Haulotte's Q1 figures show rental up while sales decline

Haulotte Group's consolidated sales figures for the first quarter of 2010 show a 4% fall compared to the same period in 2009 (from €49.8 million to €47.8 million). Some areas of the business are showing improvement while others continue to struggle.

Equipment sales, which represent 67% of total revenue, declined 7.6% and service activities continued to feel the impact of the rental companies' lower utilisation rates during the particularly harsh winter, declining by 13.4%.

However, the rental business is up 26.6% compared to the first quarter of 2009, mainly as a result of the increase in fleet and revenue of the UK subsidiary.

North America has also improved slightly and says Haulotte, "has started to enjoy commercial benefit from the effort made throughout the 2009." Europe is down 8%, while Asia and Latin America are stable. Haulotte expects the latter two markets to be more aggressive in the coming quarters.

Haulotte said, "As expected, the first quarter of 2010 did not signify the end of the low activity levels experienced in 2009, and we will have to wait until the end of the second quarter to see if order intakes and billing, show the first signs of a resumption in activity this year."