Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

As a seasoned investor, do you defintely know which pure-play water management company is celebrating its 125th anniversary while projecting 2025 Adjusted EBITDA between $405 million and $420 million? Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) is a critical player in the non-residential construction market, delivering the specification-driven products-from filtered bottle filling stations to drainage systems-that save billions of gallons of water annually. With trailing 12-month revenue through Q3 2025 hitting $1.66 billion and the company consistently recognized as a World's Best Company for Sustainable Growth, understanding its history and revenue engine is no longer optional; it's a necessity for mapping out your infrastructure portfolio.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) History

When you look at Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS), you aren't looking at a single founding moment, but a strategic combination of two century-old legacies. The modern company is the direct result of a major merger, which created a pure-play water management powerhouse. This was a calculated move to dominate the specified water solutions market, pairing Zurn's commercial water control expertise with Elkay's leading drinking water portfolio, especially their popular ezH2O bottle filling stations.

The whole point was to create an unrivaled portfolio in North America, and they defintely achieved that scale in 2022.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The current entity, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation, was formally established on July 1, 2022, following the merger of Zurn Water Solutions Corporation and Elkay Manufacturing Company.

Original location

The combined company is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the former base of Zurn Water Solutions, while maintaining a significant presence in the Chicago area, Elkay's former headquarters.

Founding team members

The new corporation was largely architected by the leadership of Zurn Water Solutions and the Elkay founding family. Key figures driving the combination included:

• Todd A. Adams: Chairman and CEO of Zurn Water Solutions, who became the Chairman and CEO of the combined Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation.
• Ron Katz: Senior Member of the Elkay founding family, who supported the combination and represented the family's long-term investment interests.
• Tim Jahnke: Chairman of Elkay Manufacturing at the time of the merger agreement.

Initial capital/funding

The transaction was structured as an all-stock merger, effectively valuing the combination at approximately $1.4 billion to $1.56 billion. Upon closing, Zurn Water Solutions shareholders owned approximately 71%, and Elkay shareholders owned approximately 29% of the newly formed company.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The single most transformative decision was the 2022 all-stock merger. It was a strategic masterstroke, turning two established, complementary businesses into one dominant force in specified water solutions. This wasn't just about combining revenues; it was about creating a more defensible market position.

The rationale was crystal clear: Zurn Water Solutions, focused on professional-grade water control, gained Elkay's high-growth, essential drinking water business. That's a powerful cross-sell opportunity, especially in critical verticals like education and healthcare, where demand for clean, hygienic water solutions is non-negotiable.

• Synergy Capture: The merger was predicated on achieving $50 million in run-rate cost synergies, a target that underpinned the enhanced value proposition for shareholders.
• Financial Scale: By the trailing 12 months ending September 30, 2025, the combined entity reported net sales of $1.66 billion, showcasing the immediate and sustained revenue scale.
• Capital Structure Optimization: The company prioritized a strong balance sheet, aiming to reduce net debt leverage to approximately 1.0x by the end of 2022, giving them ample room for continued investment and capital return.
• Strategic Focus: The merger cemented Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation as a pure-play water business, aligning their entire operation with the growing global trend of water safety, conservation, and hygiene. This focus is a major tailwind. You can dig into the shareholder view on this by Exploring Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Here's the quick math on the 2025 outlook: management is guiding for free cash flow of roughly $290 million for the full year, a clear indicator of high-quality earnings and efficient operations post-integration. What this estimate hides is the potential upside from infrastructure spending, which could push that number higher. Your next move should be to model how a 10% increase in federal infrastructure spending translates into Zurn Elkay's commercial segment revenue.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Ownership Structure

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), but its ownership is overwhelmingly dominated by institutional investors. This structure means major asset managers, not individual retail investors, drive the stock's trading volume and strategic pressure.

The company operates with a market capitalization of approximately $7.94 billion as of November 2025, reflecting its scale in the sustainable water solutions space. The high institutional ownership level means the focus remains keenly on predictable financial performance and capital allocation, such as the Board's refresh of the share buyback program to $500 million.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Current Status

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation is a public entity, trading under the ticker ZWS on the NYSE. Being public ensures transparency through mandated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, which is how we get a clear picture of who holds the shares. The company's stock price was approximately $46.39 per share as of mid-November 2025, up about 19.25% from the prior year.

The company's governance is typical of a large public corporation, with a Board of Directors overseeing management. Still, the immense concentration of shares in the hands of institutional players like BlackRock and Vanguard Group means their influence on voting matters-like electing directors or approving major transactions-is defintely substantial. You can see how this ownership affects the balance sheet and strategy in Breaking Down Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Ownership Breakdown

The shareholder base is highly concentrated, with institutions controlling the vast majority of the company. The top 25 shareholders alone own over 81% of the company, highlighting the influence of a relatively small group of large funds.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Leadership

The executive team is responsible for executing the strategy and leveraging the Zurn Elkay Business System (ZEBS), which is their operating philosophy for continuous improvement. The leadership is anchored by seasoned executives, many of whom have been with the company for over a decade, providing continuity and deep industry knowledge.

The key leaders steering the organization as of November 2025 are:

• Todd Adams: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He has been CEO since 2009 and Chairman since 2020.
• Dave Pauli: Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He oversees all financial operations, including treasury and investor relations.
• Jeffrey Schoon: President.
• Mark Peterson: Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).

This team is focused on delivering on the raised full-year 2025 core sales growth target of 8%, a clear near-term action for investors to track.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Mission and Values

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's purpose extends well beyond plumbing fixtures; it centers on a commitment to global water stewardship and public health. Their cultural DNA is anchored by a simple, powerful guiding principle: 'Simply Do the Right Thing.'

You're looking at a company where 86% of its revenue comes from products with sustainable attributes, which tells you their mission isn't just marketing-it drives the product line. This clear alignment between profit and purpose is defintely a key factor in their resilience.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is to be a pure-play water management business, meaning they focus entirely on water solutions, which gives them a competitive edge in a niche but critical market. This focus allows them to deploy capital and innovation toward solving complex water challenges, like lead and PFOA/PFOS contamination. You see this commitment in their financial outlook, where they project full year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA between $437 million and $440 million while simultaneously reducing their environmental footprint.

Official Mission Statement

While Zurn Elkay Water Solutions does not publish a single, rigid mission statement, its operating philosophy is consistently articulated as providing the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety, and the environment. This mission translates into tangible outcomes, like delivering 1.2 billion gallons of safer, cleaner filtered drinking water through their installed base so far in 2025.

• Design and market a broad, sustainable product portfolio.
• Improve health, hydration, and human safety through water solutions.
• Drive long-term financial performance while advancing water stewardship.

Vision Statement

The vision for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is focused on a sustainable future for the world's most vital resource: clean water. It's a long-term view that maps their product innovation to global needs, which is a smart strategic approach. They envision a more sustainable future as they deliver customer-focused solutions that make clean water more accessible and sustainable. This vision is supported by their internal operations, where they've achieved a 38% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity since 2021.

• Envision a more sustainable future for clean water.
• Deliver customer-focused solutions for accessibility and sustainability.
• Minimize their own environmental footprint and empower associates.

If you want to dig deeper into how this mission translates into balance sheet strength, you should read Breaking Down Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation Guiding Principle/Core Value

The company's bedrock cultural value is its guiding principle, which informs everything from product design to corporate governance (ESG). This principle is the non-negotiable standard for all their 2,600 associates.

• Simply Do the Right Thing.

Honestly, a simple, clear value like that is easier to execute than a 10-point corporate manifesto. It's why they can project full year 2025 free cash flow to be greater than $300 million-operational discipline follows ethical clarity.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) How It Works

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation designs, procures, manufactures, and markets a broad portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions, generating revenue primarily by equipping commercial and institutional buildings with products that improve water safety, quality, and conservation. The company operates as a pure-play water business, focusing on the critical infrastructure within public and private spaces.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Product/Service Portfolio

You can think of the company's offerings in two main buckets: the back-of-house, engineered solutions (Zurn) and the front-of-house, hygienic drinking water products (Elkay). These complementary lines allow them to capture the full water system specification in a building.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Operational Framework

The core of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions' value creation is the Zurn Elkay Business System (ZEBS), which is a proprietary, lean-based operating philosophy. This framework is defintely the engine for their margin expansion and operational resilience.

ZEBS drives superior customer satisfaction and financial results through a disciplined focus on continuous improvement (Kaizen) and simplification (80/20 principle). Here's the quick math on its impact: strong execution of this system helped push the Adjusted EBITDA margin to a record 26.8% in Q3 2025.

• Strategy Deployment: Translates long-term strategic goals into annual, actionable improvement priorities across the entire organization.
• Voice of the Customer: Measures performance based on direct customer feedback to ensure product development and service delivery meet market needs precisely.
• Kaizen Culture: Fosters a culture of continuous improvement, where all 2,600 associates are involved in identifying and eliminating waste and inefficiency.
• 80/20 Simplification: Focuses resources on the 20% of products, customers, or processes that drive 80% of the value, streamlining the portfolio for greater profitability.

This operational discipline is what allowed the company to raise its full-year 2025 guidance, now expecting Adjusted EBITDA to be between $437 million and $440 million.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Strategic Advantages

The company's market success is not accidental; it's built on a few clear, structural advantages that create high barriers to entry for competitors. They have a strong position in the non-residential market, which is generally more stable than residential, and they are capitalizing on powerful secular trends.

• Specification-Driven Demand: Products like backflow preventers and drainage systems are critical, 'must-have' components specified by engineers and architects early in the construction process, creating an entrenched sales pipeline.
• Broadest Sustainable Portfolio: Zurn Elkay Water Solutions offers what they believe is the broadest portfolio of sustainable water solutions, with 86% of 2025 revenue year-to-date derived from products with sustainable attributes. This aligns with increasing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) requirements from building owners.
• Financial Strength and Flexibility: A disciplined balance sheet, with net debt leverage at a low 0.6x as of Q3 2025, provides significant financial flexibility for strategic acquisitions or capital returns.
• Innovation in Filtration: The launch of the Elkay Pro Filtration platform, which includes advanced PFAS reduction and IoT features, positions them to capture double-digit growth in the high-margin consumables (filter replacements) market. You can learn more about their core values here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS).

The company is on track to deliver full-year 2025 core sales growth of approximately 8% and free cash flow of > $300 million, demonstrating that their strategy of operational excellence and innovation is working.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) How It Makes Money

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation generates revenue by designing, manufacturing, and marketing a comprehensive portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions for non-residential and residential buildings across the United States, Canada, and other markets. The company's financial engine is fueled by the essential, non-discretionary nature of its products-like filtered drinking water systems and flow control devices-which are required for new construction, renovation, and repair/replacement cycles in commercial and institutional settings.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Revenue Breakdown

While Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation operates as a single reportable operating segment for financial reporting purposes, its revenue is disaggregated by customer type, which clearly shows its reliance on the non-residential market. This breakdown is based on the most recent available quarterly data (Q2 2025) which totaled $444.5 million in net sales.

The institutional segment is the defintely largest and most stable revenue source, driven by long-cycle, specification-mandated products in schools and hospitals. The company saw core sales growth in all product categories in the second quarter of 2025.

Business Economics

The core of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's business economics is its strong position in the specification market, which creates a durable, high-margin revenue stream. They don't just sell a product; they sell an engineered solution that gets written into the building's blueprint. That's a powerful moat.

• Value-Based Pricing: The company employs value-based pricing, focusing on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the customer, not just the initial product cost. This allows for premium pricing on high-performance, durable, and code-compliant products.
• Replacement Cycle Tailwinds: A significant portion of sales comes from the repair and replacement market-products like backflow preventers and filtered drinking water stations need to be serviced or replaced on a cycle, creating a recurring revenue-like stream.
• Tariff Management: A key cost headwind in 2025 is the impact of global tariffs, which the company expects to be approximately $50 million for the full year. Management is actively mitigating this through supply chain diversification and selective pricing actions.
• Low Net Debt: The company maintains a very healthy balance sheet, with net debt leverage at a record low of just 0.6x as of September 30, 2025. This provides significant financial flexibility for strategic acquisitions or further capital return.

You can see how this strategy plays out in their capital allocation decisions, which you can read more about in Exploring Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation's Financial Performance

The company demonstrated strong financial momentum through the third quarter of 2025, leading management to raise its full-year guidance. This execution shows the strength of the Zurn Elkay Business System (ZEBS), their operating philosophy focused on continuous improvement.

• Net Sales: Q3 2025 Net Sales were $455.4 million, representing an 11% core sales growth year-over-year.
• Full-Year Adjusted EBITDA Outlook: The company raised its full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) guidance to a range of $437 million to $440 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Margin expanded to 26.8% of net sales, up 120 basis points from the prior year quarter. This is the highest quarterly margin since the Zurn-Elkay merger.
• Free Cash Flow: Full-year 2025 Free Cash Flow is expected to be greater than $300 million, demonstrating exceptional cash generation power.
• Capital Return: The company increased its annual dividend by 22% to $0.44 per share and expanded its share repurchase authorization up to $500 million, signaling high confidence in future cash flows.

Here's the quick math: with a full-year Adjusted EBITDA target of up to $440 million on projected core sales growth of approximately 8%, the business is clearly delivering on its promise of profitable growth, even with softness in the residential market.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Market Position & Future Outlook

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) is well-positioned as a pure-play water steward, capitalizing on non-residential construction demand and sustainability trends, projecting strong 2025 Adjusted EBITDA between $437 million and $440 million. The company's focus on specification-driven products and the integration of the Elkay merger are driving above-market core sales growth, expected to be approximately 8% for the full year 2025.

Competitive Landscape

The water solutions market is fragmented but Zurn Elkay Water Solutions maintains a strong position in the non-residential (commercial) plumbing and drinking water segments, competing on product specification and total cost of ownership (TCO). Key competitors often have broader portfolios or different market focuses, but Zurn Elkay Water Solutions' focus on water safety and conservation gives it a defintely distinct edge. You can learn more about the institutional investors betting on this positioning here: Exploring Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (ZWS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Opportunities & Challenges

Honestly, the biggest near-term opportunity for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is leveraging its low net debt leverage of 0.6x to pursue strategic, tuck-in acquisitions that expand its product portfolio or geographic reach. But still, managing the persistent tariff costs remains a real headwind. Here's the quick math: the company expects tariff costs to be about $50 million for the full year 2025, which is a material expense.

Industry Position

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is a leader in the Capital Goods sector, recently ranked No. 3 in that sector on Newsweek's 2025 list of America's Most Responsible Companies. This sustainability focus is not just marketing; over 86% of the company's revenue comes from products that conserve water, reduce energy, or protect clean water sources. This directly aligns with increasing regulation and customer demand for environmentally responsible solutions.

• Specification Strength: The company's products are often specified by engineers and architects, creating a strong pull-through demand immune to typical retail price competition.
• Cash Generation: Strong operational performance is generating substantial Free Cash Flow (FCF) of over $300 million for 2025, which funds a growing dividend and share repurchase program.
• Balance Sheet Health: The low leverage of 0.6x provides significant financial flexibility for market maneuvers, even amid economic uncertainty.

What this estimate hides is the potential for a larger-than-expected residential rebound, which could accelerate the Elkay Liv product line's growth beyond current forecasts.