TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS, CUSTOMERS, CHANNEL PARTNERS, AND ASSOCIATES: More customers, in more countries around the world, are  placing their trust in the MSA brand. In 2011, this resulted in customers choosing to purchase nearly $1.2 billion in MSA products. There is no doubt that, in addition to the skill and dedication  of our 5,300 associates worldwide, part of what helped drive  each of these customers to make their decision was our  company’s relentless pursuit of our Corporate Strategy. And  a key part of this strategy is to focus on our core strengths as  we advance our mission to protect workers around the world. While every product we produce provides value to our company and our customers, in 2011 we placed a special  focus on investing in and further improving the development,  manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of five Core  Product families: Supplied-Air Respirators, Industrial Head  Protection, Portable Gas Detection Instruments and Sensors,  Fixed Gas and Flame Detection Systems, and Fall Protection  products. Our cross-functional, cross-geographic teams  worked tirelessly to make these products more durable, more  e ff ective, and engineered with innovative features that not  only delight our customers, but help them reduce total cost  of ownership, thereby providing even greater value to those  who choose MSA. The phrase “choosing to purchase” is significant, because our 2011 sales actually represent an aggregation of  thousands of individual decisions – single instances of  safety professionals carefully weighing their options and  purposefully selecting MSA to protect them and their co-workers on the job. Each decision showed confidence that the MSA o ff ering was the one that would help keep their people safe, whether they be oil workers on an  o ff shore rig, firefighters bravely entering a burning building,  construction professionals working atop sca ff olding  hundreds of feet above the earth, miners laboring hundreds  of feet below it, or any of the other millions of men and  women around the globe who depend on MSA to protect  them each and every day. 2 MSA 2011 ANNUAL REPORT I am pleased to report that in 2011 MSA achieved its  highest annual net sales in our 97-year history.