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Fri April 11, 2008 - National Edition
APPLETON, Wis. (AP) Oshkosh Truck Corp. has dropped the ’Truck’ from its name.
The manufacturer of specialty emergency, military and other vehicles, said shareholders approved a proposal to rename the company Oshkosh Corp. at its annual meeting on Feb. 5 in Appleton. The change takes effect immediately.
The board of directors had recommended that shareholders approve the measure.
The Oshkosh-based company said in a December note to shareholders that the current name didn’t reflect the breadth of its product lines and it didn’t want to reference any specific product in its name.
The company’s new name allows for growth for future product lines, Chief Executive Officer Robert Bohn said in a news release Feb. 5.
“Our strength has always been in the brands we produce under various nameplates, and we don’t expect that to change,” he said.
The company’s lines include Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles, Pierce Manufacturing Inc., the leading fire truck manufacturer, and JLG Industries Inc., which makes equipment used in nonresidential construction.
The new name will not change the company’s stock ticker symbol — OSK on the New York Stock Exchange, it said. The company will release its rebranding initiatives throughout the year.
Shares of Oshkosh fell 52 cents, or 1.21 percent, to $42.40 in midday trading Feb. 5.
The company reported that its fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 9 percent, driven by weakness in its fire and emergency and concrete mixer segments. In the three months ending Dec. 31, Oshkosh earned $37.3 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with $41.2 million, or 55 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue surged 49 percent to $1.5 billion, from $1 billion in the prior-year period.
Municipalities are curbing spending on fire and emergency vehicles, Oshkosh said, and the company’s concrete mixer business is being hurt by the slowdown in residential construction.