Maplewood-based 3M Company on Tuesday released its 2011 sales and earnings outlook.

The company expects sales in the range of $29 billion to $30.5 billion. 3M said that it anticipates organic sales volumes to increase between 5.5 percent and 7.5 percent.

“Our continuing strong performance clearly demonstrates that our growth strategy is working,” George Buckley, chairman, president, and CEO, said in a statement. “3M's innovation engine has been revitalized and is driving growth across our many businesses and around the world.”

3M's forecast for 2011 earnings is between $5.90 and $6.10 per share, including a 27-cents-per-share year-over-year jump in pension increases. Excluding those charges, the company expects 2011 earnings between $6.17 and $6.37 per share-marking a 10 percent to 14 percent increase over forecasted 2010 earnings.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings per share of $6.20 in 2011 on revenue of $29.15 billion. Those estimates typically exclude special charges.

The company reinforced its 2010 earnings outlook, stating that it expects earnings per share in the range of $5.59 to $5.63-or $5.70 to $5.74 when excluding a Medicare-related charge from the first quarter.

3M said that Buckley would comment on the company's growth plans and recent string of acquisitions at a Tuesday conference with investors. The company announced Monday its most recent acquisition in a long line of purchases-it intends to buy Winterthur, a Swiss supplier of precision grinding technology, for about $448 million.

The company's stock was trading down about 2.9 percent to $84.29 during midday trading on Tuesday.

3M is among Minnesota's 10 largest public companies based on revenue, which exceeded $23 billion in 2009.