04.08.2017

Skyjack’s upward trend continues

Skyjack has reported further substantial revenue and profit gains in the second quarter.

The Industrial division of owner Linamar, which is largely Skyjack, reported first half sales 31.3 percent higher at $648 million. This is due - says the company- to significant market share gains for scissor lifts in Europe and Asia, for boom lifts in North America, Europe and Asia and strong market share gains in telehandlers in North America. Operating profit was 23.6 percent higher at $99.9 million.

Looking at the second quarter, sales were 24.5 percent higher at $361 million, while operating profits increased just 2.5 percent to $54.1 million, held back by a substantial currency loss and less profitable product mix.
Parent group Linamar reported a 7.8 percent rise in revenues to $3.42 billion with pre-tax profits of $399 million up seven percent on the same period last year.

Linamar chief executive Linda Hasenfratz said: “We have had another solid quarter at Linamar with strong results in both segments. Powertrain/Driveline continues to perform at very strong margins despite soft core markets, evidence of our market share growth stepping in to drive results, and our Industrial segment continues to power along taking market share and driving well above industry growth levels.”

Vertikal Comment

Another very strong quarter from Skyjack which is clearly gaining on the two market leaders and keeping ahead of the Chinese manufacturers that are looking to take some of its slab scissor market share away.
In terms of percentage growth, second quarter profitability has clearly suffered partly due to a one-off comparative and partly due to higher costs associated with the rapid growth. However to put this into perspective the company achieved a similar first half operating profit to Genie, which had almost double the revenues and half as much as JLG with more than triple the revenues. While incurring a loss on one aspect of the currency changes, it has also benefited from exchange rate shifts during this period.

All said and done another very good result from Skyjack.