Grove Holdings LLC, the parent company of Grove Worldwide, reported sales up 1.5% to $870m for the year to 3 October 1998.
Gross profits fell 22.5% from $203.3m for fiscal 1997 to $157.5m for fiscal 1998.
Behind the drop in profits was a $17.7m write-off in the fourth quarter related to a change in the accounting treatment of inventory and a $3.1m cost over the year “related to the acquisition and hiring of the new management team”.
Grove has also had to pay $2.7m to the George Group, a member of the Keystone consortium that bought Grove from Hanson in April 1998, for management consultancy work.
Chairman and CEO Sam Bonanno said: “We continue to make excellent progress in reducing costs, both through our operational improvement initiatives and our cost controls. We are also making progress towards revitalising our revenue growth by developing and commercialising new products more quickly.” He added that 18 new products would be brought to market next year, “more than we have in the past several years”.
Bonanno has taken charge of Grove Manlift (as his predecessor Bob Stift once did) as its president Jim Kolinsky has left the company.
