Sikorsky Aircraft adapts business model to enhance customer experience and advance growth

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. said today it has completed the realignment of its business into three distinct divisions to provide greater clarity for customers and respond to market demand. Sikorsky Aircraft is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

As part of the realignment, Sikorsky recently launched Sikorsky Military Systems to bolster its ability to respond to the needs of the U.S. and international military segments. In February, Sikorsky announced creation of Sikorsky Global Helicopters, a rebranding of its existing commercial business units. In 2008, Sikorsky launched a comprehensive solution for customer support with the introduction of Sikorsky Aerospace Services.

"As a company, Sikorsky has enjoyed tremendous growth over the last several years, which has positioned us well in spite of the economic downturn," said President Jeffrey P. Pino. "As we looked forward, we recognized that we had outgrown our prior business approach and needed to realign our business to achieve our longer-term vision. We needed to be ready to respond to the future demands of the marketplace. With this realignment, we are poised to do that."

Sikorsky, which saw revenues climbing during each of the past seven years, has followed a four-pronged business strategy: growth with margin expansion, excellence in execution, technological leadership, and globalization. The company realignment supports its strategic vision to become more global, to enhance its business unit focus on specific customer segments, and to continue its steady growth path.

"In renaming our military business, we chose to emphasize the 'systems' aspect because Sikorsky Aircraft is not simply a producer of helicopters but of comprehensive systems that go beyond 'hardware,' " said Scott Starrett, President, Sikorsky Military Systems.

Sikorsky Global Helicopters, led by Marc Poland, aligns the company's existing commercial business units located in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania. Sikorsky Global Helicopters comprises current Sikorsky aircraft platforms S-76®, S-92® and H-92™ helicopters; former Schweizer platforms S-300C™, S-300CBi™, S-333™ and S-434™ helicopters; and all operations of Keystone Helicopter Corp. and Associated Aircraft Group (AAG).

Sikorsky Aerospace Services, led by David Adler, offers the aviation industry one of the most comprehensive portfolios of support solutions for both military and commercial customers around the world. It supports more than 10,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft in 75 countries and provides a full range of logistics, maintenance, training and material support services for a variety of aviation platforms.

Sikorsky's revenue reached a record $4.8 billion in 2007, followed by a record $5.4 billion in 2008. The company's backlog has grown to more than $12 billion.