Annual Meeting Remarks 1/10/07

01 / 10 / 2007

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When you put all of those forecasts together, they add to $1.438 billion plus or minus about $10 million. Currently, we're forecasting net earnings in the range of $94 to $98 million. The middle of the range, $96 million, would be an 18% increase. As you'll recall, we sold shares, in the early part of '06, so our average share count will creep up slightly in '07 and, on a per share basis, the midpoint of our range of $2.25 would be a 14% increase over the $1.97 of fiscal '06. If we achieve this projection, it will be our thirteenth consecutive year of positive growth in earnings per share. And, over that period, our compound growth rate would have been 17%.

In the Chairman's letter in the Annual Report, I talked about our twelve-year record of consistent growth in earnings per share. I described what we consider to be some of the key elements in our approach to managing our business. I talked about our development of a diverse multi-industry revenue base. Perhaps you get some appreciation for that from our presentations this morning. I described the effort in each segment to develop a coherent business strategy, which will allow us to direct our energies to specific market specialties wherein we can differentiate ourselves on the basis of our technology. I talked about the international focus of our Company, the fact that we have operations in 26 countries, that 42% of our revenues are generated outside the US, and that we're prepared to capitalize on market opportunities anywhere around the globe. But, I also mentioned that we consider the most important attribute of our Company to be the culture that unites and motivates our people.

It's a culture that's founded on integrity, honesty, and mutual trust. We presume that all our folks are telling the truth - to each other, to our suppliers, to our customers and, for that matter, to our shareholders.

Our culture values competence, whether you're a brilliant design engineer or an effective clerk in the accounting department, you'll be respected in our Company if you're good at what you do.

We expect extraordinary effort. What we make is not easy to make and you've got to work hard to get it right.

We emphasize individual responsibility for achieving outcomes, but, at the same time, ours is a team effort and we expect that folks will not only be willing to collaborate, but will make the effort to build the relationships that make collaboration natural and easy.

We encourage open communication. We want everyone to know what's going on.

We emphasize informality in our work environment. We encourage our employees to enjoy themselves at work and to maintain a healthy balance between their work life and their personal lives.

We believe that the culture of our Company is what attracts the best people. It's the reason that the best people stay. In this environment, we believe, they're able to do their best work. And, as time goes by, the way we treat each other within the Company and the way we treat our customers is increasingly recognized by our customers and is becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage.

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