OSHKOSH, WIS. (September 13, 2006) – Oshkosh Truck Corporation [NYSE: OSK], a leading manufacturer of specialty trucks and truck bodies, announced that the company has received the “Large Employer of the Year” award from the American Legion for its practice of hiring veterans. Because of veterans’ valuable experience gained during military service, Oshkosh Truck often directly targets its recruiting efforts, for openings in all business units, toward veterans who have recently left the military and are looking for their next career opportunity.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman, along with DWD’s Bruce Markert, American Legion State Employment Chairman, presented Oshkosh Truck with the award to recognize their efforts during a ceremony held at the Oshkosh Truck headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Oshkosh Truck Corporation currently employs 2,300 people on its Oshkosh campus. Twenty of those individuals are disabled veterans. Of the 500 employees most recently hired by Oshkosh, there were 28 veterans, 7 disabled veterans, and 3 Vietnam veterans added to the company’s workforce.
“I am honored to present Oshkosh Truck with the “Large Employer of the Year” award for providing employment opportunities for veterans,” said Secretary Gassman. “This recognition honors the hard work of Oshkosh Truck to open employment doors to veterans. As one of the major employers in Wisconsin, the hiring practices at Oshkosh set a great example for other employers throughout the state.”
“Oshkosh Truck looks for skilled, hard-working professionals who will bring value to our corporate culture of consistently delivering exceptional products and services to our customers. We proactively recruit veterans and have been successful in bringing many exceptional individuals into the organization by providing challenging and rewarding job opportunities,” said Michael Rohrkaste, Oshkosh’s vice president of human resources.
Oshkosh Truck was nominated for the award by the Oshkosh Area Workforce Development Center, which works closely with Oshkosh Truck to help develop and maintain the well-trained workforce at the Oshkosh Truck facilities. Recent expansion by the company has spurred additional hiring, including employing more military veterans.
About Oshkosh Truck Corporation
Oshkosh Truck Corporation is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialty commercial, fire and emergency and military trucks and truck bodies. Oshkosh’s products are valued worldwide by fire and emergency units, defense forces, municipal and airport support services, and concrete placement and refuse businesses where high quality, superior performance, rugged reliability and long-term value are paramount.
For more information about Oshkosh Truck Corporation, log onto the company web site at www.oshkoshtruckcorporation.com.
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, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include the Company’s ability to continue the turnaround of its Geesink Norba Group business, the cyclical nature of the Company’s commercial and fire and emergency markets, risks related to reductions in government expenditures, the uncertainty of government contracts, the availability of defense truck carcasses for remanufacturing, the challenges of identifying acquisition candidates and integrating acquired businesses, risks associated with the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system at McNeilus®; the success of the RevolutionÒ composite concrete mixer drum, the availability of commercial chassis and certain chassis components including engines, and risks associated with international operations and sales, including foreign currency fluctuations. In addition, the Company’s expectations for fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007 are based in part on certain assumptions made by the Company, including without limitation those relating to the Company’s ability to continue the turnaround of the business of the Geesink Norba Group sufficiently to support its current valuation resulting in no non-cash impairment charge for Geesink Norba Group goodwill; the Company’s ability to sustain flat operating income in the commercial segment and to raise operating income in its fire and emergency segment in fiscal 2007 despite anticipated lower industry demand resulting from changes to diesel engine emissions standards effective January 1, 2007; the Company’s estimates for the level of concrete placement activity, housing starts and mortgage rates; the performance of the U.S. and European economies generally; the Company’s expectations as to timing of receipt of sales orders and payments and execution and funding of defense contracts; the Company’s ability to achieve cost reductions and operating efficiencies, in particular at McNeilus and the Geesink Norba Group; the anticipated level of production and margins associated with the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles contract, the Indefinite Demand/Indefinite Quantity truck remanufacturing contract, the MTVR follow-on contract and international defense truck contracts; the expected level of U.S. Department of Defense procurement of replacement parts and services and funding thereof; the Company’s estimates for capital expenditures of municipalities for fire and emergency and refuse products, of airports for aircraft rescue and snow removal products and of large commercial waste haulers generally and with the Company; federal funding levels for U.S. Department of Homeland Security and spending by governmental entities on homeland security apparatus; the availability of chassis components including engines and commercial chassis generally; the Company’s planned spending on product development and bid and proposal activities with respect to defense truck procurement competitions and the outcome of such competitions; the expected level of commercial “package” body and purchased chassis sales compared to “body only” sales; the Company’s ability to integrate acquired businesses and achieve expected synergies; the Company’s ability to close the Iowa Mold Tooling acquisition; the Company’s estimates of the impact of changing fuel prices and credit availability on capital spending of towing operators; anticipated levels of capital expenditures; the Company’s estimates for costs relating to litigation, acquisition investigation, product warranty, insurance, stock options and restricted stock awards, personnel and raw materials; the Company’s ability to negotiate expiring union contracts on a satisfactory basis; the Company’s estimates for debt levels, interest rates, working capital needs and effective tax rates; and that the Company does not complete any further acquisitions other than AK Specialty Vehicles and Iowa Mold Tooling. Additional information concerning
