Apparatus makers ranking by sales?

[KENTucky]

I'm not sure how many Pierce exports.  I believe their numbers are combined, as they are an American company.  Rosenbauer America received a contract for nearly 1300 units for Saudi Arabia alone, in 2012.  If Pierce counts exports, I don't see why Rosenbauer can't.  Then, technically, Rosenbauer is not only #1 in the world, but in America as well.   

 

I've not seen a new delivery from Welch in a few years, not sure he's even still in business.  I don't know much about Simon - only photographed one of their rigs.  Bluegrass and Summit know their niche.  Summit is still family owned and happy building just 15 rigs a year, especially with most of them being complex custom units.  They each have very few employees and keep busy year around - Bluegrass by building tanks for other industries and outfitting command vehicles and Summit by doing miscellaneous metal work. Southeast Apparatus (Wynn) is the same - now owned by a couple of Lexington firefighters and happy building just a handful of rural trucks a year.   

 

Kent Parrish

Louisville, KY

[Aaronw]

Thanks, really appreciate the discussion on this. 

[Will]

Are you referring to Simon in Farley Iowa? My dept had them build us a tanker earlier this year. Been very happy with it. only 4 employees. The owner, his wife, son and another guy.

[YeOldeEnjine]

"Rosenbauer America received a contract for nearly 1300 units for Saudi Arabia alone, in 2012."  

 

- only 506 units from that order were built in the US at the SD facility..... the rest were built in Austria, Germany, and Spain.

 

 

[npfd801]

Are you referring to Simon in Farley Iowa? My dept had them build us a tanker earlier this year. Been very happy with it. only 4 employees. The owner, his wife, son and another guy.

I've had the pleasure of being located next the owner of Simon when we were both showing rigs at the same Illinois show.  Very nice guy.  The rumor was always that if he needed extra help he had a bunch of local farmers that would come in and work between busy times in the fields.  I never summoned up the courage to ask him.

[Will]

I've had the pleasure of being located next the owner of Simon when we were both showing rigs at the same Illinois show.  Very nice guy.  The rumor was always that if he needed extra help he had a bunch of local farmers that would come in and work between busy times in the fields.  I never summoned up the courage to ask him.

 

I could see that happening. Farley is a small town approx 1500 I'd guess.

 

According to this article Smeal produced 145 trucks last year.

 

http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/art...ction.html

[daviddnb]

And on this 145 i really think safetek in Canada have sold more than 50

 

I could see that happening. Farley is a small town approx 1500 I'd guess.

 

According to this article Smeal produced 145 trucks last year.

 
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/2014/08/acquisitions-boost-smeal-with-plans-to-boost-fire-apparatus-production.html">http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/2014/08/acquisitions-boost-smeal-with-plans-to-boost-fire-apparatus-production.html</a>

[fyrfoto]

Again, like Taylor, I flat out ask at trade shows and often get honest answers.  Here is what I've been told over the past few shows. 

 

Pierce:  1000-1200 a year (including exports)

Rosenbauer:  800 a year (excluding exports)

KME:  600-800 a year

Ferrara:  500-600 a year

E-One:  400 a year

Spartan ERV:  300-400 a year

Smeal:  250-300 a year

Sutphen:  as said above, around 220 a year (as high as 300 before)

HME:  200-300 a year

Seagrave:  around 80 last year, on pace for 50 this year (but all high dollar rigs)

 

I've also been told Toyne and 4 Guys are 75-100 a year. 

Builders like Alexis, Custom Fire, Marion, Midwest, Precision, Spencer, and SVI are between 30-50 a year.   

Most of BME's deliveries are comparatively low dollar - wildland and brush trucks. West Coast builders like Westates, West-Mark, Hi-Tech, Burton's, ect are in the 25-50 range.  Further east, you have builders like Southeast (formerly Wynn) who do around 25 a year.  Summit only does about 15 a year, but most of them are high dollar custom rescues, rescue-pumpers, and industrial rigs. Bluegrass does about 15 year, mostly tankers.  There are scores of other regional builders in the 15-20 range. 

 

All that said, the market used to report about 5000 new apparatus a year.  The industry has cried that number has dropped as low as 3000 recently.  I've always heard that Pierce had about 20% of the market share to itself, the rest of the top 15 manufacturers shared another 60%, and the everyone else fought over the remaining 20%. So, if add up all the numbers above...somebody is lying. LOL. 

 

I still think my top 10 is pretty solid, ranking wise...and Seagrave could be swapped out with Toyne or 4 Guys.  But, as mentioned, Spartan ERV is bleeding bad.  Who knows how long they'll survive.  And I know for fact that Pierce has been in trouble...Oshkosh just reported horrific sales numbers with government contracts and Pierce sharing quite a bit of the blame.  I think most people on here seem to agree their quality isn't what it used to be.  I can see Rosenbauer overtaking them sooner rather than later.  If KME continues their great quality improvement, I can see them also passing Pierce one day. 

 

 

Kent Parrish

Louisville, KY

[Dickey]

Darley is in my backyard (10 miles away)

 

They still produce around 75-100 trucks per year but have slowed over the years. They are focusing on the business deals they have with Rosenbauer and Pierce to build pumps. They make way more money doing that than putting out trucks with the Darley name.