21.04.2021

Haulotte sales slip 18%

Haulotte has released its initial first quarter revenues of €106 million, which is an 18 percent fall on the same quarter last year.

Looking at a breakdown between sectors, new equipment sales declined 22 percent, rental revenues were 12 percent lower while services increased by nine percent.

Geographically, European sales were hit the hardest, falling 24 percent, although this is still a 10 percent improvement over the last quarter if 2020. In Asia Pacific, the reduction was a more modest 14 percent, while North America fared better still, coming in just two percent lower than last year - the final quarter before the pandemic hit. As was the case for much of the past year or so, all of the declines have been in the scaffold and non-powered business, aerial work platform sales in North America actually increased by six percent. Finally South American sales were 12 percent down on the same quarter last year.

The company says that in addition to some ongoing market slowness, key component procurement and supply chain challenges have also held back shipments.

Buoyed by the rebound in the aerial work platform market and despite the current tensions in the supply chain, which the company hopes to see resolved during the summer, Haulotte expects sales to grow by more than 15 percent this year. At the same time, it expects an operating margin of between three and four percent.

Vertikal Comment

This year’s sales are being compared to the last quarter before the pandemic hit the wider world. Although it was 19 percent down on the first quarter of 2019 - so first quarter sales have in fact gone from €163.2 million in 2019 to €106 million this year, a 35 percent drop over two years. Although to be fair, 2019 was the company’s best quarter in 10 years.

Looking forward, the company is likely to be back on an upward trajectory from here on out. It has some excellently engineered new products and most of its product line has been redesigned in recent years, to a higher standard in terms of both features and build quality. Assuming it overcomes the current global supply chain issues, the next three quarters ought to be very positive ones for Haulotte.