26.04.2012

JLG jumps 66%

Aerial lift and telehandler manufacturer JLG has reported a 66 percent increase in revenues for the first six months of its fiscal year, combined with a strong pick up in profits.

Total revenues for the six months to the end of March were $1.264 billion, 66 percent higher than at the same time last year. Operating income for the period jumped almost 80 fold, from $1 million to $81.5 million thanks to the strong increase in volume and price increases. Looking at sales by product type, aerial lifts were $661.4 million, with telehandlers at $399.4 million – other revenues made up the $203.7 balance.

Moving to the second quarter, which directly compares to other companies first quarters, revenues were up 61 percent to $759.4 million, made up of $406.4 million of aerial lift sales and $251 million for telehandlers. Operating income for the quarter was $68.4 million more than triple last years $17.7 million.

The backlog/order book as of the end of March was $941.5 million, almost 60 percent higher than at the same point in 2011.

Owner Oshkosh saw total group revenues for the first half climb 15 percent to $3.95 billion, while pre-tax profits were more than cut in half, falling from $254.8 million last year to $109.3 million this year, due to a poor product mix in the company’s defence sector.

Oshkosh chief executive Charles Szews said: "Strong performance by our access equipment segment drove quarterly results above our expectations. We believe customer actions and industry metrics point to a sustained recovery in global access equipment markets. Our success in responding to this recovery enables us to raise our performance outlook for the full fiscal year 2012."

Vertikal Comment

This is a truly exceptional result from JLG in terms of both revenues and improved margins. The company looks as though it may be edging ahead of its competitors, having beaten both Genies strong performance for the first three months of 2012 and that of Haulotte by a significant margin.

With an order book in the region of four months or more, it may see some deals begin to swing to the competitors, due to delivery times. However the company still has significant capacity reserves and managed to retain skilled staff through the recession thanks to Oshkosh defence subcontract work, so subject to supply chain challenges it ought to be able to ramp up production fairly rapidly- should it have the confidence to do so.

No matter what happens this is good news for the aerial lift industry as a whole and bodes well for the growth of the powered access industry, as new records look likely to be set over the next few years.

Exciting times may lie ahead.