14.07.2009

Manitex acquires Rough Terrain crane product

US Boom truck manufacturer, Manitex has acquired Badger Equipment Company, the Winona, Minnesota-based crane and excavator manufacturer, for $3 million, from Avis Industrial which has owned the business since 1978.
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A Badger Hydroscopic excavator

The purchase will be paid with $250,000 of Manitex common stock and a $2.75 million five year note bearing interest at six percent. In 2008 Badger had revenues of around $10 million, an EBITDA of $500,000 and “positive net income”.

Badger’s current crane business is based around the Little Giant, lattice boomed, truck mounted, self propelled and crawler mounted road/rail cranes.
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A Little Giant truck mounted crane

Earlier this year, Badger announced plans to introduce a new line of specialised high quality cab-down Rough Terrain cranes, beginning with a 30 ton model. Shipments were due to begin in the second half of this year. Manitex says that it expects the launch to remain on schedule, with initial shipments due within the next three months.

David J. Langevin, chief executive of Manitex International said:” We are excited to add another niche product line to the Manitex family. The acquisition of Badger’s specialised product lines will expand our market opportunities, through offering new products to our current dealers and expanding our dealership network.”

“We are particularly excited about the opportunity to introduce the new 30 ton Rough Terrain crane, which we will begin to ship against orders in-hand in this current quarter. We anticipate moderate revenue and cash flow contributions from Badger in the second half, with more substantial impact occurring in following years, primarily driven by the strength of this new product’s launch.”
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A Badger/Little Giant Hydro-scopic excavator at work

Badger Equipment was founded in 1945 building cranes and excavators, it was acquired by Warner & Swasey in 1957 and began producing truck mounted lifts in 1967, that same year Warner & Swasey acquired Sargent, which built truck cranes and had introduced the worlds first swing cab Rough Terrain crane, the 4418, a year earlier .

The Sargent Rough Terrain cranes were originally rebranded and marketed as Warner & Swasey products, but by 1970 the same cranes carried the Badger name and while liverly, with a model range that ran from the 4418 up to the 4450. At the same time the company dropped its truck mounted line up.

Badger continued to produce small numbers of Rough Terrain cranes up until 1997.

A mainstay of the Badger line from the early days has been its telescopic truck mounted and self propelled excavators, similar in concept to those produced by Gradall. In the mid 1990’s Badger also acquired the rights to the Cruz Air, a wheeled, road legal excavator from Case.

The company trades and sells parts under the Badger, Little Giant, Burro-CFT, Cullen FriestedtT, Western CullenT, and BurroT brand names.
Click here to see Badger product video including new crane

Vertikal Comment

Most crane veterans will be surprised to hear that Badger Equipment still exists, and even more astonished to hear that it intends to get back into the crane market.

Its crane genes can be traced back to Sargent, which led the world, with the 18 ton 4418, which was developed by David Ghysels at the request of the company’s best customer, Bob Gleason.

The swing cab RT crane took the North American construction and petrochemical market by storm, but it was Grove that benefited the most from its appeal, quickly following Sargent with the 25 tonne RT63S and running with the concept at a sprint, while Sargent, under Warner & Swasey ownership stood and watched.

In the years that followed the Sargent crane business, now sold as Warner & Swasey/Badgers stagnated. Although it would show some flashes of inspiration from time to time It always lacked the marketing and distribution skills to keep up with Grove, Koehring and P&H.

We have not seen the new Badger crane, but it is hard to imagine that it will be able to make any serious impact against Manitowoc, Terex, Link-Belt or Tadano. However if it has some interesting niche design features and is priced right, it may do relatively well under the more dynamic ownership of Manitex.

At the end of the day Manitex has paid virtually nothing for the company, which suggests that Avis did not consider it to be much of a golden goose. Manitex has little to loose though, and much to exploit, including the parts business, the distribution contacts and possibly one or two of the products, but don’t expect the big four to be quaking in their shoes just yet.