[15] Other income statement disclosures

The cost of materials rose by €530,162 thousand in the reporting year to €2,244,069 thousand (2010: €1,713,907 thousand).

Personnel expenses increased by €95,516 thousand in 2011 to €1,063,726 thousand (2010: €968,210 thousand). Personnel expenses include wages and salaries of €833,585 thousand (2010: €755,923 thousand) as well as social security contributions and expenses for pensions and other benefits of €230,141 thousand (2010: €212,287 thousand). The accretion of interest cost related to the discount on estimated pension obligations is not recognised under personnel expenses but is instead reported under financial expense as a component of interest cost of the defined benefit obligation. The pension expenses of €29,741 thousand (2010: €25,774 thousand) is essentially comprised of the pension entitlements of €16,242 thousand vested in 2011 (2010: €14,315 thousand) and the unrecognised past service cost of €177 thousand (2010: €79 thousand).

Impairment losses and depreciation expenses on property, plant and equipment together with impairment losses and amortisation expense of intangible assets amounted to €356,021 thousand in the reporting year (2010: €347,117 thousand). Inventories were written down by €6,179 thousand (2010: €6,311 thousand).

The breakdown of lease payments expensed in the period and related to operating leases where KION Group companies are the lessee is as follows:

The expenses in connection with sub-leases relate to leases in which KION Group companies are both the lessor and lessee. These expenses were offset by income of €51,072 thousand in 2011 (2010: €52,806 thousand).