04.03.2010

Skyjack drops 64%

Linamar parent company of Skyjack, the Canadian based aerial lift and telehandler manufacturer has published its full year 2009 results.

The results show that Skyjack revenues fell 63.6 percent to c$161.3 million a fall of 63.6 percent on 2008. The fourth quarter was particularly weak due in part to a reversal of earlier sales that have been re-categorised as a ling term rental.

As a result of lower revenues in the fourth quarter and the sales reversal, the industrial products division which is largely Skyjack, posted an operating loss of $40.5 million compared to a profit of $36.3 million in 2008 without the reversal revenues would have been down by 43.2 percent in place of the 65 percent reported.

At the group level, Linamar recorded revenues down 26 percent to £1.68 billion with the fall causing the buiness to move into negative numbers, with a pre-tax loss of $64.7 million compared to a profit of $86.2 million in 2008.

The company has managed to cut its net debt this year by $162,considerably better than originally expected.

Vertikal Comment

Skyjack will be disappointed with its fourth quarter and full year numbers. The company has managed the downturn better than most in spite of the fact that it is more vulnerable than its larger competitors with most of its range falling bang in the middle of the badly hit ‘bread and butter’ rental market where rental reports are often too poor to justify any investment.

In spite of this the company has a number of new products to launch at Bauma and is investing in its sales and distribution efforts, including South America and China which will help it pull out of the current climate ahead of some of its competitors.

Parent Linamar has so far come through the recession brilliantly and looks set to gain by the pick up in the car market and possibly from the current demise of Toyota, assuming that buyers, particularly in North America switch away from Toyota, which is not a significant customer, towards Linamar customers.