The complex economic factors at work in our industry are impacted by many outside forces. Even with all the data we collect for this survey, the future isn't a sure thing. We make forecasts and predictions, and everyone can have their say about what might happen next, but there are always surprises.
Click to view the individual Top 50 by category:
- Top 50 Paving Contractors
- Top 50 Sealcoat Contractors
- Top 50 Striping Contractors
- Top 50 Pavement Repair Contractors
For instance, last year for the TC 2024, which economically was based on data from the CY 2023, the industry contracted. That makes sense when you remember recent economic history. In June of 2022, the inflation rate peaked at 9.1% and that was when everyone was nearly in a panic.
It is clearer now that the ramifications from that inflationary spike carried through the entire 2023 season which followed it. Commercial, residential, and private markets took a confidence hit. With all the uncertainty and fear that the inflation could kick back up at any moment, 2023 was a year that people played it safe.
As inflation gradually came down, and hit it's lowest in December of 2024 at 2.9% confidence obviously improved, because even though it was an election year, which often drives more conservative business decisions, the CY 2024 season -- and subsequently the TC 2025 survey -- shows, perhaps, the biggest overall growth in a twelve month period.
While I was working on this analysis, one contractor called me, and when I mentioned how good last year's growth was, his immediate reply was, "Yeah, we'll probably see a correction to that this season." I added that here, because I am interested to see if his prediction comes true.
But either way, right now we can celebrate an incredible year for the pavement maintenance industry.
Overall Sales Totals
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the Top 50 Gross Revenue from 2021 to 2025 is approximately 15.17% per year. This strong growth reflects a robust recovery and an overall upward trend in the sector, as the industry continues to rebound from pandemic-related disruptions.
The increase in gross revenue over the past few years is driven by both the rebound of the pavement industry and contractors adapting to new market conditions and opportunities. Despite some fluctuations, the long-term growth trajectory indicates a sector that is poised for continued expansion in the years to come.
Looking specifically at the change from TC 2024 to 2025, we see a significant increase in gross revenue. The total revenue for TC 2025 stands at $1.928 billion, marking a 21.41% growth from the $1.588 billion in TC 2024.
This growth represents an increase of $340 million from the previous year, signaling a strong surge in business for the Top 50 contractors. This sharp rise underscores the resilience of the sector, with TC 2025 potentially benefiting from a more favorable economic environment and increased demand for pavement-related services as infrastructure spending continues to grow.
Let’s briefly examine each category's gross total revenue numbers:
- Paving Top 50: $1.906 billion in 2025 total sales compared to $1.614 billion in 2024
- Striping Top 50: $1.827 billion in total sales compared to $1.435 billion in 2024
- Sealcoating Top 50: $1.811 in total sales compared to $1.448 billion in 2024
- Pavement Repair Top 50: $1.698 in total sales compared to $1.544 billion in 2024
While all of this, on the surface, shows strong growth all around, when you break down the financial data per segment, there was still one category that contracted, and did so for the second year in a row. That was the Paving-Only category:
- Paving-Only sales dropped to $698,446,768 compared to $844,813,039 in 2024
- Striping-Only sales exploded to $134,120,870 compared to the $89,944,736 generated in 2024
- Sealcoat-Only sales saw healthy growth to $165,760,074 compared to $152,812,614 in 2024.
- Pavement Repair-Only sales absolutely crushed it by almost doubling to $557,230,541 from the previous all-time high of $285,633,743 in 2024
The Average Top 50 Contractor
More good news, however, was that the average contractor in our Top 50 generated $38 million in gross total sales, which was $6 million more than last year’s average of $32 million, and just narrowly surpasses the previous height of TC 2023's $35 million average.
The Top 50's segmented average revenue stream breakdown is as follows:
- Paving: 42% (49% 2024)
- Striping: 12% (10% 2024)
- Sealcoat: 12% (12% in 2024)
- Pavement Repair 22% (18% in 2024)
- Other: 11% (9% in 2024)
- Surface Treatments: 1% (>1% in 2024)
The average contractor’s time was split up as follows:
- Driveways: 7% (4% in 2024)
- Highways: 6% (3% in 2024)
- Parking Lots: 62% (72% in 2024)
- Residential/City Roads: 20% (17% in 2024)
- Other: 4% (4% in 2024)
The average contractor’s customer mix broke down as follows:
- Commercial/Industrial: 57% (60% in 2024)
- Municipal: 17% (13% in 2024)
- Multi-family/HOA/etc: 19% (19% in 2024)
- Single Family: 5% (6% in 2024)
- Other: 3% (2% in 2024)
One area that fell beneath the 2024 average for the Top 50 Contractors, was that in 2025 they earned an average of 25% of their gross sales working as a subcontractor, a drop of 2%. But that is still an increase over TC 2023's previous high of 24% and continues the upward trend from TC 2022’s 17%.
