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15.03.2017

Steady as she goes at Skyjack

Skyjack had a solid fourth quarter and ended the year with a slight increase in revenues, but lower profits.

The Industrial division of Linamar which is largely Skyjack, reported sales for the full year of $866.4 million almost two percent higher than in 2015, thanks to higher sales of scissor lifts in Europe, North America and Asia, along with a strong pickup in US telehandler sales partially offset by lower boom sales in North America and Europe. Operating profits for the period were seven percent lower at $145.2 million. Due to lower first half margins caused by major rental companies delaying capital expenditure, telehandler margins being typically lower than that of boom lifts and a bad debt provision for a Canadian customer in the Oil & Gas industry,

The fourth quarter improved significantly in terms of profitability but sales growth remained a just under two percent, while operating profits jumped 21 percent to $24.6 million.

Linamar as a whole saw full year revenues increase by more than 16 percent to $6,005.6 Pre-tax profits were $672.7 million, an increase of more than 27 percent on 2015.

Linamar chief executive Linda Hasenfratz said: “Quarter four was another fantastic quarter for us, our 22nd consecutive quarter of double digit operating earnings growth, a record we are very proud of. Consistent sustainable growth is a key element of Linamar’s story, as is the enormous markets we are focused on which just keep feeding our backlog to drive continued growth in the future.”

Vertikal Comment

Given the market in 2016 and the performance of most other larger competitors, this is an excellent result from Skyjack. The company has also – we understand – got off to a strong start to 2017 which bodes well for the year ahead barring any unforeseen upsets of course. The company has a new product in the increasingly popular 85ft articulated market , while its new telehandlers, which appear to be very popular will be on the market for a full year.

There are challenges ahead such as the arrival of JCB with an alternative line of simple slab electric scissor lifts – which go head to head with Skyjack in technical terms. But the company has managed to retain its easy to deal with principles which should continue to serve it well and result in stronger growth in both sales and profitability this year.

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