plus 2, The state of the state - Minneapolis Star Tribune |
- The state of the state - Minneapolis Star Tribune
- U.S. Army Affirms FMTV Contract Award to Oshkosh Corporation - Finanz Nachrichten
- Suzuki will emphasise sportier image for US - AsiaOne
| The state of the state - Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted: 13 Feb 2010 12:49 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Inside Los Amigos grocery in the Whittier neighborhood of south Minneapolis, Gassan Khori operates a cash register and recalls the day a fight erupted in the store. He doesn't want the budget crisis to result in less police protection because he worries about crime. "It's better than 15 years ago, but even so, there is a new problem with gangs, problems with drugs," he said. Across the metro area, a non-descript Roseville strip mall is an unlikely place to find optimism, but there it is. Tucked among vacant storefronts is the Ukrainian Gift Shop, nominally headed by Elko Perchyshyn. His mother, Luba, 86, is the shop's driving force, selling Ukranian Easter eggs for 63 years. An egg adorned with a horse, signifying wealth, prosperity, endurance and speed, sells for $35. It's their busiest time and better than last year. "It was tough making the rent," Perchyshyn said of the recession. Brigitte Cawthorne, 23, works at a St. Paul nonprofit. She cried listening to a man seeking a job describe life in a homeless shelter. "There's a lot of people in Minnesota a lot worse off than me, " she said, echoing a refrain heard across Minnesota. Caring for the neediest citizens and preserving the parks and other urban amenities wealthier residents expect mean the cities and inner-ring suburbs will be counting on state aid to keep property taxes in check. Minneapolis in particular has an interest in DFLers capturing the governor's office and restoring aid cuts. But that's going to be hard for any governor of any party given the state's $5.4 billion budget deficit and the conundrum posed by Joe and Charney Petroske as they bowled at Tuttles in Hopkins. "The kinds of things you'd cut, they've already cut," said Joe, who works in computer security. "Education is already on the way down," noted Charney, a molecular biologist, referring to delayed state aid to public schools. "I think they need to improve education rather than cut." But, "it's hard to raise taxes now with so many people out of work," Joe said. So what would they do as governor? "That's the million dollar question, isn't it," said Charney. "The billion dollar question." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| U.S. Army Affirms FMTV Contract Award to Oshkosh Corporation - Finanz Nachrichten Posted: 13 Feb 2010 10:26 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) today announced the U.S. Army has affirmed the contract award to the Company, originally received on Aug. 26, 2009, to produce the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV). The bids of all three competitors for the FMTV program were re-evaluated by the U.S. Army in response to recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) following a review of competitors' protests of the original contract award to the Company. The Army undertook an exhaustive review during this FMTV bidding process and applied fairness and rigor to its decision. Upon completion of a thorough, in-depth re-evaluation, the Army determined the contract would remain with Oshkosh. Additionally, the Army canceled the September 4, 2009, stop-work order it had issued pursuant to the GAO's protest procedures. The Oshkosh contract allows the Army and U.S. taxpayers to begin realizing significant cost savings for the FMTV program. "We are very pleased the Army affirmed its original decision that Oshkosh Corporation's FMTV bid clearly represents the best overall value for the Army, the taxpayers and the Warfighter," said Robert G. Bohn, Oshkosh Corporation chairman and chief executive officer. "Oshkosh Corporation, our employees and our suppliers stand ready to serve our customer, and we are delighted that the Army has yet again concluded that Oshkosh was the right choice. Our focus has always been on the Warfighter and making sure we deliver high-quality, high-performing vehicles on time." The FMTV rebuy program is a five-year, firm fixed-price requirements contract for the production of up to 23,000 vehicles and trailers, as well as support services and engineering. Oshkosh received the contract from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) with an initial delivery order valued at $280.9 million for the production and delivery of 2,568 trucks and trailers. The FMTV is a series of vehicles consisting of up to 23 variants and 17 different models, ranging from 2.5-ton to 5-ton payloads. Oshkosh already produces the Army's Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) and works with nearly every one of the FMTV current component suppliers across the country as integral partners in other military programs. Oshkosh is the only current manufacturer of both medium and heavy tactical wheeled vehicles in the U.S. defense industry, having produced more than 70,000 military-class vehicles in its manufacturing facilities. Oshkosh's manufacturing facilities have ample production capacity for all current and pending military vehicle programs, including the FMTV and the MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), as well as any surges in production. The company's advanced and integrated assembly line facilities allow for the simultaneous production of several different vehicle models and variations. Oshkosh Corporation's proven production capabilities were recently recognized by the National Center for Advanced Technologies (NCAT), which awarded Oshkosh with a 2009 Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award for its M-ATV launch team, which has exceeded delivery requirements for seven consecutive months. Photo Caption: The Oshkosh Corporation FMTV offers the best solution to the U.S. Army, taxpayers and Warfighters. About Oshkosh Defense Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, is an industry-leading global designer and manufacturer of tactical military trucks and armored wheeled vehicles, delivering a full product line of conventional and hybrid vehicles, advanced armor options, proprietary suspensions and vehicles with payloads that can exceed 70 tons. Oshkosh Defense provides a global service and supply network including full life-cycle support and remanufacturing, and its vehicles are recognized the world over for superior performance, reliability and protection. For more information, visit www.oshkoshdefense.com. About Oshkosh Corporation Oshkosh Corporation is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialty access equipment, commercial, fire& emergency and military vehicles and vehicle bodies. Oshkosh Corp. manufactures, distributes and services products under the brands of Oshkosh®, JLG®, Pierce®, McNeilus®, Medtec®, Jerr-Dan®, Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles, Frontline™, SMIT™, CON-E-CO®, London® and IMT®. Oshkosh products are valued worldwide in businesses where high quality, superior performance, rugged reliability and long-term value are paramount. For more information, log on to www.oshkoshcorporation.com. ®, ™ All brand names referred to in this news release are trademarks of Oshkosh Corporation or its subsidiary companies. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that the Company believes to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's future financial position, business strategy, targets, projected sales, costs, earnings, capital expenditures, debt levels and cash flows, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "should," "project" or "plan" or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include risks related to sustaining the required rate of production for the M-ATV contract and the amount, if any, of additional orders for M-ATVs that the Company may receive; the cyclical nature of the Company's access equipment, commercial and fire& emergency markets, especially during a global recession and tight credit markets; the duration of the global recession, which could lead to additional impairment charges related to many of the Company's intangible assets; the expected level and timing of U.S. Department of Defense procurement of products and services and funding thereof, risks related to reductions in government expenditures, the potential for the government to competitively bid the Company's Army and Marine contracts and the uncertainty of government contracts generally; the consequences of financial leverage associated with the JLG acquisition, which could limit the Company's ability to pursue various opportunities; risks related to the collectability of receivables during a recession, particularly for those businesses with exposure to construction markets; risks related to production delays as a result of the economy's impact on the Company's suppliers; the potential for commodity costs to rise sharply, including in a future economic recovery; risks associated with international operations and sales, including foreign currency fluctuations; and the potential for increased costs relating to compliance with changes in laws and regulations. Additional information concerning these and other factors is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation, and disclaims any obligation, to update information contained in this press release. Investors should be aware that the Company may not update such information until the Company's next quarterly earnings conference call, if at all. Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6178499&lang=en Contacts:
Oshkosh Corporation
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| Suzuki will emphasise sportier image for US - AsiaOne Posted: 12 Feb 2010 10:01 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. by Joseph Szczesny CHICAGO - Japanese carmaker Suzuki said Thursday it remains committed to the US market despite steep declines in sales, and expressed confidence that a new vehicle launch will help it regain traction. "We are here to stay," Gene Brown, vice president for automotive marketing and public relations for American Suzuki Corp., said at the Chicago Auto Show, when asked about speculation the company may halt US car sales. Brown said Suzuki will soon launch a new advertising campaign to show off the new mid-sized Kizashi, which will help elevate the brand's profile in the US.Suzuki has been battling speculation in the US and Japan about its demise in the US market amid a sharp slump in sales. In January, it sold just 2,040 cars and light trucks in the US, for a market share of 0.3 percent, according to research firm Autodata. In 2009, its sales amounted to 38,695, or 0.4 percent of the market and a drop of 54 percent from a year earlier, Autodata figures showed. Jeff Holland, director of communication for America Suzuki, said of the rumors: "I know there is a lot speculation but it's not based on facts." Speculation intensified after a senior Suzuki executive was quoted by the trade publication Automotive News as saying it was "difficult" to retail cars in the United States. Suggestions that Suzuki was thinking of pulling out of the US also escalated after General Motors bought out Suzuki's stake in the CAMMI joint venture in Ingersoll, Canada. Isuzu, another Japanese automaker, announced it was pulling out of the US in January 2008 as sales faltered. There also has been speculation that Mitsubishi might abandon the US in favor of selling cars in Russia and other potentially more lucrative market in the developing world. Brown, however, said Suzuki is working on moving image away from the emphasis on value that has characterized the company's approach to the market over the past 25 years. He said Suzuki will emphasize a sportier image that ties back to its other products such as motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and marine products that already appeal to younger more active buyers. The sporty look of the Karachi and the compact SX4 sedan as well as the Grand Vitara's off road appeal fit well into the strategy, he added. Suzuki's Equator pickup truck also fits nicely into a strategy that appeal to buyers of other types of Suzuki's recreational products such as motorcycles and ATVs. Brown noted Suzuki is a very successful car company in other parts of the world. He said it has 40 percent or more of the market in India and it also makes the single best-selling car in Japan. Suzuki has recently entered into a new alliance with Volkswagen AG, giving it new access to diesel powertrains, Brown said. Moreover, while Suzuki was hit by the recession, it was still profitable in 2009 and has now posted profits for more than 40 consecutive years.
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