Continued growt for the INTRAC companies

2018 was another good year for the INTRAC companies and the Baltic revenues grew by 12% compared to 2017 reaching close to EUR 68 million. Generally all product lines showed growing sales although for some of product groups the leadtimes from the producers developed in an unsatisfactory way. This accordingly resulting in lower actual sales compared to market demand and especially for the forest machines where bottle necks in production made the leadtimes soar from three-four months in beginning of 2018 up to ten or even more months at the end of the same year. Marketing Director Fredrik Brandhorst comments: “Our biggest headache in 2018 has been to keep up the forecasting of machine orders yet not placed by our customers. We have throughout the year encountered steadily growing requests for machinery and especially for forest machines and telehandlers we have seen very strong demand. Yet I think we have from INTRAC side managed fairly well taking into account the number of different models we market combined with the shifting demand e.g. towards larger forwarders. Nevertheless we of course understand than not all of our customers are fully pleased with the leadtimes we have been able to offer but appreciate their patience. The long leadtimes have also meant we now see an all-time high in order backlog and moreover that we have started separate sourcing of good quality second hand machines from different sources in Europe.”

While forest machines accounted to the biggest share of new machine sales for the INTRAC Group the sales of Manitou telehandlers was closely following as number two and with construction equipment from Case and Massey Ferguson agricultural machinery just close behind. At INTRAC we have a fairly good balance between the different product lines and this is also what we need to have knowing the volatile sales volumes in such a comparably small market like the Baltic’s.” concludes Brandhorst.

Also the after sales has developed well during the year and this brings long term stability to the Group’s operations. Group President Carl Leijonhielm comments: “Also for the after sales we have seen a strong growth which pleases us as we take it as a proof of our customers confidence in us and our service organisation. When our customers’ businesses are running on full speed their required support from us increases to a higher level. We continuously employ more technicians in order to meet this demand and the ability to attract and keep skilled technicians is key for our success in the growing business, both in the after sales but also when it comes to sales on new machinery. This is also crucial for long term success in our business.”