29.01.2021

Fourth quarter pick up for Manitou

Manitou has reported full year sales of €1.58 billion, down 24 percent on 2019 with the decline almost entirely due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The 12 month numbers were made as follows:
- Material handling and access – mostly telehandlers and aerial work platforms – posted sales of just over €1 billion, 30 percent below the prior year.
- Compact Equipment - largely Gehl - ended the year with revenues 20 percent lower at €262 million.
- Parts and services etc.. .came in at €300 million, a fall of just three percent.

Geographically northern Europe remained the largest region with sales of €584 million, down 28 percent on the year, while southern Europe fared better, declining 18 percent to €555 million. Revenues in the Americas were 26 percent lower at €296 million and finally the Asia Pacific region generated sales of €150 million, a fall of 25 percent.

Moving on to the fourth quarter and the situation began to pick up, with total revenues of €432 million - just 13 percent below those of 2019, while its order intake was dramatically higher at €727 million - a jump of more than 50 percent. This left the backlog/order book as of the end of December at €918 million, up almost 55 percent on the year.

Sales of telehandlers and aerial lifts picked up a little, with revenues reaching €275 million, just 18 percent below the previous year. Compact Equipment managed to come close to achieving the pre-pandemic levels after being down just two percent to €79 million. Sales and services also came in at €79 million, two percent below the previous year end.

Southern Europe held up very well in the quarter, with sales increasing two percent to €155 million, while Northern Europe declined 19 percent to $152 million. The Americas reported a 20 percent fall to €80 million and Asia Pacific was 18 percent lower at €45 million. Manitou is now forecasting 2021 to come in around 10 percent higher than 2020.

Chief executive Michel Denis said: "The group closes the year 2020 in line with revenues of €1.585 billion, slightly above our expectations and with a record order intake in the last quarter. This sequence of recovery, much stronger than initially anticipated, reflects the tremendous work of the teams and gives the group a new impetus for 2021.”

“In the fourth quarter, customer requests accelerated month after month to end with a magnitude previously unknown until December. All geographies and markets were dynamic, including European and North American rental companies. We thus ended the year with the second highest level of order book we have never experienced before.”

“This increase in our backlog reinforces the group's commercial positioning. It leads us to accelerate our production rates on all sites. This exercise will involve our entire supply chain. However, the health context and economic uncertainties could impact business in 2021.”

“Given this much more favourable context and these exogenous pressures, we anticipate sales growth for 2021 of more than 10% over the previous year."