Williams Controls Awarded Electronic Throttle Control Business For Corvette
19 May 1999
Williams Controls Awarded Electronic Throttle Control Business For Chevrolet Corvette
Production to Begin in July for Williams' First Automotive ETC Contract
PORTLAND, Ore., May 19 -- Williams Controls, Inc.
today announced that it has been awarded a contract to
manufacture electronic throttle controls (ETCs) for the Chevrolet Corvette,
one of the most electronically sophisticated automobiles built in the United
States. This is the first automotive ETC contract that has been awarded to
Williams Controls, the predominant supplier of ETCs to the heavy truck market
for the past decade, as the company executes its strategy to penetrate the
automotive market.
Under the agreement, Williams Controls will produce approximately 35,000
ETC systems annually for the Corvette. The Company was also awarded a
contract for approximately 55,000 ETC systems for a number of light and medium
duty truck models manufactured by General Motors . Revenues from
this contract, estimated to exceed $3 million per year, are expected to
commence in the Company's fourth quarter ending September 30, 1999.
"This is a tremendous breakthrough for Williams Controls," said Williams
Controls chairman and chief executive officer Thomas W. Itin, of the company's
first penetration into the automobile market. "Our strategy has been to
transfer our ETC technology to this new and growing market, which is
substantially larger than the one in which we now compete. This contract
award from GM is the foundation upon which we will continue to build our ETC
business in the passenger vehicle market in the future."
The contract was awarded as part of a transaction where Williams Controls
will replace Delphi Automotive Systems, the current ETC supplier to General
Motors for the Corvette vehicle and various truck models. Delphi was one of
the original manufacturers of drive-by-wire systems for passenger vehicles in
the United States, but decided to exit this category to focus on its core
business. The transition from Delphi will be completed during Williams'
fiscal fourth quarter ending September 30, 1999.
Williams Controls created its ETC technology for the heavy truck and off-
road markets in 1986 and has supplied ETC systems to General Motors heavy
truck division in the past. As part of this transaction, Williams Controls
was confirmed as a Qualified Automotive Supplier to General Motors by GM's
Worldwide Purchasing Department.
"Receiving this contract and beginning production in the next six to eight
weeks is a huge boost to our plan to become a major player in the developing
market for automotive ETCs, a market that is estimated to be 10 times the unit
size of our traditional heavy truck market within the next five years," Itin
continued. "We view this contract as an endorsement of our thirteen years of
experience in the ETC market and our ability to create unique engineering
solutions based on our core technologies."
"This contract to supply GM is important for Williams Controls because of
the substantial strategic and financial commitment we made to the automotive
market over the past 12 months," stated Timothy J. Marker, vice president of
sales and marketing. "The combination of our ETC experience, creative
engineering capabilities and automotive industry experience from key members
of the Williams Controls team was critical in winning this competitively bid
contract. It establishes Williams Controls as a major player in supplying
automotive ETCs and enhances our ability to supply our traditional markets on
a more effective basis."
"We believe that Williams was awarded this business, in large part, due to
our long and successful history in the heavy truck ETC market," stated Mr.
Marker. "ETC technology has long been established in the heavy and medium
duty truck markets, but is rapidly gaining acceptance in other vehicle
categories, as was seen in our recent announcement of the contract award for
military vehicle ETCs from Oshkosh Truck Corporation. With this new
automotive contract award in hand, we can continue to aggressively pursue the
numerous opportunities in other passenger vehicle models that are converting
to electronic throttle controls."
Williams Controls is a manufacturer and integrator of sensors, controls
and communication systems for the transportation and communication industries.
For more information, you can find the Company at http://www.wmco.com on the World
Wide Web.
Forward-looking statements in this news release, if any, are made under
the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Certain important factors could cause results to differ materially from
those anticipated by the statements, including the impact of changing economic
or business conditions, the impact of competition, the availability of
financing, the success of products in the marketplace, other factors inherent
in the industry and other factors discussed from time to time in reports filed
by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.