PrintPrintBy Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Hanging over Michael Moody’s desk is a massive picture that nearly covers the entirety of his office’s northern wall. It is a photograph of one of the thousands of war vehicles that have rolled off the assembly lines in the warehouses located just behind the chief executive’s office.
It reads: “We get knocked down, but we get up again.”
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| Michael Moody (left) CEO of Force Protection, and Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan (right), who heads the Pentagon’s mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle program, share a moment before the start of a ceremony last month honoring the Ladson manufacturer’s role in the war effort. (Photo/Molly Parker) |
The slogan is in reference to how quickly workers sent to Iraq can repair war vehicles damaged by enemy explosives. If Force Protection is to plant long-term roots here, it will need to become a mantra for the company, too.
One of the state’s few publicly traded companies, Force Protection has exploded in just a few years from a few-hundred-employee manufacturer to an operation with several thousand workers and millions of dollars in government contracts. At the height of the Iraq war, the goal was to get as many of the sand-colored vehicles with the signature V-shaped hull into the theatre as possible, as quickly as possible.
But the fast growth had its consequences, and 2008 ushered in new priorities: cleaning up a financial mess of accounting errors and late filings, attempting to restore investor confidence and taking the company in a new direction.
“There are winners and losers in every conflict, on the battlefield and in the manufacturing industry,” said Dakota Wood, a retired Marine and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan think tank focused on defense issues.
“The bigger company you are, the more ability you have to weather losses. Niche and single-product companies are betting everything on one capability. They either have to diversify or find another customer base,” he said.
Range of products, customers
All of these challenges come as the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle program that plucked the Ladson manufacturer from obscurity winds to a close.
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| A welder works in the production facility of Force Protection Inc. near U.S. Highway 78 and Ladson Road. (Photo/Molly Parker) |
Like you might expect from the man in charge of manufacturing vehicles that “eat improvised explosive devices for lunch,” Moody isn’t shaken.
“Absolutely there is a long-term place for Force Protection,” Moody said.
“We’re transforming from a company that really focused on building those trucks and getting those trucks built and into theatre as quickly as possible,” Moody said. “We’ll continue with that business, but we’re going back to our roots in the survivability solutions business. We’re looking at a broader range of products and a broader range of customers.”
That means diversifying the customer base by marketing to foreign militaries and allocating more money to research and development that might lead to new products, Moody said. As an example, he pointed to Force Protection’s partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina to create products to protect the brain from the massive shaking that occurs when an explosive detonates under a vehicle.
Executive force
The company’s shifting landscape also has meant bringing in a new management team.
Moody, formerly an independent member of Force Protection’s board, officially took over as CEO in March. In July, the company named Charles Mathis executive vice president of finance, a new position. Both men, along with spokesman Tommy Pruitt, sat down with the Charleston Regional Business Journal a few weeks ago to talk about the company’s future.
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| Workers at Force Protection Inc. assemble part of a mine-resistant vehicle at the company's production facility in Ladson. (Photo/Molly Parker) |
Moody, whose calming presence is laced with an Australian accent, is a business veteran with more than 40 years of senior management experience, specializing in his later years in acquisitions and business transformation.
Mathis comes to Force Protection with 20 years’ experience in strategic finance and accounting, specifically for manufacturers and including two major defense contractors. He also is a Marine Corps veteran.
Asked whether the two were brought in to clean house, Mathis said he preferred to think of their role as putting the financial house in order. His duties also include helping to sell investors on the idea that Force Protection is more than a one-hit wonder.
The new executive team has its hands full.
Financial fixes
“Did I mention that we filed our financial statements?” Moody said with a laugh, making light of the fact that he had mentioned this little detail about five times during the interview.
Earlier this year, Nasdaq threatened to delist the company because its year-end and first-quarter reports weren’t filed on time. The company finally caught up with its Securities and Exchange Commission reporting in September.
“When you look at what this company did … it was extraordinary,” Moody said. “But the reality was that some of the other aspects of the business were not able to keep pace as fast as that.”
What Force Protection did was spearhead the largest mobilization of industry for the military since World War II. Last month, on the lawn outside its manufacturing facilities, the brass traveled from Capitol Hill to honor the company for its role in helping equip the military with thousands of armored vehicles.
By the end of the program, Force Protection will have contributed about 40% of the total 15,000 MRAPs in the theatre, Moody said. But the celebration came the day after the government officially passed over Force Protection in its first round of contracts for development of a prototype to replace the Humvee.
So a day of celebration also marked a turning point for the company.
“We did bid for it, but we knew we were going to be a long shot,” Executive Vice President Damon Walsh said.
The contracts, collectively worth more than $120 million, went to the big boys with deep roots as Defense Department suppliers: Lockheed Martin, General Tactical Vehicles and BAE Systems.
Still, the company has plans of its own for lighter vehicles. Per a contract with the Marine Corps to re-engineer vehicles to handle the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, Force Protection unveiled a new prototype of its more popular Cougar at the ceremony.
The company also debuted its new independent-suspension Cheetah, the smallest of the vehicles in the company’s line.
“We stand ready to respond to whatever the Department of Defense needs,” Walsh said.
Force Protection still employs about 1,500 workers, though that number represents about 600 fewer jobs than last year. That didn’t go unrecognized.
“As the MRAP program winds down to a conclusion, we recognize that all of you are making sacrifices, particularly those who are not here because the company has already started to contract,” said Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command.
MRAP program director Paul Mann credited Force Protection with lighting “a fuse across the entire nation for these vehicles.” The effort won’t soon be forgotten, he said.
But it was Staff Sgt. Kelly Minkler from Camp Pendleton, Calif., whose remarks received a standing ovation, in a reminder that Force Protection wasn’t just a company with a bottom line to protect.
He recalled a night on duty in Iraq when he encountered 10 explosives on a mission, including two that detonated underneath the Cougar he was riding in.
“We didn’t even need to stop,” he said. “We just kept going.”
Force Protection is hoping it can say the same.
Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.
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