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TWST: What is Linamar?
Ms. Mulligan: Linamar is based in Guelph, Ontario, which is about an
hour's drive to the west of Toronto. We are a publicly traded company
with a current market capitalization of approximately C$1.4 billion.
Linamar primarily designs, develops and manufactures precision machined
components, modules and systems for engine and transmission/driveline
applications for the North American and European marketplace. Our sales
center on the light vehicle market, as well as some medium and heavy-
duty trucks, off-highway, limited marine and some industrial
applications. We're also an industry leader in North America in the
aerial work platform market, where our scissor lift and reintroduced
Boom products are marketed under the brand name of Skyjack. We are
focused on product excellence in design and production. We have over
10,000 employees in 36 manufacturing locations, five research and
development centers, and nine sales offices in Canada, the United
States, Mexico, Germany, Hungary, China, Korea, and Japan. This is
actually our 40th anniversary this year. We were founded by a gentleman
named Frank Hasenfratz, who emigrated from Hungary to Canada. He started
the business in his garage. We became a public company about 40 years
ago. The Hasenfratz family still does own approximately 25% of the
shares, but otherwise, we are a very widely held public company. One of
the key milestones that people would most likely be interested in is our
acquisition of the Skyjack business in 2000, and since our acquisition,
we have turned it into an extremely profitable entity. We are the leader
in the aerial work platform business in North America, and Skyjack
contributes roughly 20% of our sales on the bottom line. TWST: What are the competitive landscape and the dynamics of
competition?
Ms. Mulligan: I will deal with the business in our two primary segments,
one being the precision machined components for engine and
transmission/driveline and the other being industrial. In the machined
components area, our biggest competitor remains the OEMs themselves.
Most industry analysts would estimate that only about 20% of the in-
house work for this aspect has been outsourced. While you'll see that
moldings, seats, windows etc. have all been largely outsourced, the
drive train is such an integral part of any vehicle that it's the last
to outsource. The OEMs truly are our major competitors. On the
industrial side, the two biggest competitors would be Terex and JLG. We
have actually stolen quite a bit of their market share in recent years
and are now the number one manufacturer of scissor lifts in North
America.
Tickers included in this excerpt: LIMAF
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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