02.03.2011

Manitou slashes losses

Manitou has published its full year results for 2010 which show that the company made a pre-tax loss of €10.65 million, compared to a loss in 2009 of €163.5 million.

The results confirm the revenue numbers published in late January, which show sales were up 23 percent to €838 million, while gross margins climbed 45 percent.

Net debt at the end of December was 43 percent lower than at the same time in 2009 at €139 million. The company says that current trading suggests that its forecasts of 20 percent growth in 2011 still look very achievable.

Chief executive Jean-Christophe Giroux said: “2010 has been a true rebound, with order intake up 60 percent on 2009. This was first driven by prior year catch-up situations but gradually gained strength from improving market conditions.”

“At the same time, we’ve put financial issues to bed: net debt has been almost cut by two for the second year in a row and working capital has even decreased by 14 percent while revenues went up 23 percent.”

“Our day-to-day challenge is now to deliver on a growing backlog, with a variety of
supplier situations putting lines and lead times at risk almost on a daily basis. This will probably weigh on the recovery of operating margins already exposed to component increases – either from raw material prices or new regulatory constraints. While this appears to be an industry-wide situation, it also highlights certain internal weaknesses which we now fully focus on as we will need to grow our throughput by 25-30 percent per annum for the next couple of years.”

“We believe we have entered a new growth cycle, with customer fleets being first renewed then extended, while new usages and markets will progressively open up exciting new business opportunities. 2011 is a first step into this new cycle, which should confirm our financial and operational recovery.”

Click here to see revenue announcement from January