The biggest of all, KCI Konecranes, had total sales of Euro 971m ($1.2bn) in 2005, up a third over 2004. Demag Cranes and Components posted a total sales revenue of Euro 660m (820m) at the end of its financial year in September 2005, up 6.3% over its 2004 fiscal year. The US-based Columbus McKinnon generated $553.4m (688m Euro) in the 2005 calendar year, up 11.5%. It ends its financial year on 31 March. Japan’s Kito, by contrast, is estimating total net sales of about Euro 200m for its 2006 fiscal year ending 31 March.
When the business of the three companies are compared over the same 12 month period, Demag fares better, but its sales volume is only 70% of KCI Konecranes (see tables below).
With being busy has come profits. In 2005, KCI Konecranes reported operating income of 49.3m Euro ($61.3m). In the same period, Columbus McKinnon reported a net income of $32.3m, although its profits are hurt by money spent managing its $175m debt. Demag did not release its profit figures.
Demag reported a total of 4,836 employees at the end of September, a drop of 320 (6.2%). KCI’s employees shot up by 700 to a total of 5,211, and up another 700 from the Stahl acquisition. Columbus McKinnon doubled the number of staff in its European and Asian operations to a total of 804, with a worldwide total of 3,061, a rise of 12% in its 2005 fiscal year. The number of Demag employees fell by 304, or by about 6%, in the year.
In a year of 660m sales revenue, Demag reported spending 12m ($15m) Euros on investments, and 12.8m on research and development. KCI Konecranes reported spending Euro 16m on replacing machines or expanding capacity, and Euro 30.3m on acquisitions, including the R Stahl German hoist manufacturing plant. And it reported spending Euro 8.8m on R&D, a figure that it admits is low: “The very moderate increase in R&D spending relates to the Group’s modern range of products,” it said in the annual report. Columbus McKinnon said it expected to spend only about $7m (5.6m Euro) on investments in 2005.
Although dominant in many markets in the USA, Columbus McKinnon has the least amount of international sales: 37% of its sales in its financial year that ended in April 2005, a total of $191m, came from trade outside the USA. Still, the company reports it has plans to carry on this work. Demag was only slightly more international than CM. A quarter of its business came from Germany, and 65% of its revenues came from trade inside Europe.
