Despite concerns about an uncertain economy, Gulfstream is seeing strong demand from both public and private companies in North America, according to Phebe Novakovic, chair and CEO of the Savannah, Georgia airframer’s parent company General Dynamics.
Participating this week in a Bernstein 39th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, Novakovic told analysts Gulfstream has planned for a 1:1 book to bill and “we continue to believe that is reasonable,” according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
In addition to characterizing demand in North America, she added parts of Asia are also “very strong,” but not in China. The Middle East is a good market right now, while Europe is “moderate.”
One area that seems to be easing is sales to high net-worth individuals, she said, but added, “So far the remainder of our potential customers and customers have been pretty robust. And the pipeline remains quite good.”
While noting that Gulfstream is not immune from economic cycles, Novakovic maintained, “We have a very sticky backlog. So that helps mitigate that” in case of a downturn.
As for pricing, she said, “We hold pricing very dear,” but did see continued improvement on that front. As Gulfstream is preparing to bring two more models to market over the next year or so, she further stressed, “We don't chase market share. It's a good way to go broke if you're measuring yourself on market share. We chase profitability.”