Manitex Posts Huge Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Revenue Hikes

March 18, 2011
Manitex International, a manufacturer of boom trucks, rough-terrain cranes, rough-terrain forklifts, special mission-oriented vehicles, container handling equipment and specialized engineered trailers, posted a 98-percent fourth-quarter revenue increase and a 72-percent full-year revenue increase.

Manitex International, a manufacturer of boom trucks, rough-terrain cranes, rough-terrain forklifts, special mission-oriented vehicles, container handling equipment and specialized engineered trailers, posted a 98-percent fourth-quarter revenue increase and a 72-percent full-year revenue increase.

Net revenues for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $29.5 percent, compared with 14.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, and a sequential boost of $4.7 million or 19 percent compared with the third quarter of 2010. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and new operations, net revenues jumped 38 percent from the previous year’s fourth quarter.

EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $2.9 million, or 9.6 percent of sales, the highest ever achieved by Manitex, compared with $0.4 million for the year-ago period. Gross profit of $7.7 million, or 25.9 percent of sales was an improvement of $4.2 million and 280 basis points compared to $3.4 million or 23.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

“We are encouraged by the significant improvement in our performance in 2010 rebounding from the severe conditions of 2009,” said chairman and CEO David Langevin. “Throughout this downturn, we have driven for expansion of our business and financial results by embarking on a broad international diversification program combined with the addition to our portfolio of several well-established and respected product lines through acquisitions and by initiating an operating agreement with CVS, which may lead to an acquisition of this business.”

Acquisitions, the CVS Ferrari operating agreement and new operations started in 2010 contributed $9 million of the full-year increase, with the balance of $5.6 million coming through organic growth.

The company expects a solid improvement in sales for the first quarter of 2011 compared with the year-ago quarter. For the rest of the year, the company expects its specialty markets such as energy, railroads and utilities to lead to double-digit sales growth.

Manitex is based in Bridgeview, Ill.