Conexpo Insights: Manitou's President Discusses the Market

Brad Boehler, president of Manitou Americas, is a veteran leader, having run Skyjack and Morbark prior to taking the helm at Manitou.

He's seen a lot, from Covid to tariffs to the latest conflict in the Middle East.

"I feel like since 2020, business has been very chaotic and uncertain," Boehler said.

Construction Equipment sat down with Boehler at Conexpo in Las Vegas to discuss the current conditions in the industry and his plans for Manitou, which has become more agressive in North America.

The company has introduced telehandlers, scissor lifts, and CTLs here in the last decade. Manitou is also the parent company of Gehl.

Manitou's future in the market

"Manitou is an American manufacturer, and we want to make sure we stay that," Boehler said. "We’re building telehandlers, skid steers, compact loaders, and articulated loaders here, and we want to continue to build upon that.

"Looking at the globe, the North American marketplace is still one of the biggest marketplaces to go into, and so we would like to have our fair share of that marketplace, and we’d like to do what we need to do in order to capture that," he said.

"The strategy short term is to continue to import some products and build some products here and meet those market objectives. I think as we grow, Manitou will be more regional, and that's what the new structure that we entered into in the beginning of the year is really about—allowing the three regions to control their own destinies.

"The goal with those three regions is to allow them to meet their customers needs as they are," Boehler said.

As for new product categories in the U.S., Boehler said it's possible.

"Right now, my job is to understand what we do today, how we do it, how well we do it, and whether we can improve on that," he said.