Oshkosh gets off to a good start

Specialty truck and body manufacturer Oshkosh Truck Corp. got off to a strong financial start in the first quarter of its fiscal year, reporting a 31.2% increase in net income on 17.9% higher sales when compared to the same period in fiscal 2002. Oshkosh said its net income rose to $11.3 million on sales of $426.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2003, up from net income of $8.6 million on sales of $361.5 million. The company added that revenues from its commercial divisions were up much higher than average in its first fiscal quarter, due to a higher mix of chassis and truck body package sales rather than body-only sales. President & CEO Robert Bohn said Oshkosh's commercial sales increased 28.8% to $166.8 million in its first fiscal quarter, with sales of concrete and refuse trucks up 66.8% and 4.1%, respectively. Domestic refuse sales decreased 9.4% due to substantially lower shipments to large commercial waste fleets. However, that fall off was offset by increased refuse truck sales in Europe, which were up 26.7%.