24.10.2013

Manitou dips

Nine month revenues declined nine percent at access and telehandler company Manitou, although order intake picked up in the third quarter, with orders taken for 6,500 units compared to 6,300 last year.

Total revenues were €872.9 million nine percent down on last year, with access and telehandler sales slipping 10 percent, to €594.5 million, while the industrial division declined 22 percent to €94.3 million. The Construction Equipment operation – largely the Gehl business in North America is up four percent for the period to €184.1 million.

Third quarter revenues fell two percent to €281.6 million driven largely by lower industrial sales – down 28 percent to €26.4 million mostly due to the loss of the Toyota distribution business, the contract of which ended at the end of last year. But also by a surprising nine percent drop in Construction Equipment revenues to €56.8 million – although over half of this is due to exchange rate differentials. Telehandler and aerial lift sales were up six percent to €198.5 million.

Geographically all regions were down apart from Northern Europe which posted a 10 percent gain, Asia fell 19 percent, the Americas by six percent and Southern Europe by two percent.

Chief executive Dominique Bamas said: "Third quarter sales highlight the group's return to nearly the same level of business as the same period last year. After adjusting for the strong appreciation of the euro and the discontinuation of distribution for Toyota in France as of January 2013, they even increased by six percent. Order intake for the quarter was again higher than last year’s. An improvement in the third quarter sales of the RTH division, which was the best third quarter since 2009, was also observed.”

“At the operational level, we continue to organize ourselves to smooth fluctuations in business activity by maximizing the maintenance of production rates at constant levels. This permits us to react more responsively to the demands of all our customers, including the most cyclical among them."

Vertikal Comment

While revenues continue to slide at Manitou it looks as though the choppy start to the year has not only stabilised but has turned and is on an underlying upward trend. With Northern Europe gaining momentum and France beginning to pick up the company ought to go into the new year in decent shape. Although the industrial division may take quite a bit longer to recover from the switch away from Toyota to Manitou’s own products.