CEO Confirms Earnings Estimates for 2000 and 2001

November 29, 2000

Providence, RI - November 29, 2000 - Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) today announced that it will detail its new strategic direction at meetings with analysts and investors over the next two days. It will also reaffirm its expectations for continued strong financial results.

Under the new strategy, the company will focus on leveraging the entire enterprise to create value beyond the sum of its individual business units. Major initiatives underway include supply chain management, e-business, shared services, and a value-adding corporate center to drive common processes.

Moreover, Textron will highlight return on invested capital (ROIC) as its central strategic financial target to drive continued strong earnings growth.

Finally, to achieve growth that continuously outpaces the market, Textron will focus on further building brand equity within its businesses, which already include such market-leading brands as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft and E-Z-GO (golf cars).

Textron will also refine its capital allocation process to focus on technology and product innovation as well as selective acquisition opportunities in high growth, high return areas. Such acquisitions could complement Textron's Greenlee business, a leader in electrical installation tools and cable/fiber optic test instruments.

"Consistent growth has been the hallmark of Textron's strategy over the past decade," said Textron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lewis B. Campbell. "We are now adding compelling to consistent as we drive value creation throughout our business. Our strategy is to deliver compelling underlying growth that outpaces GDP growth by further strengthening our brands and core competencies to gain market share.

"With ROIC as our compass for achieving compelling growth and returns, we will improve operating efficiency, drive costs out of our business and improve our overall capital allocation process. We will be intensely focused on basic blocking and tackling to achieve the operating efficiencies we are targeting," Campbell added.

Commenting on 2000 and 2001 earnings expectations, Campbell said, "Our financial outlook remains attractive. We expect to be able to deliver full-year 2000 earnings per share in the range of $4.65 to $4.68, before restructuring charges. Given the current North American automotive weakness, we expect to deliver at the lower-end of that range. We also continue to estimate that 2001 earnings per share will be up 13-15% before restructuring charges that may be taken in 2001."

The company also said it expects to achieve the following results through 2004:

  • Low double-digit annual earnings per share growth before restructuring charges,
  • 10-15% compounded annual growth rate for revenues, including organic growth of 5-8% per year,
  • Operating margin improvement to above 13% by 2004, and
  • Improvement in return on invested capital from 12.6% at year-end 1999 to over 15% by 2004.

Textron Inc. (www.textron.com) is an $11.6 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading businesses in Aircraft, Automotive, Industrial and Finance. Textron has a workforce of over 68,000 employees and major manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. Textron is among Fortune magazine's "Global Most Admired Companies" and Industry Week magazine's "Best Managed Companies."

Forward-looking Information: Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, including those that discuss strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; or project revenues, income, returns or other financial measures. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including the following: (a) the extent to which Textron is able to implement and complete restructuring activities (b) the extent which Textron is able to successfully integrate acquisitions, © changes in worldwide economic and political conditions and associated impact on interest and foreign exchange rates, (d) the occurrence of work stoppages and strikes at key facilities of Textron or Textron's customers or suppliers, (e) the extent to which the Company is able to successfully develop, introduce, and launch new products and enter new markets, (f) the level of government funding for Textron products, and (g) successful implementation of e-procurement strategies. For the Aircraft Segment: (a) the timing of certifications of new aircraft products (b) the occurrence of a severe downturn in the U.S. economy that discourages businesses from purchasing business jets and © final contract negotiations for foreign government programs. For the Automotive Segment: (a) the level of consumer demand for the vehicle models for which Textron supplies parts to automotive original equipment manufacturers ("OEM's") and (b) the ability to offset, through cost reductions, raw material price increases and pricing pressure brought by automotive OEM customers. For the Industrial Segment: (a) the ability of Textron Fastening Systems to offset, through cost reductions, pricing pressure brought by automotive OEM customers and (b) improved sales at OmniQuip. For the Finance Segment: (a) the level of sales of Textron products for which TFC offers financing and (b) the ability of TFC to maintain credit quality and control costs when entering new markets.

Connect with Textron IR

David Rosenberg, Vice President, Investor Relations
(401) 457-2288
Kyle Williams, Manager, Investor Relations
(401) 457-2288

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