Textron Bell revenue jumps 17% in first quarter

Textron’s Bell kicked off 2024 with a solid performance reporting revenue of $727m, up 17% year-over-year compared to $621m in the same period last year.

“In the quarter, we saw profit growth across our Aviation, Bell, and Systems businesses,” said Scott C. Donnelly, chairman and CEO, Textron Chairman. “At Aviation, we saw continued strong market demand which contributed to $177M in backlog growth. At Bell, we saw revenue growth driven by the FLRAA program.”

This impressive revenue growth for Bell was fuelled by a surge in military sales, particularly for the FLRAA program, which brought in an additional $95m. However, there was a slight dip in commercial helicopter deliveries, with 18 units shipped this quarter compared to 22 in the same period last year.

Looking at profitability, Bell’s segment profit jumped $20m to $80m, thanks in part to a $30m performance boost. This positive performance included a welcome $13m reduction in research and development costs.

Bell’s backlog also remains healthy, sitting at a robust $4.5bn at the end of the quarter.

Overall, Textron’s revenue increased by 4%YoY to $3.1bn with a major boost of this coming from the higher sales in aviation and helicopters segment (Bell). This translated in to net income of $1.03 per share, as compared to $0.92 per share in the first quarter of 2023.