Mr. Benante: Curtiss-Wright Corporation designs and manufactures highly engineered products, and develops advanced technologies that perform critical functions in demanding conditions in the defense, energy, commercial aerospace and general industrial markets. Today we generate about 1.8 billion in sales globally, and we have been listed on the NYSE for more than 80 years. We operate out of three business units, Flow Control, Motion Control and Metal Treatment, which provide a great deal of profitability, diversification and cash flow. The Flow Control segment provides highly engineered valves, pumps, motors, generators and associated control products that manage the flow of gases, liquids and vapors operating in high temperature, pressure and velocities. Our Flow Control products support naval aircraft carriers and submarine propulsion, commercial nuclear power generation and crude oil processing, for example. Through our Motion Control segment, we support embedded computing products for real-time data processing, flight control actuation and sensors, and ground vehicle aiming, stabilization and suspension systems. And in our Metal Treatment segment, we enhance the durability of critical metal components through laser peening, shot peening, shot peen forming, specialty coatings and heat treating services in such high-performance applications as aerospace, automotive, construction and energy production.
TWST: What will your strategic direction be over the next two to three years?
Mr. Benante: Over the next year, we are working toward additional cost reduction and consolidation at Curtiss-Wright. Curtiss-Wright has grown quite a bit over the last 10 years, from 300 million in sales to 1.8 billion today. During that time frame we acquired 40 businesses, which provided approximately 1.2 billion in acquired sales. In addition, we generated revenue growth of over 500 million through technical innovations and market expansion. Such rapid growth does tend to result in cost inefficiencies and regardless of the downturn in the economy, we were looking to consolidate some of our businesses, which comes at a cost. So we are in the process of consolidation, and we expect it will be at least the middle of 2010 before demand will start picking up, enabling us to refocus on our growth targets of double-digit increases for both sales and profitability, which is what we have achieved as a compound annual growth rate over the last five years.
Tickers included in this excerpt: CW
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