26.04.2017

Record first quarter for Hiab

Loader crane and material handling company Hiab has reported record first quarter results in terms of sales and profit.

Revenues for the first quarter were up 10 percent on last year to €270 million, with order intake rising five percent to €288 million. This left the order book six percent up on the quarter at €302 million. Operating profit for the quarter was €39.5 million 23 percent higher than in the same quarter last year.

Sister company Kalmar saw revenues fall one percent to €364 million, with order intake also falling one percent to €448 million, leaving its order book at €977 million still nine percent up on the quarter. Operating profits were €26.6 million six percent higher than last year.

The two companies, along with MacGregor are part of Finland’s Cargotec which reported revenues of €793 million four percent lower than last year, while pre-tax profits dropped six percent to €47.9 million.

Cargotec chief executive Mika Vehviläinen said: “The year started with a strong note, particularly at Hiab, where the orders received and the operating profit margin reached an all-time high. Kalmar's development as a whole was at a satisfactory level. Its profitability improved and demand was healthy especially in mobile equipment. As in 2016, MacGregor's market situation continued to be challenging. However, we are pleased that we managed to keep MacGregor profitable, and that its orders received increased compared to the last quarter of 2016.”

“By 2020, our goal is to increase the share of services and software to 40 percent of Cargotec's sales. Service sales grew at Hiab and Kalmar but decreased at MacGregor as a result of the difficult market situation. Our software business developed positively in the first quarter, which reflects our efforts over the past few years. During the first quarter, already as much as 32 percent of our sales came from services and software.”

“We see many possibilities to improve the performance of the cargo handling value chain. With our solutions, know-how and expertise we want to help our customers make their operations more efficient. We are proceeding well towards our target to be the leader in intelligent cargo handling.”

Vertikal Comment

It is a real pleasure to see a company like Hiab continuing to grow and prosper and move ever further away from the decline and stagnation it struggled with a few years back. Ever since Cargotec moved away from its brief centralisation and brand merger strategies and put the Hiab name back at the forefront, the company has been recovering and in the last couple of years really appears to have found its stride again, making excellent progress back towards market leadership.

Cargotec’s apparent ‘lighter touch’ does look to be paying off.