Sales at JLG increased by 18.4% to $1.16bn in the quarter ending June 2018, while operating income went up 14.7% to $149.3m, or 12.9% of sales, compared to $130.2m, or 13.3% of sales, in the same quarter last year.
The increase in sales for Oshkosh Corporations access division was mainly thanks to increased demand for telehandlers and MEWPs, JLG announced, adding that order backlog for the three-month period also
rose sharply.
Higher sales volumes were responsible for the rise, as was improved pricing, offset in part by challenges associated with ramping up production volumes, adverse customer and product mix, increased freight costs and the impact of unfavourable foreign exchange rates, said the company in its financial statement.
The results included pre-tax and restructuring charges of $6.9m. Excluding these charges, adjusted operating income was $156.2m, or 13.5% of sales, in the quarter compared to $140.8m, or 14.4% of sales, for the same period in 2017.
With JLGs financial year beginning in October each year and running until September of the next, net sales across the nine-month period from September 2017 to June this year were $2.7bn, compared to $2.1bn in the same period the year before. Backlog in the nine months rose even more significantly from $523m to $1.2bn.
Wilson Jones, president and CEO of Oshkosh Corporation, said: Despite the uncertainty surrounding the impact of trade policies, market fundamentals for our businesses are positive. Combined with a strong pipeline of defence business and higher backlog in all segments compared to the prior year, we are confident as we head into the last quarter of our fiscal year. The challenges we noted last quarter still exist and continue to impact us in the third quarter. But the team is making progress addressing these challenges and we expect solid results to close out fiscal 2018.
