Wacker Neuson's rental business grows 15% in 2009
24 May 2010
Wacker Neuson's rental business grew by 15% last year to €63 million, a record for the business and in stark contrast to the over 30% fall in the manufacturer's equipment sales last year.
Dr Georg Sick, Wacker Neuson's chief executive officer and president, speaking at the Bauma exhibition at the end of April, said; "The rental activity has helped us...it experienced an all-time high. It helped compensated for the loss of business in sales."
Wacker's rental business is mainly in Germany but it also has rental locations in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Check Republic. Revenues grew from €55 million in 2008 to €63 million last year, a year in which the total European rental market is estimated to have fallen by 17%, according to the European Rental Association (ERA).
Andreas Krüger, vice president sales and service, Wacker Neuson, told IRN that the increase in revenues was the result of growth in the fleet following heavy investment in 2008. The number of depots is currently100, but Mr Krüger said no new locations were opened last year.
He said pricing and utilisation levels were reasonable in 2009 and that the main issue for Wacker had been "that machines were available [for rent], and in good technical condition". He said Wacker's rental business had increased its market penetration at existing depots; "it takes three or four years to fully develop each new depot".
Wacker Neuson will allocate around €7 million capital expenditure towards its rental business this year, said Mr Krüger. This equates to 10% of Wacker's total CapEx planned in 2010.
The 15% growth level will make Wacker Neuson one of the fast growing rental companies in this year's IRN-100 listing of the world's top 100 rental companies (based on 2009 rental revenues), and the fastest growing European company in the top list.
Wacker Neuson is focusing its rental development in its home markets where it is seeing demand from its customers and also in new rental areas such as eastern Europe. Its strategy is not to establish rental in developed rental areas such as the UK, France and other western European countries.
