To the 2016 annual meeting of the shareholders of Oshkosh Corporation. I'm Dick Donnelly, Director and Chairman of the Board, and this meeting is now called to order. Joining me today are the other directors of Oshkosh Corporation, as well as the company's executive officers. I would like to introduce the other directors at this time and thank them, each one of them personally and on behalf of the shareholders, for their support and service as a director to Oshkosh Corporation. Would each of you please stand as you're introduced? Keith Allman, who is President and Chief Executive Officer of Masco Corporation. Peter Hamilton, who is the retired Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Brunswick Corporation. Wilson Jones, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Oshkosh Corporation. Leslie Kenne, who is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General.
Stephen Mizell, who is the Executive Vice President, Human Resources of Monsanto Company. Stephen Newlin, who is the Executive Chairman of the Board of PolyOne Corporation. Craig Omtvedt, who is the retired Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Fortune Brands. Duncan Palmer, who is the Chief Financial Officer of Cushman & Wakefield. John Shiely, who is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Briggs & Stratton Corporation. Dick Sim, who is the retired Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of APW Limited. Dick is unable to be with us this morning. And William Wallace, who is a retired Commanding General of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. Thank you to all of you. Kathy Hempel, retired Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer of Fort Howard Corporation, has served on our board since 1997.
She is not standing for reelection and is not here today, but I would like to publicly recognize her many years of service and tremendous contributions to Oshkosh and our board. Sitting next to me is Ignacio Cortina, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of the company. Here today are James Stewart and Scott Robl of Deloitte & Touche, the company's independent public accountants, and Gary Farrar, the company's independent inspector of elections. The inspector has taken the oath of office, which I direct to be filed with the minutes of this meeting.
In accordance with the notice of the annual meeting of shareholders, this meeting is being held for the following purposes: one, to elect 12 directors; two, to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2016; three, to consider an advisory vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers; four, to consider a shareholder proposal regarding proxy access; and five, to consider and act upon such other business as may properly come before this meeting. Ignacio, please report on the mailing of the notice and attendance at this meeting.
Thank you, Dick. Notice of this meeting was mailed on December 15th, 2015, to all shareholders of record at the close of business on December 11th, 2015, the record date set by the board of directors for this meeting. I have an affidavit signed and sworn to by a representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions as to the mailing. I will include the notice of annual meeting of shareholders and the affidavit as to its mailing as part of the minutes of this meeting. There are persons present here today holding shares or proxies representing greater than a majority of the shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of the December 11th, 2015, record date. I therefore deem there to be a quorum present, subject to the certification by the independent inspector of elections. Mr. Chairman, this meeting is lawfully convened.
Thank you, Ignacio. If you are a shareholder of record and wish to vote your shares in person, the polls are open, and you may obtain a ballot now from the inspector of elections at the table in the back of the room.
If anyone is voting on the authority of a legal proxy, please note that fact on the ballot. You should give both the proxy and the ballot to the inspector of elections. Shareholders who have already voted by proxy, including over the internet or by phone, do not need to complete a ballot.
The first item of business to come before this meeting is the election of directors for terms to expire at the 2017 annual meeting. Ignacio, will you please read the names of the board of director nominees to be voted on by the shareholders?
The names of the board of director nominees are Keith Allman, Richard Donnelly, Peter Hamilton, Wilson Jones, Leslie Kenne, Stephen Mizell, Stephen Newlin, Craig Omtvedt, Duncan Palmer, John Shiely, Richard Sim, and William Wallace. The board statement in support of its nominees is on pages 10 through 19 of the company's proxy statement.
Thank you, Ignacio. The nominations are closed. Are there any questions on this item of business? There being no further discussion, we will proceed to the vote.
Properly marked ballots cast today with the inspector of elections will be included in the official final tabulations. I currently hold proxies for at least 56.8 million shares of common stock, authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for the election of each of the named nominees as directors, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note for the record that shares representing at least 90% of the common stock voting today were voted for each of the nominees or directors set forth in the proxy statement for this meeting.
Thank you. In accordance with the bylaws, I declare each of the nominees elected to the company's board of directors for a term to expire at the 2017 annual meeting. The second item of business to come before this meeting is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2016.
The board statement in support of this proposal is on pages 27 through 28 of the company's proxy statement. I currently hold proxies for at least 67.7 million shares of common stock, authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2016, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note that for the record, the shares representing over 99% of the common stock voting today were voted in favor of the proposal ratifying the appointment of Deloitte & Touche.
This proposal is approved. The third item of business to come before this meeting is the consideration of a resolution to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of our executive officers named on page 43 of the proxy statement.
The board statement in support of this resolution is on pages 57 through 58 of the proxy statement. I hold proxies for at least 62.1 million shares of common stock, authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for this resolution, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note for the record that shares representing over 98% of the common stock voting today were voted in favor of this resolution.
The resolution is approved. The fourth item of business to come before this meeting is to consider a shareholder proposal included in the proxy statement for this meeting regarding proxy access. I would like to recognize Ms. Lee Splitt, the proxy holder of the sponsor of the proposal, who may now introduce this proposal and make a brief statement. Ms. Split? Need a mic, please, turned on?
I mean, just yell? There we go. Proposal four, proxy access for shareholders. This proposal is sponsored by John Chevedden, Redondo Beach, California. Shareholders ask the board of directors to adopt and present for shareholder approval, if necessary, a proxy access for shareholders' bylaw as detailed in the proxy statement. The topic of this proposal, the right of shareholders to nominate director candidates at a reasonable cost, is fundamental to good corporate governance and director accountability. Long-term shareholders should have a meaningful voice in nominating and electing directors. The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute performed a cost-benefit analysis and found that proxy access for shareholders has the potential to enhance board performance, increasing U.S. market capitalization by up to $140 billion, would benefit both the markets and corporate boardrooms with little cost or disruption. Please vote to enhance shareholder value. Proxy access for shareholders, proposal four. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Split. We will proceed to a vote.
The board's response opposing this proposal is on pages 60-62 of the proxy statement. I hold proxies for 29,990,646 shares of common stock, authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote those shares in favor of the shareholder proposal, and proxies for 37,945,156 shares, authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote those shares against the proposal, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note for the record that shares representing over 60% of the common stock voting today were voted against the shareholder proposal.
This proposal is defeated. After the adjournment of this meeting, Wilson Jones, Oshkosh Corporation's President and CEO, will report on the company's business and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions. As there is no further business to come before this meeting and absent a motion to the contrary, I declare the meeting adjourned, and I thank you all for coming today. Now, Ignacio has a brief important announcement.
Thank you, Dick. Mr. Jones, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will now report on the company's activities and provide other information regarding the company's operations. Today's presentation is being webcast. The audio replay will be available on our website for approximately 12 months. The remarks that follow, including the videos shown at this meeting, include statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on November 13th, 2015, our first quarterly report of fiscal year 2016 filed on January 28th, 2016, and other filings we make with the SEC.
We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings press release, if at all. References in Mr. Jones' remarks to a quarter or a year are to our fiscal quarter or fiscal year unless stated otherwise. Now, with that, please welcome Wilson Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of Oshkosh Corporation.
Good morning. I appreciate all of you braving the pre-blizzard to come joining us today. We have some visitors on the web joining us too. I want to welcome you this morning and thank you for your interest in our company. I would like to echo what our Chairman, Dick Donnelly, said about our board. We are very fortunate to have a talented board that is committed to our company, and I wanted to personally thank all of you this morning for your commitment to Oshkosh Corporation. I'd also like to ask our Oshkosh leadership team to stand and be recognized. This group is battle-tested and very passionate about this company, and I appreciate all they've done, but more importantly, what they're going to do as we have the opportunity to lead this great company forward. Thank you, Oshkosh leadership team.
Well, I'm excited today to share with you some of the really good things going on in our company, and you'll hear the theme today that we really do believe that we're making a difference here at the Oshkosh Corporation. I think back to 2012 when we introduced our MOVE strategy with the goal of improving and growing our business. The MOVE strategy has really made a difference in our company. It's connected our people to really rally around this North Star of improvement in four main areas: market recovery and growth, optimizing cost and capital structure, value innovation, and emerging markets. Now, one big accomplishment we had in 2015 in the area of value innovation was we introduced 30, actually over 30, new products in 2015 alone. That's a company record for us.
More importantly, it's making a difference through our segments, allowing us to grow market share with new products. Now, we had another really big accomplishment in 2015 that I could talk to you about all day: the JLTV. You see it, the Rockstar. It lights itself up. This vehicle is going to be a real game changer for us, and I'll talk much more about this later in the presentation. I talked about the MOVE Strategy and how we're maturing with our initiatives there. We saw great improvement in Fire & Emergency and Commercial this year in operating margins and market share gains. Now, with good work inside the company comes recognition. We were just recognized by the New North Economic Council for the Workplace Excellence Awards. A really prestigious award covers 18 counties competing against a lot of good companies. We're very fortunate to win this award.
The way we won it was through continuous improvement. We have the Oshkosh Excellence Awards, where our team members can enter continuous improvement events into this award program. They go into one of four categories. As they win site levels, segment levels, and eventually corporate-wide levels, the company donates money back to the charity of choice in their communities. We've donated over $250,000 over the last 2.5 years back into our communities in the spirit of continuous improvement. This DNA is really building in our company. It's a win-win. Through the awards program, we're able to share those great ideas across all of our segments. We have so many good ideas that will work every place else in the corporation, and we're doing that now through this great awards program. The awards didn't stop there. The state of Wisconsin recognized us as a Green Master.
A Green Master is a company that's leading the way in the area of sustainability. We want to be good corporate citizens in the communities our businesses reside in. Last, I'll mention that we maintained disciplined capital allocation over this three-year period. We reinstated the dividend, we raised it twice, and we returned over $900 million to our shareholders in the form of repurchases and dividends over the three-year period. Now, the bottom line accomplishment is shown here on this graph. We had an earnings per share compound annual growth rate of 10% over the three-year period. Now, many of you know when we set out with our MOVE strategy, we were targeting a much higher return. We encountered some significant headwinds. We had to overcome a $3 billion revenue decline in our defense business over this three-year period.
So I know our team wasn't completely satisfied with 10%, but a double-digit return considering the headwinds we went through wasn't too bad. Now, looking forward, our leading brands line up well with the macroeconomic forecast. Construction spending, both res and non-res, is scheduled to increase over the next few years. Housing starts improving will drive municipal tax receipts. Population, the world is growing. More housing, more multifamily housing, infrastructure, utilities, and commerce. Defense spending, both domestic and international, are scheduled to increase over the next couple of years. And to cap it all off, fleet ages are going to work to our favor. Refuse collection vehicles, fire trucks, concrete mixers, all average ages are 2-3 years older than they were pre-recession. I'll shift now to some commentary on our segments.
Our diversification strategy has worked as Access carried the majority of our operating profits over the last three years during our defense decline. Now, 2015 was kind of a story of two halves. The first half, Access was setting records, up 11% over the previous year. Second half, the major headwinds, down 13%. Now, I know weather is not an excuse, especially with what we're thinking about today, but you go back to May, the state of Texas, a big construction month, one of the biggest construction months of the year. 28 out of 31 days in the state of Texas during the month of May had rain. All the South had a lot of rain. Couple that with the oil and gas redeployment of machines. As rig counts went down, we saw a lot of those machines going out into opportunities where we had planned to sell new machines.
That created a lot of caution with our rental customers. They pulled back on their CapEx as rental rates were depressed. All in all, a pretty tough headwind. But my hat's off to Frank Nerenhausen, the Access Equipment Segment President. His team was quick to take action and manage their costs down to fit the current market levels. With all that going on, they still maintained their market leadership role with the introduction of the world's tallest aerial work platform, the 1850SJ Ultra Boom. This product's really making a difference. If you want to know a little bit more about this product, I'd ask that you talk to Keith J. Allman and Stephen D. Newlin, our two newest directors. We were on a little orientation visit, and they went up in this product.
My guess is they might not want to go up in it again, but it is a very great product for us. It gets our technicians to that 19th story. It's going to continue to help us lead in the area of Ultra Booms around the world. When we look forward at Access Equipment, residential and non-residential construction is favorable, but we do expect 2016 to be down 13%-18%. Really two reasons. First, the cautionary approach I mentioned our customers are taking due to construction spending being a little inconsistent. And second is lack of replacement needed. If you think back to the recession, 2009, 2010, there were not a lot of machines purchased during those years. Normal replacement cycle for an aerial work platform is 6-7 years. So naturally, 2016, there'll be less machines to replace. Now, we do expect to continue to grow in Europe.
That fleet age is much older than the fleets in the U.S., and we are seeing some nice adoption across Asia. Recovering demand continues to drive strong refuse collection vehicle sales in our Commercial segment. We're also benefiting from several new product introductions that are really making a difference and helping us gain share faster than the market's growing. Another exciting new product coming down the pike in the spring, a mid-weight front-end loader called the Meridian. Commercial segment is kind of a tale of two stories in and of itself. The other big product in their business is concrete mixers. Concrete mixers is going a lot like Access Equipment. Very strong first half, but a slower second half.
Now, Brad Nelson and the commercial team have really been focused on maturing around the MOVE initiatives, specifically in the area of product, process, and overhead, really making some nice improvements there. And as Brad says, we're making good progress, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. And we do expect to benefit from continued improvements as this segment approaches $1 billion in revenue. Refuse collection vehicles will continue to grow with improving municipal spending. Commercial will continue to maintain its leadership in the area of clean burning fuels. McNeilus was the first company to introduce compressed natural gas refuse collection vehicles, and now they've added on concrete mixers with that offering. These environmentally friendly vehicles make up 30% of the annual sales of refuse collection vehicles today in commercial.
Now, much like 2015, we expect concrete mixer sales to remain slow and choppy into 2016 if fleet operators remain cautious about construction spending. As I mentioned earlier, fleet age will work to our favor. We are hearing that fleets are spending a lot more money on maintenance right now. And again, as we see Access long-term favorable outlook with construction spending, infrastructure, and now the highway bill. And finally, the commercial segment continues to leverage its 27 branches across North America, really making a difference to their customers as they provide unmatched service and product uptime support. Our people really made a difference in fire and emergency in 2015 as they improved operating performance and new product launches. The most exciting development is what you see here, the Ascendant Aerial. This is a real game changer and a difference maker for our firefighters.
This allows firefighters to get down those narrow city streets and alleys with a two-axle design versus the traditional three-axle design. It also gives them three additional stories of reach with 107 feet versus the traditional 75-foot. Now, we're receiving great confirmation that this product has hit the mark as we've exceeded our order expectation and quote activity. Fire and Emergency finished 2015 on a high with increases in revenue, operating income, and backlog, positioning them well for 2016. We're also seeing the market improve through the increase in fleet orders, and Pierce is gaining share with fleet orders. A fleet order is a multiple truck order over multiple years. And Jim Johnson, our president of Fire and Emergency, would say those are real nice projects to have in your backlog. You can plan around those multiple-year projects.
Some recent success stories there are what you see here: Kansas City, Missouri, Jacksonville, Florida, and Fairfax County, Virginia. Now, much like Commercial, Fire and Emergency is approaching $1 billion in revenue. Also, same type of approach with continuous improvement. From order management through operations, the Fire and Emergency team has really been focused on improving processes and practices, and it's really showing in their results. We received daily confirmation from our firefighter customers as Jim and his team entertained over 80 customers a day at the Pierce plant in Appleton. How we make a difference to our Defense customers is usually what comes to your mind when you think about Oshkosh Defense. I know it motivates our team here to build the world's best military tactical wheeled vehicles. Good news, 2015 was the last year of a multi-year sales decline that we forecasted back in 2012.
And even though a trough year for sales, we had some nice program wins and some really good news. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about when I say good news, the JLTV. But we also had other U.S. and international wins helping us finish the year solidly with a backlog over $1 billion. It's from this strong base that we expect to return to growth in 2016. We do expect to continue to sell M-ATVs to international customers. We mentioned last week through our earnings call and press release, we have a timing issue on our fifth contract as budgets are struggling to get things through over there. We weren't comfortable in keeping that in our forecast, so we removed it. Now, it was there two weeks ago, and I can tell you the need is there. The contract, we expect to move forward.
We just can't forecast when. But what I will share with you, our products are doing the job. They're protecting the warfighter as they did when we built 8,000 through 2009 and 2011 for our U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. M-ATV will continue to be a global product for us, and we've continued to invest in that. We now have nine variants or nine different models of M-ATVs that we can offer around the world. We also expect to benefit in 2016 from the restart of our heavy defense vehicles as we experienced a production breakdown, a production break in 2015. We'll continue to invest in aftermarket parts and customer service. When you think about dependability and reliability, it's important to all of our customers, but it's mission-critical to our defense customers, and we're going to continue to be there for them.
So I've held my emotions back for a while. I don't know I can do it any longer. I'm going to talk about the JLTV for a minute. What a great program for us. This program will provide revenue and earnings well into the next decade for us, a foundational program that we can really grow on. Let me show you a few things about this product that really will make you excited. This is a Mogul course. The Humvee that we're replacing is on the left, going 10 miles an hour. Look at the mirrors and the window on that product. Now, watch the JLTV on the right. Same course, faster speed. Look at the mirrors and the door handles. Think we're improving mobility? I think I know which one I want the warfighter in to get in and out of that fight quicker.
A little bit more about this vehicle. This vehicle has the armor protection of a light tank, the mobility to go anywhere in the world. It'll ford `five feet of water. You saw the wheel travel. Terrain is no issue for this. We like to say that the JLTV hates roads. If you talk to our warfighters, they'll tell you that's where the bad stuff happens, on the roads. Tactically, these vehicles can stay off-road. It does all this with the speed and agility of a Baja racer. We don't just make that statement. We ran the Baja race in 2010, and we finished. The initial contract is $6.7 billion, 17,000 vehicles over an eight year period, estimated to go up to 55,000 vehicles over a 20-plus year period. It doesn't stop there. We're already receiving significant international interest.
Around the world, there are 240,000 Humvees. That's exciting for us to pursue as we grow this program. This great product is already winning awards. Popular Science Magazine does a Best of What's New in 2015 award every year. It was one of the 100 innovations selected by Popular Science. Popular Science describes it as brilliant, revolutionary, and bound to shape the future. We agree. That's full speed ahead for us. We're working on this program. Three weeks ago, we had our JLTV government customer in, a really productive week where both teams worked together as one team. Now, I'm sure you're aware, the losing bidder filed a protest and eventually filed a lawsuit against the government. At this time, it's full speed ahead for us. We're going to keep working, confident that we'll retain this contract when the lawsuit is decided.
So you've heard me talk today about how we feel we're making a difference in the world. I have one last video that I think will confirm this message for you. [Video Narrator] . Kind of as the war in Afghanistan was winding down, our OPTEMPO was up.
One night, we went into a village, and we had to speak with one of the elders because it became very kinetic. There was a lot more fighting and IEDs being found in this area. So we wanted to talk to village elders to see what's going on. And then when we were leaving, it was the only route out. We tried to take it slow. It's 2:30 A.M., and unfortunately, we hit the IEDs. So four of the five of us kind of got knocked unconscious and came to, and the Marines were pulling us out. But I mean, it was giant IEDs. So I mean, any other vehicle, it definitely would not be here, so. My middle son was basically in a deployment in the Middle East, and we get an email from my daughter-in-law that says, "He's been medevaced out.
We think he's okay." And two days later, I get a message from him on email, very casually, that says, "Hey, I'm back to work. I'm good to go." So for me, that was very devastating because it took me back to the time when my oldest was killed, and there was a real fear, a real anxiety. So when I met him, he told me about what had happened, and he showed me a clip of it. And there was one of the vehicles that was blown up.
And he said, "Dad, that was me." And I said, "Son, I don't want to see this." So as I walked out and I turned around, rather than saying, "I'm sorry," or, "Dad, I'm okay," or, "I love you," he said, "Oshkosh saved my life." I immediately called Oshkosh, and I said, "I want to tell you thank you for what you've done for my family and for the rest of these families." [Video Narrator]
[Video Narrator] . Because I'm not a gold star father again. That's a story that's pretty profound. My grandson would not have been here had it had not been for Oshkosh because shortly after this all happened, he was conceived, and now he's born. I never thought about calling him Oshkosh. We could have done that. And I'm sure that would go.
My name is Richard Raines, and I'm calling from Jackson, Georgia.
I just wanted to call and just send my deepest gratitude to you and your company for building that M-ATV. My son was in a firefight in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan on Monday, and that vehicle saved my son's life. I just wanted to call and thank you. Thank you.
I think it's easy to see how our people can have a real sense of purpose as they support the warfighter, the firefighter, keeping people safe, working at heights, helping build cities, and then keeping those cities clean. I know I speak for all 12,000 of our team members. When I say all of us are proud to do what we do at Oshkosh.
Going forward, I would tell you what to expect from us is a strong and building defense business, an access equipment segment that's going to work through this slowdown and be positioned well as construction spending picks up and adoption occurs internationally. A fire and emergency segment is going to continue to improve in revenue, operating income, and market share gains. And a commercial segment that will continue to benefit from refuse collection vehicle fleet replacement. We have strong brands and leading technology. We're taking our proven MOVE Strategy and enhancing it as our team rallies around MOVE initiatives to help us grow profitably and compete vigorously around the world. But most importantly, we have a great team, our people that are passionate about what they do because they know, as you have seen and heard today, the products we design, build, deliver, and support truly do make a difference.
Thank you for your interest in our company. So I think we have a few minutes here for some questions. I would ask that if you have a question, you raise your hand and allow our team to get a microphone to you. We do have people listening in today on the web. I want to make sure they can hear your question. Yes, sir. Whenever they drive around Oshkosh, they see the Oshkosh Defense trucks testing the systems and everything else. And I wave to those drivers because they're bringing products that will save our people, and it just warms my heart. And I thank you very, very much. Thank you. Please keep waving at them.
Thank you. My name is Duane Stoneman from Appleton. My shareholder proposal three, approval of advisory vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
How come you never ask us for our advisory vote?
I'm sorry. I'm not hearing. You're asking about the advisory vote for what?
Can y'all turn the volume up just a little bit? On the compensation of a company's named executive officers. Did you hear that?
I heard you. Yes, sir. Yeah.
How come you never ask us for this advisory vote?
It is part of the vote.
What?
It is part of your vote.
What do you mean?
When a shareholder votes, they vote on that category.
Well, okay. Well, from what I read, you're not asking us for any numbers what we should give you for compensation. You just take what you want, right?
Well, but maybe your opinion, sir, the proxy list, our compensation, we work with a compensation consultant to stay in the median of the range.
But I mean, that's your opinion that we work through those, and it's worked through a compensation consultant.
Well, okay. Boy, it looks to me like you guys must have had a tough time this year because Uncle Charlie, his compensation went down from $7 million down to $2 million. Then there's somebody else up there that their compensation went from $3 million down to less than $1 million. You guys didn't have to go on food stamps on account of that, did you?
Sir, I'm not going to debate our compensation with you. I don't think that's appropriate here. Why don't we move to the next question?
Next question?
Sure. Well, thank you.
Thanks.
Hey, Wilson. Good morning.
Hi, Mark. Great to see you. Great to see you.
Hey, first of all, congratulations on being appointed our CEO and chief officer.
Hey, you know, a lot of time and effort and resources were put into the León, Mexico facility last year. I didn't hear you talking about it at all. Could you just make a few comments on that? How it's going? Sure.
Sure. That's part of our vertical integration strategy where we have certain products within our company that are turned more of a commodity style product. A scissor lift will be one of those. We've chosen to build those in a facility that has lower costs. It's up and running. I know Marek Maj has been very focused on this project. As you encounter when you go into international communities and build a facility, there's always some challenges. Throughout the country of Mexico, there's not natural gas lines. So we've struggled a little bit to get our natural gas up and running.
So Merrick's been building and painting in there with propane. But we are excited about this coming online. And I know Frank Nerenhausen is ready for more scissors to come out of there. So that will be a big play for us in the terms of vertical integration. Thank you, Mark. Any other questions? Yes, sir.
Tom Harenburg, Carl M. Hennig, Inc. here in Oshkosh. Wilson, the Canadian contract, I've got two questions regarding that. One is, I believe it's been five months after you lost the contract that you're now appealing. And secondly, with the JLTV appeal, you've given us some time frames as to when you expect decisions on that from Lockheed. What is the time frame for the Canadian contract on your decision to appeal that?
Yeah. The Canadian communication is a little more vague to us.
And since we are in the middle of a protest there and we are protesting, I'm limited on what I can say there, Tom. But we expect this to go another 90-120 days before we get much clarity with that. With the JLTV, there's been a hearing around the request for a preliminary injunction. We expect in the next week to 10 days to hear a judge rule on that preliminary injunction. And then from there, the time frame for the additional hearing of the lawsuit could be 90-150 days. We do expect to have a new schedule once the judge rules on the preliminary injunction. And at that point, we'll make that public. Any other questions?
Okay. Well, I want to thank you again for your interest in our company. We're excited about the future here. I shared our expectations with you.
And again, we thank you for your support. Have a great day.