As Providence, R.I.-based Textron labors to reduce its debt and the size of Textron Financial (its unprofitable financial arm) it is looking to its other businesses– Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, Textron Systems, and those in its industrial group–to bring the parent corporation back on the road to profitability. Layoffs across the entire corporation have affected some 10,000 people (23 percent of total employees) with 275 laid off at the corporate level (40 percent of them). The corporation’s estimate for total revenue for this year is $10.6 billion.
Last year its total revenue was $14.24 billion and in 2007 it was $12.615 billion.
Textron Financial constitutes 4 percent of Textron’s current business, while Cessna provides 31 percent, Bell 27 percent, Textron Systems 19 percent and its industrial group the other 19 percent. The industrial segment includes E-Z-Go (golf carts), Jacobsen (lawn mowers for golf courses), Greenlee (tools for the woodworking and electrical industries) and Kautex (plastic gas tanks and other products for automobiles). Of these, only Cessna is exhibiting at NBAA. However, the Wichita builder of light and business airplanes decided this year, as a cost-cutting measure, to forgo its typically large booth in the exhibit hall and concentrate its efforts at the static display of aircraft at Orlando Executive Airport.
