Rental revenues decline at Finning

Photo: Finning Cat

Cat dealer Finning International has reported a 10% decline to CAN$295 million in rental revenues for 2024, although overall revenues were up by 6% to a record of $10.1 billion.

Rental revenues in Canada, its largest market, declined by 10% year-on-year to $184 million.

However, it said that lower new equipment and rental revenues were offset by higher used equipment revenues, which increased by 5% to $341 million compared with 2023.

It was a similar story in the UK & Ireland, which saw rental revenues drop by 7% to $41 million, although used equipment sales increased by 24% to $97 million. South America also saw an increase in used equipment sales, although rental revenues declined by 9% to $70 million.

Quarter-on-quarter growth for rental as a whole decreased by 14% to $75 million, while total revenue was up by 7% to $2.4 billion. 

Kevin Parkes, president and CEO, said, “Overall, 2024 was another strong year for Finning. Through the commitment of our employees, we have built a stronger and more resilient company to reliably service our customers.

“We are proud to have achieved several important milestones in 2024 including records of $10.1 billion of total net revenue and $5.5 billion of product support revenue.”

Commenting on the quarterly results, he said the company had achieved good growth in each region it operates in; “South America delivered product support revenue growth over 10%, our UK and Ireland team more than doubled their EBIT through effective strategy execution, and Canada demonstrated resilience, sequentially improving EBIT in difficult market conditions.

“The geographic and end market diversity of our business was critical to our strong performance in 2024, and this diversity, with approximately half of our business outside of Canada, will remain important as we move through 2025.”

Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, he said the company will look to execute its strategy to “maximise product support, drive full-cycle resilience and grow our used, rental and power businesses to improve our return on invested capital.”

Board changes at Finning

In separate news, the company has announced that Charles Ruigrok, an independent director, will succeed James Carter as Chair of the Board of Directors following Finning’s 2025 annual meeting of shareholders on May 13, 2025.

Carter was appointed Chair of the Board on April 1, 2024 as part of the company’s Board Chair transition plan and will retire from the Board at the annual meeting after serving 18 years as a director.

Ruigrok joined Finning’s Board in 2023 and serves as Chair of the Human Resources Committee and as a member of the Governance and Risk Committee. He has over 40 years of executive experience in the energy industry, including having served as CEO of Syncrude Canada Ltd and 26 years at Imperial Oil Limited in various senior executive positions.

Ruigrok, who currently serves as Board Chair of ENMAX Corporation, said, “It’s an honour to be selected as Finning’s next Board Chair. I look forward to working with my Board colleagues and the Finning leadership team to continue executing on Finning’s strategy.

“On behalf of the Board, I extend our gratitude to Jim for his unwavering commitment to the interests of our stakeholders over his 18-year tenure. His extensive experience in the oil sands and long-term customer perspective have been invaluable. We are a stronger and more resilient company today because of Jim’s leadership and contributions.”

His appointment follows the company’s announcement of an executive leadership team transition as part of its succession planning process in 2024.

That transition saw managing director of Finning UK and Ireland Tim Ferwerda take the role of president of Finning Canada, while David Primrose, who was president of Finning Canada up to January 2025, assumed the role of executive vice president and chief development officer.

Elsewhere, Gary Megarrell, former director of construction industries in the UK and Ireland, assumed the role of managing director of Finning UK and Ireland.