So for those of you that don't know me, I'm Nicole DeBlase. I cover multi-industry, electrical equipment, and machinery groups here at DB. So next up, we have Oshkosh. Very pleased to introduce John Verich, who is Treasurer and SVP of Corporate Development. John's been with Oshkosh for over 20 years and in his current role for two years.
Yep.
For those of you that don't know John. And then we also have, who everyone knows, Pat Davidson, SVP-
Davidson.
Oh, my God, Davidson. It's been a long day, Pat.
Yeah.
I've only known you for what? 15 years now-
Yeah, yeah.
- ungefähr.
You braved the cold weather in Wisconsin to visit us, which we appreciate.
That's right, that's right.
Drove to tracks.
We drove JLTV. That was fun.
Yeah.
So, I think. Did you guys want to make a few opening remarks before we get started?
Yeah, if we could.
Okay.
We could.
Yeah, and then we'll go ahead and dive into the fireside chat from there.
All right, so we do have the forward-looking statement that was up there a minute ago. Of course, everything we say might change a little bit, but we're going to do our best to be as, you know, sort of clear and transparent as possible. Thanks for having us today. Those of you listening on the web, we do have some slides on our website. So, you know, we've got a lot of technology woven throughout our businesses. You can see the kind of key points here that we look to. Favorable market dynamics, I think a strong and resilient business that can perform in strong periods and when there's challenges.
And programmatic M&A is something that has come in with our CEO, John Pfeifer, over the last several years, and John Verich here with me today, will probably talk a little bit about that. We did announce a bolt-on acquisition two weeks ago, part of our access segment. It's a Spanish company called AUSA. They make some rough terrain forklifts, some dumpers, and some smaller telehandlers to complement our product line. But just to give you a little bit of background on us, we've got strong and number one position with our different brands and our products across the board. You know, this is kind of a fun slide here. A broad range of end markets, right?
We've got communications, construction, fire, emergency, defense, and in all these, it's sort of rough, tough applications for our equipment and you know, supporting the people that do the work that's most challenging. And if we can get them home safely, whether it's a construction worker, whether it's you know, troops out on the battlefield, whether it's you know, someone collecting garbage, which is a fairly dangerous profession, we want to make sure that our equipment is there, ready to go, and provides them with the uptime and the quality and reliability that they need. So, that said, there's a little bit of a highlight with AUSA. I would say we did report a strong first quarter, and raised our guidance.
With that as a backdrop, it's probably a good idea to turn it over to you, Nicole, for the Q&A.
Sure. Yeah, let's do it. So maybe let's just start with John. You're attending today because there's a bit of surprise. Mike Pack, who's Oshkosh's CFO, is transitioning to a new role, leading Vocational. I guess maybe can you guys give us some color on that decision and why Mike has decided to take on this new role?
Absolutely. So Mike spent about 8 years with the prior segment, was Fire and Emergency, which kind of forms the heart of our Vocational segment. Mike was the vice president of finance there. Back when he took the role, the margins were kind of 1%-2%. They were very low, and they took on the sort of 80/20 simplification approach, and over time instilled a lot of discipline and you know, kind of drove the business towards much higher margins. Really kind of low teens, probably 14%-15% by the time Mike became our CFO. So it's that success that he had with the Fire and Emergency segment that allowed him to become our CFO. He's very driven. He is very...
You know, he's kind of an operations pusher, if you will. Very much, I guess I'd say a motor head. He's down on the shop floor a lot, and he knows the people in the segment. He's got a very good reputation with them, and it's no secret that he was always a strong successor for that position. So Jim Johnson did a great job for us, retiring at the end of June. Mike will take over. There is a search has been initiated for his successor. Could be somebody internal, could be somebody external. It probably feels a little more like it'll be external, but we want to make sure we get the right person for the role.
Okay. In the meantime, Mike's still going to fulfill his CFO?
Yes. Yep. In fact, John and I were just talking with him, you know, before we came here yesterday. He's very strong, management by walking around right, and very active with things, so I think that'll be very effective in that vocational role.
Okay. And you're talking about how he's, like, a real pusher with margins when he was running or within Fire and Emergency. Do we kind of read that as there's a lot of margin opportunity within Vocational, and that's perhaps why he was the guy to take the role?
I would say that, yeah, there is great opportunity there, and, you know, we know with our throughput, we're looking to increase that. We've got a strong backlog with a lot of pricing in it.
Mm-hmm.
We certainly, you know, during the, you know, kind of, early days of COVID and following, in 2021 and early 2022, when inflation was very, you know, elevated, we raised prices, and, there's a lot of that pricing is in the backlog and, and kind of you know, working its way through. But anything that we can do to, you know, increase the velocity that it flows through, frankly, will be, you know, you know, right, part of our performance. So kind of better performance faster.
Okay. Okay, makes sense. We'll return to Vocational a little bit later. I want to talk about Access first... So I guess, where do you guys think we are in the equipment rental CapEx cycle? Like, I hear a lot of concern from investors that-
I might ask you that same question. Where are we, right?
At last, you are right. Look at them here.
Yes.
I guess, you know, the concern is we're nearing a peak, but you've got all this stimulus activity that's maybe still kind of ramping up into next year. So I guess, like, if you guys were to look at your own analysis of replacement or what you're hearing from your customers, are there any signs of slowing or still really good?
So demand is very strong. You know, it was maybe white-hot a year ago. It's still very strong today. So, you know, in relative terms, has it come down? Yeah, it has a bit, as we and other OEs are, you know, delivering equipment. But, you know, we're not seeing any signs of defleeting. We're not seeing any of the, you know, indications that would say, "Hey, there's some kind of weakness there." Again, I think we're seeing more normal kind of environment, more normalizing. We were, I think, very direct on our earnings call. We talked about orders, where we expected lower orders in the first half and really the first probably three quarters of 2024, because basically 2024 is already in backlog for access, right?
So, if we look at 2025, we expect really probably the fourth quarter when those orders start to flow through. So, you know, for everybody listening today or everybody in the room, you know, we do expect lower orders in the June quarter and September quarter, but that's because 2024 is already in the books and, you know, 2025 is what our customers are looking at. I would say we're biased positive. When we look at 2025, it's too early to call, and we're not guiding yet. However, you know, could it be up a little bit? Could it be down a little bit? It doesn't feel like it would be extreme, either up or down.
Okay.
We're certainly going to manage the business to drive good performance as best we can.
Okay. And part of that order pattern is kind of just returning to normal seasonality-
Right.
As well, right?
Yep.
Okay.
The normal seasonality. Generally, December and March tend to be the book-to-bill ratio quarters greater than one.
Right.
June and September, generally, we're shipping a lot, not taking a lot of orders. Those, those book-to-bill ratios are lower than one.
Sure. Okay, got it. Let's talk about capacity in the industry. This is another concern I hear from investors quite a bit, is several access industry participants are in the process of adding capacity, and you guys are doing some of that as well.
Mm-hmm.
I guess we've heard concerns. Could this be happening at peak? Could it put pressure on industry pricing? Does it have the potential to kind of create challenges in the years to come? What? I'm sure you guys get that question a lot. Like, what's your response?
Our brands, JLG and SkyTrak, are, frankly, the strongest brands in North America, and demand is, you know, stronger than supply. Everything we make, we can sell.
Mm.
Right? So, we are in the purpose of repurposing a facility in Jefferson City, Tennessee. It has been doing defense weldments and fabrications. The defense segment is moving out of that facility, and it's gonna be doing telehandler manufacturing. You know, and, you know, at some point in time, there will be a cycle, right? We will see some weakness. But when we're looking out over the next five and 10 years, you know, we know that telehandler capacity will be higher, demand will be higher, and we want to be the ones to supply that. So, you know, we get a look at virtually every deal that's out there.
And again, with our strong brands, you know, we want to make sure that we're strong in the marketplace and, you know, earn and retain our fair share, and then some.
Okay. I guess same question with the contract that you guys have with Caterpillar that is expiring at the end of this year.
Mm-hmm.
I think there's questions around what's going to happen with that. You feel that with that capacity, if it were to come out, you could fill that with-
We can utilize that capacity for JLG or SkyTrak brand telehandlers, yes.
Okay. Not a problem-
No
-selling every unit. Okay, got it. Perfect. So also, as you talk to access customers, are you seeing any discernible difference in the level of demand for NRCs versus IRCs? Like, anything interesting happening from a mix perspective?
Yeah, good question. It's really strong across the board, both independents and national rental companies. In fact, you know, we mentioned on our first quarter earnings call that one of the national rental companies, you know, kind of getting to your comment and ours on normal seasonality coming in, you know, they had some orders that were expected to be delivered in February, March, and they said: "You know, we really want these in the spring when we can put them to work, you know, so that they're not kind of sitting around in the wintertime, not being put to good use." So that did create, frankly, a situation where there was, you know, greater shipments for independent rentals in Q1. We expect that to, you know, kind of reverse here in the second quarter.
Generally, the second and third quarters tend to be a little higher for national rental company shipments versus independent. But across the board, you know, the independents are strong, as are the nationals in terms of, you know, equipment and what they're looking for.
Okay. Okay, got it. The one weak spot in access has been Europe. I guess, are you guys seeing signs of a bottom or any signs of green shoots there, or still kind of weak?
Yeah, with Europe, you're correct. North America's been strong. Europe's been a little bit soft. I don't know that it's getting softer, but it's been soft for a little while now. John, do you have any thoughts on, you know, with AUSA, the acquisition there? I think their business and Hinowa, that, you know, Northern Italy there, you know, I think both of them have had fairly strong domestic demand, but...
Yeah, certainly, a little softness in Europe, but what we like about the acquisitions is the opportunity we have here in North America to leverage our existing distribution channel... and really amplify their sales that they've done in the U.S. historically, by, you know, leveraging our channel.
I guess since you brought it up, I wanted to talk about AUSA. Like, what—what attracted you to the business? And I guess, like from a product perspective, what are they bringing to the portfolio?
Yeah. So, part of our strategy for Access is to continue to diversify the portfolio, and number one, that helps us build resilience into the business, because as we all know, there are some ups and downs in the traditional AWP and telehandler business. So what we're looking to do is really expand into a couple different areas. One is agriculture, leveraging our products in that space, but also specialty applications, specialty construction equipment-
Mm-hmm.
Specialty vocational applications, such as vegetation management and things like that. If you look at both Hinowa and AUSA, they, they really fit that specialty equipment category. And when you, when you line up all of their products together, they complement each other.
Mm-hmm.
When you line them up against JLG's existing products, they also complement those. It really gives us the opportunity to further expand our product offering, and again, number one, leverage that distribution channel back here in the U.S.
Mm-hmm. Because they don't have a ton of sales in the U.S., right?
Right. Right.
Okay. Okay. Got it. And then I know it's really small for you guys, but anything on what you're seeing in China?
China, for us, is an access market about the same as it has been. It's kind of bifurcated. You've got, you know, locally made, generally, you know, lower price, lower feature versus some of the, you know, Western brands that come in higher quality, higher reliability. So, we have a very strong facility in Tianjin, China, that supplies some of our international markets. But for us, in terms of sales in the Chinese AWP market, no real changes.
Okay. Okay, I figured as much. Margins in Access were really strong-
Mm-hmm.
In the first quarter, 17%, but you guys have embedded, you know, sequential margin contraction through the rest of the year in your guidance. I guess, can we just talk through, you know, could that be maybe some Oshkosh conservatism versus the factors driving a step down from the 1Q performance?
So I mentioned the national rental company and independent rental company mix.
Yeah.
That was a big contributor to a really very strong Q1.
Okay.
So as that reverses, you know, we'll feel a little bit of that in the second quarter, and, you know, that's a little bit of a drag. I would say that we are increasing our new product development spend, and, you know, that impacts the margin in the second, third, and fourth quarters. There's one other driver here, losing my train of thought a little bit on it. Those are two of the big ones, I think. Really, the NRC, IRC mix.
The price cost not, right?
Price cost is positive. You know, we've had some benefits from freight.
Yeah.
But price cost itself is kinda neutral to probably slightly positive.
For the full year?
Yeah.
Each quarter.
Yeah.
Did you cover NPD spending?
I did.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know what we're forgetting there. Those seem like the big ones anyway.
Yeah. I thought there was one more. If I can remember it before the end, we'll-
We'll come back to that. Okay. Let's maybe talk about defense for a little bit. So maybe you could refresh us on the path of JLTV ramping down versus the NGDV ramping up. And I guess, like, what is the impact from a revenue perspective as we look at, like, 2024 versus 2025?
Sure, sure. So JLTV, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, this is a program that we won back in 2015. You know, we always knew it would be recompeted. We did not win the recompete, and to have won it, we basically would have either lost money, maybe broken even. So it's not an attractive program for us. As we exit that here in 2024, the revenue in 2024, we're expecting somewhere a little more than $700 million contribution from that. The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, or NGDV, and we'll talk a lot about that, I'm sure, for the U.S. Postal Service. That will be ramping from quarter one, two, three, and four in 2025. So it should be a little north of $700 million.
It actually should kind of, you know, fill that hole a bit.
Got it.
You know, kind of really nicely.
And I-
At a little stronger margin.
Yeah, I was gonna say. Does that... That helps the margin mix.
Yeah, a little higher margin for the NGDV. NGDV into 2026, frankly, should be, we're looking at more than $1 billion in that year, and, a little bit higher margin as well.
That's where you'll be at run rate, right?
Yes.
Okay.
Yep.
Okay, got it. Just maybe stepping back and thinking about the margins within defense, they've been low for a few years now. You've had a lot of these annoying cumulative contract adjustments.
Mm-hmm.
Do you guys see, if you kind of look out over many years, a path back to, like, a high single-digit margin within defense?
Yeah, we do. We really do. So with 2024, where we are now, there are some tactical wheeled vehicle contracts that we won before the inflation of the pandemic, right? They don't have robust EPAs, and, you know, we're kind of living with higher input costs, but fixed prices. You know, a lot of defense companies have had that issue, right?
Yeah.
Where contracts that were, you know, many years in duration, but didn't have the assumptions of much higher inflation that came following the pandemic. So, these, the contracts, FMTV and FHTV, we're working with the DoD now, and over the next probably year, year and a half or so, we expect those to be completed. And we should start to see some improved performance on the margin side in the back half of 2025, and then continue more so in 2026 when both programs have new contracts with, you know, I think a little more effective economic price adjustments as well as, you know, pricing that's you know, built off of current costs, not costs from 2019 with older expectations.
Right. Yeah, that makes sense. And you guys are like, there's no risk of losing FMTV, FHTV, right?
We're negotiating with them right now for sole source. We've-
Got it.
FMTV 2 is one that we supply. You know, in the future, you know, things could change, but over the next, you know, time horizon, next 3-4 years, it'll be a sole source contract with us.
Okay. Okay, perfect. And then I guess any other major developments that you'd highlight with defense programs? I know that you've been talking about wanting to get into more of, like, the combat part of DoD. What, what's the status with that? Like, any new developments?
Yeah, so there is a program called Robotic Combat Vehicle, and we're one of the finalists there. I believe there's four. And there's going to be a down select in the next, I believe, six to nine months or so, give or take a little bit, where they will down select to two, and eventually it will become a winner. That's several years out until it's revenue, probably 2026-2027 timeframe in there. I could find out the exact date if anybody's interested. I just don't recall right now. You know, it's a program that could be, you know, kind of $1 billion, maybe $1.5 billion, depending-
Right
... on kind of where the quantities go, and that would be over several years. But it's a nice contract and would leverage some of the strengths we have with our Pratt Miller subsidiary, which is part of our defense segment.
Right. And so isn't the idea that some of these combat programs would probably come with higher margin as well?
Yes. Yeah.
Okay.
Yep. Tactical wheeled vehicles generally have been lower margin and, you know, the military, the DoD is, you know, kind of focused in some other areas in terms of funding.
Mm-hmm.
That's where there's better revenue opportunities, as well as better margin opportunities.
Okay. Okay, got it. And then, last mile. So now that you've gotten in with the USPS and produced this amazing vehicle that they're excited about, how big of an opportunity could last mile be, and how focused are you guys on that relative to what you're doing with DoD?
Yeah, so last mile delivery, very attractive. Of course, we need to make sure we execute the U.S. Postal Next Generation-
Yeah
... Delivery Vehicle, or NGDV. We have been ramping that very slow. We're building this year units. We have started to ship some of the internal combustion engine units to the Postal Service here in June. We'll ship some battery electric units later this summer, maybe early fall. And this program essentially replaces all the old Grumman LLV units, which were built back in the 1980s, right? So, they're slow, inefficient, they've put a lot of maintenance and repair dollars into them-
Yeah
... and they need to be replaced. There's no air conditioning. They don't get very good fuel mileage. So what the Postal Service has done is, we won the competition to supply that Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, for quantity, up to 165,000 units. It's a 10-year contract, and, initially, the indication by the Postal Service was about 10% battery electric, 90% internal combustion or ICE. They did get some funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. They got $3 billion for, electric charging infrastructure, as well as ordering a higher percentage of battery electric. So that 10% number, went up to 75% on the initial order, and that's great. We will be, you know, building those out over the next several years.
You know, the reason I bring this up, we want to execute on this program extremely well, and, you know, we need to focus on the things we can control and do that first and look at other opportunities as they come. And we are talking with the other last mile delivery, you know, commercial, I guess, participants, the names that we all recognize. You know, there's, I think with the, you know, the recent sort of challenges with some of the startup companies, you know, there's certainly the customers and the suppliers are kind of reevaluating, you know, where things are in terms of what they're looking for.
Mm-hmm.
Because, you know, there's sort of a mindset of everything has to be electric. Well, you know, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. We certainly can do either or, but it is a very attractive, you know, sort of business opportunity for us, and we think that our Next Generation Delivery Vehicle is a strong, you know, indicator of what we can do in that space. We would have to do some modifications. We can't just take the NGDV and-
With everyone.
Right. Right. So, but that's fine. We wouldn't expect to. That iconic vehicle and that iconic look, it's postal service, and you're going to start to see it, you know, in neighborhoods all across the U.S. and over the next couple of years, so.
Okay. Okay, got it. So maybe let's spend the last 10 minutes or so talking about vocational and maybe some capital allocation stuff too. So, on vocational, how would you describe current customer trends within fire and emergency and refuse? I guess, you know, the backlog is really long in fire and emergency.
Right.
Is the new order activity and what you're hearing from customers still also very positive?
Demand remains strong, however, you know, backlogs are extensive, and-
Yeah
And that can sometimes be a little bit of a, you know, a suppressant on, on enthusiasm and vim and vigor. So, you know, it's really incumbent upon us to continue to drive improvements in our throughput and, you know, kind of work into that backlog and bring that down. Normally, cities and towns in the United States, and there's about 32,000-33,000 cities that will have, you know, fire stations and such. You know, they, the lead time is maybe 6, 9, 12 months, right? And it kind of lends itself well, because oftentimes for custom fire trucks, there are modifications, and firefighters might come in midway through the build and ask for some changes, right?
We want to make the vehicle they're looking for, and that complexity, you know, managing that complexity and managing it effectively is part of, you know, us being a leader in driving success. But it kind of comes at the price of longer lead times. So, we want to get through that so that, you know, a lead time of 2-3 years, which is unrealistic, isn't the new norm. We need to knock that down so that it's something more manageable.
Makes sense. Refuse demand, still?
It's very strong. In particular, you know, we haven't really talked much about electrification, and I was going to mention that earlier on. But, you know, the themes and the trends that we see with electrification, you know, they don't have to be everything electric overnight.
Mm.
Over the next 3, 5, 7, 10 years for us, it's a very strong business, whether it's the NGDV for US Postal, whether it's an electric Volterra ZSL refuse collection vehicle, our Volterra fire truck, and even AeroTech, which we should probably talk a little bit about. They're-- you know, the airports are going battery, electric, and zero emission. So AeroTech is our acquisition that we closed on last August, and great business and there's some lead-acid battery applications now, but there can certainly be more on the lithium-ion side. Let me just mention on Volterra ZSL, it's really a productivity vehicle, so it's purpose-built. It's a integrated chassis, custom chassis by Oshkosh, built from the ground up.
You know, we've got a large customer of ours out west is running two of the units in Arizona. This is fully electric, and it's actually very—it's designed ergonomically as well for, you know, the 5th to 95th percentile in terms of both male and female in sizes and such. The drivers are very happy. One of the things that the refuse collection companies look at is they do have high turnover with their drivers, and if they can have stronger retention, you know, that's better for them and their operations. So with an electric refuse collection vehicle that has higher productivity, and frankly, it's a better working environment for the drivers, you know, the waste collection companies are very happy.
We're starting to ramp these up over the next year or so in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as part of our vocational segment. It's a, it's a real big, long-term opportunity for us.
Are you actually hearing a lot of customer interest in refuse and like, the refuse and the fire and emergency electric vehicles?
We do. I would say it's probably a little stronger in refuse collection.
Okay.
You know, for fire departments, you know, maybe some of the coastal cities or more progressive cities, if they want to, you know, be zero emissions and really kind of, you know, you know, carry that flag, you know, they're interested in electric. You know, firefighters want great technology. They want to be able to, you know, respond in any situation, especially if it's a fire, and get their job done. If we can provide them with the tools that do that, they're going to be happy. You know, obviously, for many years it's been an internal combustion engine, but you're seeing battery electric, and I think it'll be a little slower adoption rate. I think refuse collection will go a little bit faster.
Okay. Okay, makes sense. And then you mentioned AeroTech, Pat. Seems like you guys have been really happy with the acquisition so far.
Yeah.
How's it going? How is the business growing organically? Like, can you give us a sense?
Yeah, yeah. John, you want me to turn that over to you, or...?
Go for it.
Yeah, with AeroTech, you know, we're very happy with the integration progress. You know, the synergies that we've committed to aren't overly heroic, if you will. We're looking at about $20 million in year three, and that's on a $700 million-plus business. We're already at double-digit adjusted operating income margins. There's strong demand. They're the market leader in jet bridges and ground service equipment at the airport. So any of you that maybe came in on a flight, hopefully it was a Jetway brand, which is the brand that AeroTech has. They've got about 70% market share in North America.
Mm.
You're seeing airport upgrades, you know, everywhere, right?
Yeah.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City just announced. We were talking with an investor from Omaha, not, not Berkshire Hathaway, but somebody else, and they, they mentioned the new Omaha airport, right? So, the opportunities are out there, whether it's electrification or not, the, you know, air passenger traffic, air cargo. Again, even though the pandemic put a kink in things-
Yeah
... if you look back historically, these are nice, kind of steady growing numbers and, you know, people are traveling and they're going to continue to travel.
Mm-hmm.
You need these airport upgrades, you need bags handled, you need, you know, docking time. So when an airplane comes in, you know, we've all been on the plane when it's landed, and it takes them a while to maybe get the door open and have the jet bridge there. And, you know, looking at using autonomous functionality and technology to get that jet bridge closer and do it faster and save the airlines time. So they tell us that, you know, faster in and out, and as soon as they can get that door open, it's better for their productivity and their turnaround and their customer relations.
Okay.
So it's real strong.
Yeah, that makes sense. And wouldn't that business also be able to take advantage of some of the stimulus funding that's going towards airport infrastructure, or would that not apply to AeroTech?
I think they benefited to some extent. I'm not certain how specific.
Yeah.
But I would say that when, if there's airport improvements going on, chances are we're gonna probably be selling some additional equipment-
Right
whether it's fixed in place like a jet bridge, or if it's, you know, on wheels and mobile and moving around. Let me give one more comment, and that is, aircraft rescue firefighting units, or aircraft, ARFF units. These are the large, generally yellow, emergency response vehicles you see at the airport. You don't wanna see it coming towards your plane, right, with the flashers. You wanna see it parked. And, we've got a zero-emission battery electric unit that has, you know, won some pretty big contracts already. There's a brand-new airport coming up to speed in 2026 in Sydney, Australia.
Mm-hmm.
Paris's third airport, our CEO, John Pfeifer, mentioned this on our last earnings call. The airport in Paris has ordered four of these units, actually.
Wow!
And, you know, for us to have sales into continental Europe has been kind of a big deal because in general, you know, there's you know, more home-based manufacturers that have an advantage. So
Yeah
Us coming in as the, you know, American company from the outside, we really got to have a strong product to win that. But we're very excited about, again, these zero-emission vehicles, 'cause airports, they wanna be leaders in reducing their carbon footprint. So, it's a real strong offering for us—from us, and I think you're gonna see more of it.
Very exciting stuff.
So.
I didn't ask the audience. Are there any questions out there? Oh, we got one here.
Yeah, thanks, thanks for your time and the comments. I guess my question would be going back to defense and now looking at Europe, you guys expanding into Europe. You know, European softness aside, it seems like there is a real concerted effort to build up their militaries. Are you seeing an opportunity to maybe expand the defense business into Europe with a more, you know, compelling presence?
There's definitely demand for equipment, as you say, and certainly for NATO countries to increase their spending to the 2%. You know, in some of the NATO countries, if there's a home manufacturer, it's generally more nationalistic, and it's probably not gonna be us. But in countries where, you know, there might not be a manufacturer that competes with some of the defense vehicles that we make, and we've had some good success in Belgium, for example. Certainly, you know, outside of NATO, in the Middle East with Israel, any U.S. allies, we've seen increased inquiries as well.
I would say that, NATO countries, you know, there's a number of, Eastern European countries, NATO, and obviously with Russia-Ukraine war, that there's been interest there, and we have had some increased shipments. I would say that the domestic U.S. Department of Defense, whether it's Army or the Marine Corps, tend to be a much larger customers, though, in terms of the sort of impact our performance. So, yep.
Maybe I'll end with one last one, which is capital allocation. You guys have been really active on the M&A front in the past few years, much more than you have historically. So I guess, is the M&A pipeline still active? Should we expect more of this, like, bolt-on?
Yeah, I'd sort of refer you back to our 2022 Investor Day, where we sort of pivoted from a capital allocation priority perspective. Number one, we want to maintain a strong balance sheet. We want to invest in the business. But historically, you know, leading up to that point, we were very heavy on share repurchases.
Mm-hmm
... in terms of a capital allocation lever. But really, since that point, we've been really focused on growth investment. So we'll continue to invest in the business through CapEx and NPD, but also want to continue to look at programmatic M&A. You know, things like AUSA, things like Hinowa, things like Pratt Miller. I don't think you'll expect us to do anything, you know, transformational, but as you look at, you know, the capital we generate over time, we're looking to deploy, you know, upwards of 30% plus of that to programmatic M&A.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we look at a lot of different opportunities over the course of the year. It's a low-percentage business. You know, we just hit one, you know, a few weeks ago, as Pat mentioned, as we talked about, and we'll just continue to do that.
Awesome. Well, thanks, John. Thanks, Pat Davidson, for-
Thanks, Nicole DeBlase. Great to see you. Thanks, everyone.
Thank you.