31.07.2024

Profit jump for JLG

JLG’s parent company Oshkosh has reported its half year year results, which show strong profit growth in the JLG/access division

Year to date results
The access division, which is largely made up of JLG and Hinowa, saw revenues for the six months to the end of June increase by around five percent to $2.64 billion. This was broken down as follows:
Aerial lifts - $1.27 billion - no increase
Telehandlers - $802 million +9.5%
Other - $575.8 million +10.2%
Total: $2.64 billion +5%

Operating profit for the division jumped 32 percent to $454.6 million, mainly due to higher prices/a better customer and product mix and higher sales volume.

Backlog, Order book
The order book at the end of June was just over 25 percent lower at $3.26 billion, compared to $4.37 billion a year ago.

Full year forecast

The company is forecasting access revenues of $5.3 billion for 2024, a rise of 6.5 percent on 2023, with a margin of 16.5 percent - roughly the same as in the first half. The increase might be partly due to a few months contribution from of Ausa, the acquisition of which should be completed in the third or fourth quarter.

Second Quarter

Revenues in the second quarter increased 5.9 percent to $1.41. The results are broken down as follows:
Aerial lifts - $675.6 million +1.5%
Telehandlers - $428.6 million +9.1%
Other - $302.7 million +11.1%
Total: $1.41 billion +5.9%

Operating profit for the division improved 16.4 percent to $246.5 million, primarily due to the same reasons as for YTD results.

Oshkosh
Oshkosh as a whole posted half year revenues of $5.39 billion, a rise of just over 15 percent, while pre-tax profit increased by 29.1 percent to $466 million. A sizeable part of the profit was contributed by JLG/Hinowa.

Oshkosh chief executive John Pfeifer said: “We are pleased to report another quarter of strong performance highlighted by growth in revenue, adjusted operating income and adjusted earnings per share. In the second quarter, we grew revenues by 18 percent and adjusted operating income by 36 percent. Our exceptional performance is a testament to the outstanding execution of our 18,000 Oshkosh team members who share a passion for our mission."

“As we look forward, we have a positive outlook for 2025. Based on discussions with customers and our expectations for ongoing infrastructure investments, mega projects, industrial onshoring and current fleet age, we expect Access segment sales in 2025 to be in the range of 2024 sales. This is an exciting time for Oshkosh. Our investments in innovation and capacity underpin our Innovate. Serve. Advance. strategy, enabling us to support our customers and remain at the forefront

Vertikal Comment

When it comes to sales, the result from JLG is not dissimilar to other major players in the market, the strong growth in margins and operating profit however, is well above most other manufacturer's have managed so far. Although sales of aerial lifts are lagging behind, made up in part by ongoing growth in telehandler sales, along with higher revenues from parts and services.

As we have already seen with Genie it looks as though the company is losing market share overseas. Whether this is down the US tariffs curbing Chinese built imports into the USA, and thus soaking up more of the company’s capacity, or it is struggling to compete with Chinese built products in Europe and elsewhere we cannot know for sure.

All in all, though a very good bottom line result from JLG which bodes well for the full year, assuming that day to day order intake holds up.