Badger Meter’s core competency is flow measurement solutions. The company is a leading manufacturer and marketer of products incorporating liquid flow measurement and control technologies developed both internally and with other technology companies. Badger Meter products are used in a wide variety of applications, including water, oil and chemicals.
Certain statements contained in news release, as well as other information provided from time to time by Badger Meter, Inc. (the “Company”) or its employees, may contain forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “think,” “should,” “could” and “objective” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. All such forward looking statements are based on the Company’s then current views and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that include, among other things:
• the continued shift in the Company’s business from lower cost, manually read meters toward more expensive, value-added automatic meter reading (AMR) systems and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems;
•the success or failure of newer Company products;
•changes in competitive pricing and bids in both the domestic and foreign marketplaces, and in particular in continued intense price competition on government bid contracts for lower cost, manually read meters;
•the actions (or lack thereof) of the Company’s competitors;
•changes in the Company’s relationships with its alliance partners, primarily its alliance partners that provide AMR/AMI connectivity solutions, and particularly those that sell products that do or may compete with the Company’s products;
•changes in the general health of the United States and foreign economies, including to some extent such things as the length and severity of the current global economic downturn, the ability of municipal water utility customers to authorize and finance purchases of the Company’s products, the Company’s ability to obtain financing, housing starts in the United States, and overall industrial activity;
•the impact of the United States and foreign government programs to stimulate national and global economies;
•changes in the cost and/or availability of needed raw materials and parts, including volatility in the cost of brass castings as a result of fluctuations in commodity prices, particularly for copper and scrap metal, at the supplier level and plastic resin as a result of changes in petroleum and natural gas prices;
•the Company’s expanded role as a prime contractor for providing complete AMR/AMI systems to governmental entities, which brings with it added risks, including but not limited to, Company responsibility for subcontractor performance, additional costs and expenses if the Company and its subcontractors fail to meet the agreed-upon timetable with the governmental entity, and the Company’s expanded warranty and performance obligations;
•the Company’s ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses or products;
•changes in foreign economic conditions, particularly currency fluctuations in the United States dollar, the euro and the Mexican peso;
•the loss of certain single-source suppliers, and;
•changes in laws and regulations, particularly laws dealing with the use of lead (which can be used in the manufacture of certain meters incorporating brass housings) and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules affecting the use and/or licensing of radio frequencies necessary for AMR/AMI products.
All of these factors are beyond the Company’s control to varying degrees. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward looking statements. The forward looking statements made in this document are made only as of the date of this document and the Company assumes no obligation, and disclaims any obligation, to update any such forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.