16.04.2015

Manitou rises 11%

Manitou has reported an 11 percent rise in first quarter revenues to €323.1 million, thanks to strong improvements in North America and Gehl.

Revenues in the Material Handling and Access Division increased five percent to €199 million, while the Compact Equipment business – largely Gehl - jumped 40 percent to €70.8 million and the services division rose three percent to €53.1 million.

Geographically Southern Europe fell 15 percent to €89.1 million – although it was seven percent higher than in the fourth quarter 2014. Much of the fall was due to the ending of the Toyota contract to assemble fork truck masts and slow sales in France. Northern Europe improved 12 percent to €114.9 million, while the Americas leapt 54 percent to €87.2 million thanks to a comparison with a weak first quarter in 2014 and a strong dollar equating to higher euro receipts. Asia Pacific came in 16 percent higher at €31.9 million.

Chief executive Michel Denis said: "The increase in sales of 11 percent compared to 2014 was characterised by an enlarged number of growth regions. All of the geographical sectors saw an improvement in business with the exception of France (difficult agricultural market and a wait-and-see attitude of rental companies), of Russia (political and economic crises) and of Latin America (economic crisis). In the construction industry, the sales continued to increase with strong growth drivers in the United States and Northern Europe. In the agricultural industry, sales remained stable and order intake benefited from the reconstruction of inventories by the sales networks. This situation, which contrasts with the decrease in quarter two of 2014, appears to indicate that the market has reached its low point. Lastly, in industry, business was affected by a clearly marked slowdown in the mining and oil sectors”.

“The level of business activity in the first quarter increases our confidence of achieving our sales objective for 2015, a three percent growth rate at a constant scope and exchange rates, or growth of six percent at current exchange rates."

Vertikal Comment

A good start to the year for Manitou, which is actually in a very good place as its grows in spite of ongoing weakness in what was its main market area. As Southern Europe recovers, the company is well placed to see a number of record years during the current economic cycle.

The three percent forecasts is already beginning to look very conservative.