Haulotte equipment sales rise across Europe

Haulotte reported first-half revenue of €276 million in 2026 as stronger equipment demand lifted sales across Europe and improved operating performance at the access-platform manufacturer. Revenue increased 7% at constant exchange rates excluding IAS 29, while the reported revenue table showed growth from €264 million to €276 million. Equipment sales reached €234 million, compared with €215 million in the first half of 2025.

The improvement was concentrated in machine sales. Haulotte reported equipment revenue up 9% in its first-half table, while equipment-sales activity increased 10% at constant exchange rates. Rental revenue fell from €12 million to €8 million and services declined from €37 million to €34 million, leaving the group increasingly dependent on stronger equipment volumes for the improvement in its overall performance.

Europe provided the clearest regional growth. Activity increased 19% across the region during the first half, extending the stronger trading already visible earlier in the year. Asia-Pacific sales fell 13%, Latin America declined 24%, and North America recovered during the second quarter sufficiently to finish the half 1% above the comparable period.

The regional split gives construction equipment buyers and rental businesses a more useful signal than the group revenue figure alone. Mobile elevating work platform demand is influenced by construction workloads, industrial maintenance, fleet utilisation, rental-company replacement cycles, and financing conditions, so changes in manufacturer sales can appear before they are fully visible in construction output data.

Haulotte’s first-quarter results showed how quickly the European picture strengthened. At the end of March, European activity was already 8% ahead, but group equipment-sales activity remained 2% below the previous year. By 30 June, equipment activity had moved to 10% growth at constant exchange rates, indicating that the second quarter accounted for much of the improvement.

The company said second-quarter activity increased 18%, helping reverse the weaker start to the year. Its first-quarter assessment had described the global aerial work platform market as having fallen to its lowest level since 2020 at the end of 2025, with rental-fleet utilisation remaining below historical levels. The stronger second quarter therefore represents a meaningful improvement from a subdued base rather than evidence that every regional equipment market has recovered.

Operating performance also improved. Haulotte recorded current operating income of €8 million before foreign-exchange gains and losses, compared with €2 million in the equivalent period, giving a current operating margin of 2.9%. The company attributed the increase to higher sales volumes, tighter control of production costs, and continued optimisation of its fixed-cost base.

The group nevertheless remained loss-making. Net result excluding IAS 29 was a loss of €9 million, improved from a €21 million loss a year earlier, while consolidated net loss was €10 million. Haulotte said financial expenses associated with debt and a €10.3 million tax reassessment at one subsidiary weighed on the result; the company strongly disputes the tax decision.

Net debt excluding guarantees stood at €205 million at the end of June, around €4 million higher over the period. Haulotte had also requested a waiver relating to compliance with bank ratios for the June reporting period, with the majority of lenders having accepted the request by the half-year date. Those figures put the stronger sales performance into perspective: improved equipment demand is feeding through to operations, but the balance sheet and net result still leave little room for complacency.

For European plant fleets, the 19% increase is nevertheless notable because access-platform purchasing had been constrained by several overlapping pressures. Higher financing costs increased the expense of fleet renewal, while rental companies had to balance replacement spending against utilisation and residual values. Manufacturers were also working through an uneven global market rather than a synchronised recovery.

That unevenness remains visible in Haulotte’s results. European growth is being offset by double-digit declines in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, while North America has only just moved back into positive territory after finishing the first quarter 20% below the prior-year level. A manufacturer serving several continents can therefore report stronger consolidated volumes while individual production and distribution markets continue to behave very differently.

The split between equipment and aftermarket activity is another useful measure. New machine sales have strengthened, yet rental and services remain below the previous year, which suggests the recovery is not broad-based across every part of Haulotte’s business. For contractors and rental fleets, sustained improvement would be more convincing if equipment orders were accompanied by stronger utilisation, service demand, and rental activity rather than relying predominantly on new-machine volumes.

Haulotte expects full-year sales growth of at least 5% in 2026 and believes that level of activity should allow it to maintain a positive current operating margin close to the 2.9% recorded in the first half. The company continues to describe visibility as limited, however, and its October third-quarter sales update will provide the next indication of whether the second-quarter acceleration has carried into the remainder of the year.

For now, the European access-equipment market is giving Haulotte considerably more support than it did at the start of 2026. The manufacturer is selling more machines and generating a better operating margin, but weaker regions, falling rental and service revenue, €205 million of net debt, and a continuing group loss mean the second-half numbers still have rather more work to do than the headline sales increase might suggest.