Cramo Boosts First Half Revenues, Divests Latvia and Kaliningrad Operations

Aug. 18, 2017

European rental giant Cramo posted a 1.9-percent revenue increase in the first half of 2017, with €340.9 million compared to €334.5 million in the first half of 2016.

Michael Roth

European rental giant Cramo posted a 1.9-percent revenue increase in the first half of 2017, with €340.9 million compared to €334.5 million in the first half of 2016. The second quarter was basically flat, declining by less than 1 percent, to €178 million compared to €179.1 million a year ago.

During the second quarter, Cramo acquired the assets of Just Pavillon A/S, a Danish modular space provider. After the reporting period, Cramo divested its Danish equipment rental operations to Loxam A/S.

Also this month Cramo divested its operations in Latvia and Lakiningrad by selling SIA Cramo and Cramo Kaliningrad to AS Storent Investments.

“The decision to divest our operations in Latvia and Kaliningrad is in line with Cramo’s new strategy Shape and Share, aiming towards a leading position in all Cramo markets,” said Leif Gustafsson, president and CEO of Cramo Group. “Our performance in Latvia and Kaliningrad has not met our high expectations in terms of return on investment and profitability. We want to focus our investments in markets where we estimate to receive the highest returns in the long term.”

In regard to Cramo’s overall first half performance Gustafsson was upbeat.

“The market environment has remained favourable in both of our business divisions and good performance in equipment rental continued,” he said. “In the second quarter, sales grew in local currencies in equipment rental despite the negative impact of timing of Easter. In modular space, rental sales continued to increase compared to last year, however the growth was still below our expectations especially in Finland. Profitability improved in the equipment rental business division in all segments. In modular space, profitability improved from the first quarter, but was still on a lower level than last year. Strict actions to improve operative processes continued in order to secure better profitability going forward.”

Based in Vantaa, Finland, Cramo has operations in more than a dozen European countries.