity, building variances, funding availability for large public use facilities, including sports stadiums and arenas, and the construction schedules of our projects. We cannot predict general economic conditions or the commercial construction environment. Any economic downturn could negatively impact the availability of funding for commercial construction projects and the ability of our customers to engage in commercial construction activity, which could adversely affect the demand for our products.

We have significant capital invested in assets that may become obsolete or impaired and result in a charge to our earnings.

We have made and may continue to make significant capital investments to our property plant and equipment in order to improve or expand our manufacturing capabilities. These investments sometimes involve the implementation of new technology and replacement of existing equipment at our manufacturing facilities, which may result in charges to our earnings if the existing equipment is not fully depreciated. We have also made and may continue to make significant capital investments in order to acquire businesses or operations that allow us to diversify into new product markets. These investments have resulted in, and may in the future result in, the recognition of goodwill, which may result in an impairment charge to our earnings if circumstances change and reduce the fair value of the goodwill acquired below its carrying amount. Significant replacement of equipment or changes in the expected cash flows related to our assets could result in reduced earnings or cash flows in future periods.

Our ability to continue to obtain financing on favorable terms, and the level of any outstanding indebtedness, could adversely affect our financial health and ability to compete.

Our ability to continue to obtain financing on favorable terms may limit our discretion on some business matters, which could make it more difficult for us to expand, finance our operations and engage in other business activities that may be in our interest. In addition, our senior credit facility may impose operating and financial restrictions.

At certain periods during the year, we borrow significant amounts on our senior credit facility for working capital purposes. In addition, we may borrow on the senior credit facility to pursue strategic opportunities or other general business matters. Accordingly, our future level of indebtedness could have important consequences.

Our ability to make future principal and interest payments, borrow and repay amounts under our senior credit facility and continue to comply with our loan covenants will depend primarily on our ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations. Our failure to comply with our loan covenants might cause our lenders to accelerate our repayment obligations under our senior credit facility, which may be declared payable immediately based on a default.

Cyberattacks and other security breaches could compromise our proprietary and confidential information which could harm our business and reputation.

In the ordinary course of our business, we generate, collect and store confidential and proprietary information, including intellectual property and business information. The secure storage, maintenance, and transmission of and access to this information is important to our operations and reputation. Computer hackers may attempt to penetrate our computer systems and, if successful, misappropriate our proprietary and confidential information includinge-mails and other electronic communications. In addition, an employee, contractor, competitor, or other third party with whom we do business may attempt to obtain such information, and may purposefully or inadvertently cause a breach involving such information. While we have certain safeguards in place to reduce the risk of and detect cyber-attacks, our information technology networks and infrastructure may be vulnerable to unpermitted access by hackers or other breaches, or employee error or malfeasance. Any such compromise of our data security and access to, or public disclosure or loss of, confidential business or proprietary information could disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, provide our competitors with valuable information and subject us to additional costs, which could adversely affect our business. We also collect limited information on consumers. Although we do not collect any highly sensitive information, there is a risk that a cybersecurity attack could compromise consumer’s names, addresses and other personal information.

We lease our corporate headquarters in Winchester, Virginia, which consists of approximately 36,000 square feet of office space, under a lease that expires in March 2025. In addition, we lease 55,047 square feet of office and storage space in Dulles, Virginia, that we do not occupy. We have sublet all of the office space in Dulles, Virginia, for the remainder of the term of the lease obligation, which expires inmid-2019.