1、A N N U A L R E P O R T2 0 1 5PPD PDF Edits2/22/16 -2:45pmShareowners Letter2016We had another terrific year in what turned out to be a very slow growth economy.In my letter lastyear,I said that I expected the economy would be better than economists were forecasting because ofthe wealth transfer fro
2、m oil producing nations to oil consuming nations.That newfound wealth wouldget spent by consumers,resulting in a better economy.Man,was I wrong.Or if I was right,it sure gotmasked by other negative items.So instead of a breakout economic year,it was slow growth again.And yes,we will plan 2016 based
3、on a slow growth global economy.The Euro weakened considerably during the year(at least I got that one right),ending the year atabout$1.08.We hedged 2015 at about$1.25 and 2016 at about$1.10.Clearly 2015 was a good callon Euro hedging.We wont know about 2016 until we are largely through the year.So
4、given all that,how did we do for the year?You already know the answer terrific.Largelybecause while I expected the economy would be better,we planned the company like we always doconservatively.Reported sales were down 4%driven by core organic growth of 1%more than offset by4%negative impact of curr
5、ency translation to a stronger dollar,and 1%negative impact from the saleof our Friction Materials business in 2014.On that 4%decline in reported sales we generated a 10%increase in earnings per share*,withthat performance almost entirely coming from operations improvements,not share buyback.Compare
6、dwith the performance of our industrial competitors,we again performed admirably.Free Cash Flow wasup about 11%even as we continued our high return investments in our Performance Materials andTechnologies(PMT)plants.Our performance allowed us to again raise our dividend by 15%,fulfillingthe promise