Mills grows despite pressure on aerial business

Mills Locação, Serviços e Logística S.A. (Mills Rental) in Brazil said growth in its ‘yellow line’ heavy equipment, industrial forklifts and formwork & shoring divisions helped to offset a more difficult aerial platform market, where it was facing higher competition and lower demand in some regions.

In its results for the third quarter Mills reported revenues up 15.1% to BR482.7 million (€78.2 million, with EBITDA profits rising by 27.9% to BR256.4 million (€41.5 million). The results include a contribution from the acquisition of aerial platform specialist Next, which completed on 14 August.

Aerial work platforms remain the biggest part of Mills’ business, representing 47.3% of revenues in the third quarter, followed by ‘yellow line’ machines at 25.5%, formwork and shoring at 16.8%, and industrial forklifts and stackers at 10.0%.

Image from Mills reflecting the range of equipment it rents in Brazil.

Sergio Kariya, Mills CEO, said; “We ended the quarter reinforcing the foundations for sustainable growth, despite a scenario of increased competition, pricing pressure, and persistently high interest rates.

“The Company remains focused on advancing efficiency, diversification, and long-term value creation for all stakeholders.”

Mills said it was taking measures to offset the more difficult aerial platform market and would “leverage the strong infrastructure and construction investment cycle in Brazil, as well as its strategic relationships with leading construction companies, to scale multi-product projects, strengthening its presence and ability to capture opportunities in these segments.”

The Company added that it was prioritising long-term rental contracts, particularly in its heavy equipment and intralogistics divisions; “In 3Q25, these [long term] contracts accounted for 55% of rental revenue, an increase of 10 percentage points compared to the same quarter of the previous year.”