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[Music]
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um our company is a um basically a$7
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billion company based in the United
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States was formed in
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1917 really to create off-road mobility
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in vehic
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and today we're very true to that form
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where we operate in four segments our
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largest being your defense segment where
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we build all the U heavy and medium
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payload vehicles for the US Army and the
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Marine Corps uh as well as the brand new
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mrra allterrain vehicle which is been
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now being deployed into Afghanistan to
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save lives we're also involved in uh
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Access Equipment which is a segment
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that's a global leader in building area
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Work Platforms tele handlers scissor
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lifts they're generally used on job
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sites around the world uh were involved
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in fire emergency markets so the largest
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manufacturer fire trucks uh globally uh
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we're the leading manufacturer of
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aircraft rescue and firefighting and
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snow removal Vehicles globally uh we're
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in Towing equipment and number of other
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markets and our last uh segment would be
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a commercial segment where we build uh
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concrete mixers uh refu Packers uh and
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uh truck M cranes
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I think like most uh defense companies
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you see that there's certainly going to
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be a challenge in defense budgets going
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forward it starts be before the
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president's initiatives really uh in the
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sense that we're in a Great Recession
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and with that Great Recession means that
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you need to spend every dollar wisely uh
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and then you have the added threat of
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potentially pulling out of Iraq
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Afghanistan all those things are
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probably important to all Americans but
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to a defense company that means
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potentially you know lower Revenue so we
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need to be able to provide best value
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you know really in any
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competition um that also needs that we
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mean to we need to be more cost
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effective I think defense companies
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generally have not adopted what I would
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call um sort of tech strategies where
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every year you see you know the devices
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in your home get cheaper and cheaper
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your TVs your electronics uh and yet
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defense products tend to get escalating
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C cost and so we as a company have
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strategies to try to bring down our cost
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to our customer every
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year I think we're facing a big
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challenge that we we need to understand
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better um certainly there's a a strong
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push for acquisition reform meaning more
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competition uh but now recently you had
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the Supreme Court that now opens a door
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for more financing of political uh
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debate by
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corporations so you couple that together
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with some of the uh uh competitions that
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we've been in recently that all and
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protested and been very vocal now you
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wonder well um will only large companies
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with big political war chess uh win
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because many of the competitions that
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we've seen become very vocal and very
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politically charged where local um you
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know legislators are very much pushing
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their local company uh and putting
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pressure on the Department of Defense
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and really other agencies to award
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contracts to their local constituencies
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coming from a smaller
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State you know which over a period of
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many years doesn't necessarily have as
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strong a delegation as a larger State
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you know that can be an issue uh today
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we're well represented in Wisconsin but
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um you know those things can change over
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time um it's difficult but you have to
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work harder you have to love your
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customer really provide terrific service
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and provide a great value proposition
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because if you can provide it at a lower
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cost in the competition it's some point
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the public will hear uh the story about
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your product and service that it's more
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effective at a much lower cost and then
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that political uh pressure can't come to
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bear so that's really where we
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focus um well before the Great Recession
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they're about $7 billion uh last year
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they went down to 5.3 Bill billion
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globally because some of our markets are
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very cyclical uh our Access Equipment
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Market uh went down in 85% in terms of
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new equipment sales last year having
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said that in fiscal 2010 we're expecting
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a very strong year we don't give Street
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estimates I'm not going to endorse them
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but salside analysts today have us
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somewhere between 7.7 billion and 10
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half billion sales in 2010 it's really
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all driven by the emir B terrain vehicle
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which is a very interesting uh
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competition uh came out for bid in mid
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December 200 um
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2008 uh by January 12th we had to submit
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our proposal which is voluminous took up
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a a minivan we had to deliver our first
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Vehicles by February 23rd so we had to
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we have to design them procure the uh
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Parts build the vehicles test them on
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her own deliver them to the test site by
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February 23rd and then it went through a
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fairly lengthy testing cycle it it
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basically took a human effort by many
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people we were working you know three
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shifts you know 24 hours a day to build
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the prototypes and really to to develop
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the proposals because we had less than a
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month to design and build and develop
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the proposal so it was a great effort uh
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we learned on June 30 that we um were
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awarded the contract in the very first
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month of July we had to deliver 45
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production Vehicles when you think that
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some of our lead times on our parts are
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180 days that means we obviously have to
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lean forward a little bit to win this
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one uh by December of
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2009 we were building a th000 per month
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we had tripled our defense production in
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that short period of time and we had
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secretary Gates visiting us uh to thank
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our employees for their great
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effort well in actuality in every one of
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our segments we have a significant
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defense component for example in the
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fire emergency uh area that you just
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mentioned we build command and control
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vehicles uh you know law enforcement
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Vehicles we build virtually all the
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vehicles that are used by Camp David in
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the white house for command and control
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Hazmat uh um you know emergency response
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so we have a very significant component
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of that business uh as well we try to
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leverage our skills across our company
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in that respect we build um the Tactical
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firefighting truck for the US Army
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that's on the backbone of one of our
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heavy tactical Vehicles we build for the
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defense department um so that is a you
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know core strategy of ourselves of our
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company to leverage you you know those
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skills across our
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company e
