JLG Industries, or Oshkosh Corp.’s access equipment segment, posted fiscal fourth quarter net sales of $616.2 million, a 39.4-percent decrease compared to the fiscal fourth quarter of 2019. The decrease in sales was largely the result of lower market demand resulting from the global economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Access Equipment segment operating income in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2020 declined 80 percent to $25.3 million, or 4.1 percent of sales, compared to $126.5 million or 12.4 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. The decrease was from the impact of lower sales volume, adverse absorption as a result of lower production volumes.
Net sales for the company for the fiscal fourth quarter were, an $1,784.2 million compared to $2,195.7 million in the year ago fourth quarter, an 18.7-percent slide. For the full year, Oshkosh posted $6,856.8 million compared to $8,382.0 million in full year 2019, a 17-percent decline.
“As demonstrated by our solid performance in the fiscal fourth quarter, Oshkosh team members continued to work hard and delivered strong results in the face of adversity and global uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Wilson Jones, Oshkosh Corp. CEO. “We responded to changing markets across the globe by taking swift actions to control costs and deliver value to our customers across numerous essential businesses. As a result, our team delivered fiscal fourth quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.30 on revenues of $1.8 billion.
“It’s clear that our rental company customers continued to limit their spending on new capital equipment, which impacted our sales again in the fourth quarter and causes uncertainty in our revenue outlook for our Access Equipment segment for fiscal 2021. However, Oshkosh is a different integrated global industrial, and our Defense and Fire & Emergency segments provide a solid foundation to offset this impact as we move into the new fiscal year.”
Jones added that the company signed a recent contract with the Belgium Ministry of Defense for more than 30 of its next generation, high performance Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.
“The contract is another vote of confidence from one of our NATO allies that the JLTV is the vehicle they need for critical missions.”
While Oshkosh didn’t give guidance for the coming year, Jones expressed an optimistic view. “While we are not providing a quantitative outlook for fiscal 2021 today, as the timing and magnitude of recovery in our access equipment and some commercial markets remain uncertain, we are staying close to our customers and will respond to opportunities that arise,” Jones said. “We are confident in the long-term potential of our end markets and will continue to rely on our People First culture as we persevere through the current environment.”
