We design, manufacture, and market professional turf maintenance equipment
and services, turf irrigation systems, landscaping equipment and lighting, agricultural
micro-irrigation systems, rental and specialty construction equipment, and residential
yard and snow thrower products. With our acquisition of the BOSS® professional
snow and ice management business in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, we also
design, manufacture, and market professional snow and ice management products.
We produced our first mower for golf course use in 1921 when we mounted five
reel mowers on a Toro tractor, and we introduced our first lawn mower for residential
use in 1935. We have continued to enhance our product lines over the more than
100 years we have been in business. We classify our operations into three reportable
business segments: Professional, Residential, and Distribution. Our Distribution
segment, which consists of our company-owned domestic distributorships, has
been combined with our corporate activities and is shown as "Other."
Our products are advertised and sold at the retail level under the primary
trademarks of Toro®, Exmark®, BOSS®, Irritrol®, Hayter®,
Pope®, Unique Lighting Systems®, and Lawn-Boy® most of which are
registered in the United States and/or in the primary countries outside the
United States where we market such products. This report also contains trademarks,
trade names, and service marks that are owned by other persons or entities,
such as The Home Depot, Inc. ("The Home Depot").
We emphasize quality and innovation in our products, customer service, manufacturing,
and marketing. We strive to provide well-built, dependable products supported
by an extensive service network. We have committed funding for research, development,
and engineering in order to improve and enhance existing products and develop
new products. Through these efforts, we seek to be responsive to trends that
may affect our target markets now and in the future. A significant portion of
our revenues has historically been, and we expect will continue to be, attributable
to new and enhanced products. We define new products as those introduced in
the current and previous two fiscal years. We plan to continue to pursue targeted
acquisitions using a disciplined approach that adds value while supplementing
our existing brands and product portfolio.
Our purpose is to help our customers enrich the beauty, productivity, and
sustainability of the land. Our vision is to be the most trusted leader in solutions
for the outdoor environment. Every day. Everywhere. Our mission, or how we strive
to make our vision a reality and what we intend to accomplish, is to deliver
superior innovation and to deliver superior customer care.
We are committed to an ongoing engineering program dedicated to developing
innovative new products and improvements in the quality and performance of existing
products. However, a focus on innovation also carries certain risks that new
technology could be slow to be accepted or not accepted by the marketplace.
We attempt to mitigate these risks through our focus on and commitment to understanding
our customers needs and requirements. We invest time upfront with customers,
using "Voice of the Customer" tools, to help us develop innovative
products that are intended to meet or exceed customer expectations. We use Design
for Manufacturing and Assembly ("DFM/A") tools to ensure early manufacturing
involvement in new product designs intended to reduce production costs. DFM/A
focuses on reducing the number of parts required to assemble new products, as
well as designing products to move more efficiently through the manufacturing
process. We strive to make improvements to our new product development system
as part of our continuing focus on Lean methods to shorten development time,
reduce costs, and improve quality.
We have strategically identified specific core manufacturing competencies for
vertical integration, such as injection molding, extrusion, welding, painting,
machining, and aluminum die casting, and have chosen outside vendors to provide
other services. We design component parts in cooperation with our vendors, contract
with them for the development of tooling, and then enter into agreements with
these vendors to purchase component parts manufactured using the tooling. In
addition, our vendors regularly test new technologies to be applied in the design
and production of component parts. Manufacturing operations include robotic
and computer-automated equipment intended to speed production, reduce costs,
and improve the quality, fit, and finish of our products. Operations are also
designed to be flexible enough to accommodate product design changes that are
necessary to respond to market conditions and changing customer requirements.
In order to utilize our manufacturing facilities and technology more effectively,
we pursue continuous improvements in our manufacturing processes with the use
of Lean methods that are intended to streamline work and eliminate waste. We
spend considerable effort to reduce manufacturing costs through Lean methods
and process improvement, product and platform design, application of advanced
technologies, enhanced environmental management systems, safety improvements,
and improved supply-chain management. We also have some agreements with other
third party manufacturers to manufacture products on our behalf.
Our professional products are manufactured throughout the year. Our residential
lawn and garden products are also generally manufactured throughout the year.
However, our residential snow thrower products are manufactured in the summer
and fall months but may be extended into the winter months, depending upon demand.
Our products are tested in conditions and locations similar to those in which
they are used. We use computer-aided design and manufacturing systems to shorten
the time between initial concept and final production. DFM/A principles are
used throughout the product development process to optimize product quality
and cost.
Our production levels and inventory management goals are based on estimates
of retail demand for our products, taking into account production capacity,
timing of shipments, and field inventory levels. Our production system utilizes
Kanban, supplier pull, and build-to-order methodologies in our manufacturing
facilities, as appropriate, for the business units they support in order to
better align the production of our products to meet customer demand. We believe
this has resulted in improved service levels for our participating suppliers,
distributors, and dealers.
We periodically shut down production at our manufacturing facilities in order
to allow for maintenance, rearrangement, capital equipment installation, and
as needed, to adjust for market demand. Capital expenditures for fiscal 2016
are planned to be approximately $70 million as we continue the renovation of
our original corporate facility located in Bloomington, Minnesota to accommodate
additional expansion needs for our product development and test capacities.
Additionally, we plan to invest in new product tooling, new technology in production
processes and equipment, replacement production equipment, and investments in
new and existing facilities.
2.07% 
76.14 %