Doing away with the legacy names of most of its operating businesses including AAI and Overwatch, these businesses have adopted the Textron Systems master brand and new functional identifiers, the head of Textron Systems said on May 14.
The rebranding took effect on May 2 and reflect “the fact that we are really tightly interwoven and working together, sharing talent, sharing channels, sharing customers, sharing capability,” Ellen Lord, president and CEO of Textron Systems, said at a media briefing in one of the company’s offices near the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. “We wanted to evolve to a master brand strategy.”
Textron Systems, one of five segments that make up Textron, Inc.
[TXT], had $1.7 billion in sales last year. The segment consists of nine businesses, including Lycoming Engines and the recently formed TRU Simulation + Training, which will retain their names.
The businesses being rebranded include the former AAI Corp., Overwatch Systems, Textron Defense Systems, and Textron Marine & Land Systems. AAI, which was acquired in 2007 and is best known for its Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), has new business identifiers: Unmanned Systems; Electronic Systems; and Support Solutions.
Overwatch, which provides intelligence analysis and security management tools, will operate at Geospatial Solutions and Advanced Information Solutions.
The former Textron Defense Systems, which makes the Sensor Fuzed Weapon, is now Weapon & Sensor Systems, while Textron Marine & Land Systems, known for its marine craft and wheeled combat vehicles, is now Marine & Land Systems.
A Textron Systems fact sheet says the rebranding “makes Textron Systems’ structure clearer to customers, business partners, suppliers and employers” and at the same time communicates its “agility and broad base of expertise.” The company has not changed the branding of its helicopter division, Bell Helicopter.
Textron Systems’ revenue drivers have been its UAS, wheeled vehicles and the anti-armor, air-to-ground Sensor Fuzed Weapon. Textron is forecasting 20 percent top line growth this year, mainly driven by a new variant of its Shadow system that is expected to begin deliveries to the Army in July or August. The system is currently in the midst of a three-week Follow-On Test & Evaluation at FortBliss in Texas, Lord said.
Currently just over 35 percent of Textron Systems’ business is with international customers and the company expects its split between domestic and international sales will be about 50-50 by 2016. That international growth will be fueled by the Unmanned Systems and Marine & Land Systems businesses.
The company is seeing interest in its UAS capabilities from smaller countries, particularly island nations near Australia and New Zealand, concerned about illegal fishing and other activities in their Exclusive Economic Zones, which extend 200 miles out from the shoreline. Lord said that Textron Systems is working with the United States’ Combatant Commands to show other countries the potential for UAS as a means to help monitor and protect their EEZs, adding that the company funded a demonstration that used its UAS systems combined with manned vessels to find illegal activity and provide video evidence “strong enough to stand up in court.”
Some of the other international opportunities for the company’s UAS family include border security, warfighting support, and infrastructure protection, such as monitoring oil and gas pipelines for multinational companies, Lord said. She sees the company’s unmanned business relatively flat over the next few years with the international business offsetting weaker domestic demand although there is “definite potential for upside.”
Under Lord, who became president of Textron Systems in the fall of 2012, the company has been embedding business development executives in countries and regions of the world where it sees opportunities to sell its products. She said that as the company progresses toward its goal of 50 percent international sales in the next two years, it is looking to expand its international hires, highlighting internship opportunities in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to drive diversity within the business, not as a social program but because it’s “good business.”