AstroNova lands contract for military cockpit printers

Business Journals

28-05-2025

A West Warwick company has landed a $10 million, multi-year contract to supply military-grade cockpit printers and ethernet switches to a major defense industry customer.
AstroNova Inc. (Nasdaq: ALOT) has agreed to deliver 300 "ToughWriter" printer systems to a military aircraft maker, the company said this month. The devices are a beefed-up version of cockpit printers that AstroNova regularly supplies to the commercial aviation sector.
The commercial and military cockpit printers "are manufactured right here in Rhode Island at our West Warwick facility," CEO Gregory Woods told Business First. "We have over 30,000 printers flying throughout the world. You're unlikely to be on a plane that doesn't have our product."
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The onboard devices, also known as flight deck printers, convert data from avionics systems into paper records. They can print out flight plans, weather information, clearances, and other information for pilots and crew. The printers can log maintenance and system reports, and other critical data. The paper documents let pilots quickly access important information without having to navigate digital screens, and keep working even if digital systems go down.
"From a pilot perspective, it's a safety and a workload feature," said Woods.
The CEO cited a confidentiality agreement and declined to share the name of the customer. But he said the U.S.-based "leading global defense technology company" re-upped its contract with AstroNova due to the quality and reliability of its next-generation products.
AstroNova has a global headcount of more than 440, with 222 Rhode Island employees.
AstroNova recovering from 2025 challenges
The new contract is a boost for AstroNova, which suffered a challenging year in 2025.
The company struggled to integrate the assets and operations of MTEX, a Portuguese printing company it bought in 2024. The $22.1 million M&A didn't generate revenue as expected. AstroNova took a $13.4 million goodwill impairment and had to renegotiate its debt facility with Bank of America. An ongoing conflict over the MTEX deal is now in arbitration, the company has disclosed.
Meanwhile, AstroNova is facing a proxy challenge. Activist investor Askeladden Capital is highly critical of the MTEX acquisition and pushing shareholders to replace most of the company's board. AstroNova is pushing back, saying the company is at a critical juncture under effective leaders. The annual meeting is set for June 9.
Woods maintains that the MTEX deal will ultimately be good for AstroNova because it delivered important technology, a high-quality European manufacturing facility, and access to new markets. The company has successfully grown via M&As in the past, and the MTEX integration will proceed, according to Woods.
AstroNova took major steps in 2025 to improve its operations. The company improved its leadership team, upgraded systems, streamlined operations, and eliminated waste, Woods told shareholders in a recent report. For fiscal 2026, AstroNova expects net revenue of at least $160 million, or a 7% boost from the year prior.
AstroNova shares were trading at around $9.30 on Wednesday, a four-year low. Its market capitalization stands at around $70.6 million. The stock saw an $18 peak in January.
AstroNova, which went public in 1981, bills itself as a global leader in data visualization technologies. Asked what that means, the CEO boiled it down.
"We process data and give it to people in a human usable format," Woods said.
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