14.02.2018

Strong growth at Kiloutou

French international rental group Kiloutou has reported a 14 percent increase in full year revenues for 2017 to €606 million. Of this €534 million came from the domestic market in France with solid improvements coming from all market sectors, with construction and infrastructure leading the way. The company says that in addition to higher utilisation it managed to raise rental rates during the period.

Overseas revenues hit a new record in 2017 of €72 million, almost double what it was in 2016, boosted by a full year’s contribution from the Starlift business in Germany that it acquired in 2016, six months from its new Italian business, which it purchased at the end of June and a couple of months benefit from the expanded Polish business, having acquired the GAM Polska operation at the end of October. The number of employees outside of France now totals 535 based at 61 locations in Poland, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Capital expenditure for the year was €110 million with 2,500 new machines added to the fleet, with a focus on electric powered equipment. The average age of the fleet was reduced in the period from 63 months to 60.

General manager Olivier Colleau said: "We now have a fleet of 250,000 machines and carry out about 1.5 million inspections/interventions a year. So we have a great interest in managing these operations more efficiently, by carrying them out during quieter periods and deploying new technology, and more preventative maintenance work, such as hydraulic oil testing, and battery discharge rates on aerial work platforms etc..”.

The company says that its strategy for this year is more of the same, and that it will step up its capital expenditure to €184 million, roughly half for replacement and half for fleet expansion. The focus will be on larger equipment, including aerial work platforms and 360 degree telehandlers. In all it expects to add 4,000 new machines to the fleet.

Vertikal Comment

Kiloutou is ‘on a roll’ at the moment and with its new shareholder now in place with additional funding available to support faster growth it looks set to have another good year in 2018. Even if you only take a full year’s contribution from the acquisitions it made in 2017 into consideration, revenues would be five percent higher at €630 million. So it is not hard to anticipate the company reaching €700 million within the next two years – possibly sooner.

Watch this space.