31.01.2020

Record revenues for Manitou

Manitou has reported record revenues for 2019 passing the €2 billion mark for the first time.

Total sales for the 12 months were just under €2.1 billion, up 11 percent on 2018. The revenues are made up of three divisions, the material handling and access – mostly telehandlers and aerial work platform sales – which achieved sales of €1.46 billion, an increase of 13 percent, while the compact equipment division – mostly Gehl branded equipment – saw sales growth of five percent to €328 million. Finally services and solutions – mostly spare parts and after sales support – had sales of €309 million, 12 percent up on 2018.

Looking at a geographic breakdown, southern European sales, which includes France, were 17 percent higher at €677 million, while revenues in northern Europe increased by a more modest eight percent to €813 million. Sales in the Americas were 15 percent higher at €403 million and finally Asia Pacific increased just one percent to €201 million.

Moving on to the fourth quarter total revenues came in six percent lower than in the same period last year at €494 million. Material handling and access sales were eight percent lower at €333 million, compact equipment also declined by eight percent to €81 million, while services grew by 12 percent to €80 million.

Geographically southern Europe was six percent lower at €152 million, northern Europe declined 10 percent to €187 million, sales in the Americas were €100 million, down one percent on the year, and finally Asia Pacific was the only region to see sales growth, increasing six percent to €55 million.

The company’s outlook for 2020 is a little gloomy, and it expects sales to decline around 10 percent to around €1.9 billion. Although fourth quarter order intake picked up on the third quarter leaving the group with an order book of around €650 million. At this stage Manitou has only published its revenues, full accounts will come in a month or so.

Chief executive Michel Denis said: “The group ended the year with a revenue that exceeded the €2 billion euro mark for the first time in its history, while strengthening its global presence and market share. The doubling of order intake in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter gives the order book a depth of around four months of activity. We are thus finding our optimal balance between our customers' delivery time expectations and our suppliers' need for visibility in order to supply ourselves in a fluid manner after the cyclical peak in delivery times that we reached at the end of 2018. In the fourth quarter, customer demand remained strong across all sectors. We note, however, that in the construction sector, rentals continue to speak positively on market dynamics, while maintaining a wait and see attitude with regard to their investment decisions. The gradual slowdown in the world economy, combined with uncertainties such as the effects of Brexit or the US elections, lead us to anticipate a decline in sales of around 10 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.”

Vertikal Comment

This is an historic sales achievement from Manitou, although it is marred a little by the slower fourth quarter, partly offset by reports of a pick up in order intake during the quarter, that the company was unable to capitalise on due to having cut production back a little in response to an earlier slowdown in order intake.

It is hard to say at this point if the company is being overly conservative for 2020, or realistic. The year has certainly started slowly as rental companies and contractors wait and see how the year might develop. The coronavirus in China will certainly not help the situation if it continues to gather pace.

Having said that the company still has plenty of new opportunities to go after and could well do better than forecast even if the market declines – although if production has been ramped down in anticipation of a 10 percent decline it will become self-fulfilling.