27.03.2019

Record year for Wacker Neuson

Wacker Neuson has reported another record year for both sales and profitability.

Total revenues for the 12 months were €1.7 billion 11 percent higher than in 2017, the increases occurred across geographic regions, with Europe – its largest market by far rising almost 11 percent to €1.25 billion, while the Americas also increased 11 percent to €397.8 million, and sales in Asia Pacific jumped 28 percent to €59.8 million. Product wise the highest growth levels -14 percent - came from the Compact Equipment division which includes telehandlers.

In terms of profitability, pre-tax profits were 62 percent higher than last year at €203 million – however this included a contribution of almost €55 million from the sale of a real estate company. Without this it would have been €148.2 million, an increase of just over 18 percent. All of the profit came from Europe – where operating profit was 175.6 million, while the Americas reported a loss of €8.7 million - thanks to exchange rates and other issues - and Asia Pacific posted a loss of €5 million.

Chief executive Martin Lehner said: “We remained on our growth path this past fiscal year, reporting new record revenue for the period. We achieved our revenue and earnings forecast despite having to contend with bottlenecks in our global supply chain. This did mean, however, that we were not always able to fully meet the strong demand for our equipment and machines.”

Vertikal Comment

Wacker Neuson continues to go from strength to strength as it expands sales of medium size construction equipment. Its telehandlers continue to grow in popularity, although it is held back by a limited range and possibly a patchy distribution network for this type of product.

The company has made its name from manufacturing products that are very well designed and finished, as well as being exceptionally reliable. It is now also becoming far more innovative. We would expect it to carry on with this upward trend to the point where it could just see revenues reach $2 billion next year.