Michael Eastabrook joins Hiab from Labrie as North American waste push grows

Michael Eastabrook, former president and CEO of Canadian solid-waste equipment manufacturer Labrie Environmental Group, joins Hiab as president of Environmental Vehicle Solutions and a member of its leadership team, as the Finnish industrial machinery company deepens its presence in the North American waste and recycling market through its USD 1 billion acquisition of Labrie.

Eastabrook, who has led Labrie since 2021, will head Hiab's newly created Environmental Vehicle Solutions business area, built around the acquired operations. The appointment follows Hiab's reorganization from six divisions into broader business areas to improve scalability and customer focus. According to Hiab's recent press release, Environmental Vehicle Solutions becomes the company's fourth business area.

Eastabrook previously spent more than two decades at 4Front Engineered Solutions, an Assa Abloy division, including as president and CEO from 2018 to 2021 after serving in senior operations roles. Earlier, he was operations manager at Entrematic. He holds a BBA from Baylor University and an MBA from the University of Dallas. 

A leadership rebuild after the Cargotec demerger

Hiab, a provider of smart and sustainable load-handling solutions, became an independent listed company through Cargotec's multi-year demerger last year. Following the spin-off of Kalmar and the divestment of MacGregor, shareholders approved renaming the parent company to Hiab Oyj, which began trading on Nasdaq Helsinki under the ticker HIAB in April 2025.

Hiab enters the integration phase after a broad leadership overhaul following its separation from Cargotec. According to the Listeds CEO Index 2025, produced in partnership with SAM Headhunting, Hiab CEO Scott Phillips oversaw 19 management changes after becoming CEO, the largest post-CEO leadership transformation among Finnish listed companies. Eastabrook's appointment extends the top-level build-out.

Phillips called Hiab's acquisition of Labrie "a significant milestone in our growth journey" and said it is "perfectly aligned with our strategy of profitable growth communicated in 2024." The USD 1 billion transaction is Hiab's largest since becoming an independent listed company and is expected to contribute significantly to sales, profit, and cash flow from the third quarter of 2026.

What Hiab is trying to accomplish

The Labrie purchase advances the profitable growth strategy Hiab outlined in 2024. The acquisition is the company's second in six months, following the purchase of Brazilian loader-crane manufacturer ING Cranes, and expands Hiab's presence in two priority markets: North America and Brazil. Together with the new operating model, the acquisitions are intended to strengthen scalability and customer focus.

The expansion follows a year of resilient profitability despite softer demand. In 2025, sales declined 6% to EUR 1.6 billion, while the comparable operating profit margin increased to a record 13.7% from 13.2%, supported by record Services performance and cash flow from operations before finance items and taxes of EUR 308 million. After weaker US demand weighed on the second half of 2025, first-quarter 2026 orders increased to EUR 402 million, the order book grew to EUR 562 million, and the comparable operating profit margin recovered to 13.5%.

Hiab has maintained its 2026 guidance for a comparable operating profit margin above 13.5% following the acquisition. The transaction was financed with bank loans and cash on hand, while the company reported net cash of EUR 219 million and cash conversion above 100% before closing the deal. Hiab also continues to expand its services business, increase sales of its eco-portfolio products—which represented 46% of first-quarter 2026 sales—and pursue its climate targets of net-zero emissions from its own operations by 2040 and across its value chain by 2050.