A Message to Woodward Shareholders
2024 WAS A REMARKABLE YEAR FOR WOODWARD. OUR TEAMS CONTINUE TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT, GUIDED BY OUR CORE VALUES AND OUR PURPOSE: TO DESIGN AND DELIVER ENERGY CONTROL SOLUTIONS OUR PARTNERS COUNT ON TO POWER A CLEAN FUTURE.
As a result of our members’ unwavering dedication to serving customers and meeting commitments, we delivered on sustained demand across our core markets with strong results, including:
- Revenue that exceeded $3 billion for the first time
- Record EPS
- Free Cash Flow increase of $100M compared to the prior year
- Aerospace sales that increased approximately 15% to record levels, with approximately 260 basis points of margin expansion compared to the prior year
- Record Industrial sales boosted by elevated sales in our China on-highway business, and continued strong performance from the rest of our Industrial business
In 2024, we made notable accomplishments across our shareholder value drivers of Growth, Operational Excellence, and Innovation. Here are a few highlights:
In Aerospace, despite industry-wide supply chain challenges, our team remained agile and adapted to changing conditions. We delivered on commercial and defense engine growth programs and prepared for aftermarket growth.
We celebrated the completion of our cutting-edge Loves Park facility, which will serve that growth. Moving into 2025, we are more than ready for services growth from LEAP and GTF engines.
In our Industrial segment, our diversified portfolio helped us deliver on strong demand across our power generation, oil & gas, and transportation markets. We continue to help our Industrial customers meet rigorous requirements for equipment efficiency, durability, and reliability, as they prepare for the overall growth and energy transition.
Sustaining Lean Momentum
We made significant progress on our lean transformation over the past year and will sustain that momentum as we strive to build predictable and consistent operating results.
Safety is our top priority. In fiscal 2024, we implemented Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) across several of our sites. We plan to extend this methodology to all locations over the next two years.
HOP also enhances our commitment to quality by fostering an environment where anyone can report an issue during operations.
We also continued to accelerate our automation journey. This will improve safety and quality, mitigate attrition, and enable us to transition members from repetitive, low-skill tasks to more skilled and fulfilling work.
During 2024, we made significant progress on our supplier simplification strategy. By reducing complexity and enhancing communication, we are empowering our suppliers to serve us and our customers more effectively.
Powering a Clean Future Through innovation
When it comes to Innovation, our R&D investment centers on addressing customer challenges and supporting their future ambitions.
In Aerospace, we are prioritizing technical maturity and shipset share growth for the next generation single aisle aircraft.
Last year we also completed a significant construction project at our Stuttgart Engineering Center to conduct hydrogen fuel cell component testing as part of our investment to design and deliver components for the Airbus ZEROe demonstrator. This work has potential for applications in both Aerospace and Industrial.
As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, our purpose and focus will continue to drive sustainable success and long-term shareholder value.
Thank you for investing in Woodward.
Chip Blankenship
Chairman, CEO and President
2024 was another excellent year for our Aerospace segment. We continued to deliver on strong customer demand across commercial and defense growth programs.
Our Loves Park maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility is now complete and represents the best in the industry in fuel systems maintenance and repair. We also announced MRO agreements with Lufthansa Technik, and Austrailian-based Alliance Airlines, and added Turkish Technic to our global licensed asset management provider (LAMP) network.
We installed multiple robot and co-bot modernized stations for deburring at our Rock Cut facility as well as Okuma machine tending as we realize continuous improvement.
Our Rapid Response Machining centers are another 2024 success story. They provide greater flexibility through capability to shift certain components in-house and alleviate sourced-part shortages or inefficiencies.
We continue to power a clean future for aerospace and are contributing to several key programs for the future of flight. Woodward was selected for the NASA and Boeing Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Demonstrator and JetZero Blended Wing Body Program.
Moving into 2025, our teams will continue to collaborate across our global Aerospace organization to fulfill our purpose, deliver on our customers’ rigorous requirements, meet our business commitments, and create value for our members, shareholders, and communities.
Around the world, our Industrial teams delivered strong results as we met demand across our power generation, oil & gas, and transportation markets.
In 2024, we made significant progress on our lean transformation. Our teams implemented value stream transformations and completed 24 kaizens. The results are showing up in factory flow, shorter lead times, safety and quality, reduced inventory, and higher customer satisfaction.
We made progress on product rationalization and on establishing our product management organization.
In addition, we broke ground on an expansion to our Glatten facility to meet growth in power generation and marine transportation markets.
Our teams set a clear strategy to expand our Industrial services business to deploy repair, overhaul, and upgrade capability. This will support customer investments and provide the highest quality reliable service around the globe.
Innovation in 2024 included engine certification for the High-Pressure Dual Fuel (HPDF) injector that enables Power-to-X fuel. Our investments in power management energy controls technologies are well-positioned to help customers integrate renewable energy sources and battery storage into existing grids and distributed energy systems.
Moving into 2025, our Industrial teams continue to tirelessly serve our customers, fulfill our purpose, and ensure Woodward is a great place to work.
Board of Directors
