12.05.2011

Manitex up 44%

US based Boom truck and material handling manufacturer Manitex, has reported first quarter revenues up 44 percent.

Revenues for the quarter were $31.7 million taking away CVS Ferrari sales of $8 million and the like-for-like increase was 15 percent with Crane sales leading the charge with 45 percent growth in sales compared to the same quarter last year. Pre-tax profits climbed just over 45 percent to $676,000. The company’s backlog grew 20 percent to $48 million.

Chief executive David Langevin said: “First quarter sales and profits were in line with our expectations and we are particularly encouraged by the improvement in sales and growth in our backlog. Our first quarter expenses included approximately $500,000 of unusually high sales and marketing expenses, equivalent to $.04 per share, related to ConExpo, which is held once every three years and from which we believe we obtained numerous market opportunities as well as completing two very important distribution agreements for our Manitex business.”

“Subsequent to the end of the first quarter we were pleased to announce that we had been notified that we had successfully moved through the next stage of the process to acquire certain assets of CVS SpA that operated in the container handling equipment market. With this progress, we would expect to complete a transaction during the third quarter of the year, well in advance of our initial expectations, which will help us to further penetrate this attractive and growing market segment.”

Vertikal Comment

This is a solid performance from Manitex and possibly the start of a long and steady growth period for the company. Its challenge is that apart from the Manitex boom truck line its other brands and products are either very niche, made up of old or regional technology (not global) or troubled brands.

In spite of this the company can carve out a very respectable business for itself in the growth period of the new cycle. If it is to move up to another level though it will need substantial investment in most of its product ranges.

The company is capable of creating some outstanding new developments from ‘traditional’ product lines, as demonstrated by the new Badger cab down Rough Terrain cranes. However to repeat this across all of its product lines in time to benefit from the upward period of the business cycle would consume a large amount of investors cash and company resources.

The alternatives are to continue to do what it is doing and then sell out nearer the top, yielding a very positive return for its shareholders or….. to focus on being ready for the next cycle in 10 years or so to make any big step forward?

The former is probably more likely than the latter.