Business model and organisation
The KION Group offers its customers a unique product, technology and service portfolio ranging from industrial trucks and warehouse technology systems, through fleet and warehouse management solutions, to fully automated material handling and logistics systems. This makes the KION Group a full-service provider for customers of various industries and sizes, from major key accounts with a global reach, through to small and medium-sized businesses. With the acquisition of Dematic in November 2016, this also makes the Company the leading intralogistics partner for Industry 4.0.
The KION Group comprises KION GROUP AG, a company incorporated under German law as the parent company, and its subsidiaries. KION GROUP AG is a strategic management holding listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and is also included in the MDax, the STOXX Europe 600 and the FTSE EuroMid.
For a detailed illustration of the KION Group’s organisational structure, its business model and its key markets see the Annual Report 2016.
Segments
The KION Group manages its business through the two segments: Industrial Trucks & Services and Supply Chain Solutions. In addition, cross-segment services are provided by the segment Corporate Services, which includes the holding and other service companies (> Figure 2).
Figure 2 KION Group segments
With its numerous industrial truck and system solution plants, the KION Group is present on five continents (> Figure 3).
Figure 3 Global presence – overview of production plants
The Industrial Trucks & Services segment comprises forklifts, warehouse technology and associated services plus supporting financial services. Its products and services are offered under the three international brands Linde, STILL and Baoli plus the three regional brands Fenwick, OM STILL and OM Voltas.
For effective and close collaboration across regions and markets, the industrial truck business has been structured into four operating units since the fiscal year 2016: Linde Material Handling EMEA and STILL EMEA, which each focus on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, plus KION APAC and KION Americas, which hold cross-brand responsibility for the Asia-Pacific region and the regions of North, Central and South America respectively.
The Supply Chain Solutions segment encompasses integrated technology and software solutions that are used to optimise supply chains. Manual and automated solutions are provided for all functions along customers’ supply chains, from goods inward and multishuttle warehouse systems, to picking and value-added packing. In this segment, the recently acquired companies Egemin Automation (Belgium) and Retrotech Inc. (USA) will be fully integrated into Dematic by the end of 2017. As its fifth operating unit, Dematic is responsible for the joint cross-brand market presence.
The KION Group is strengthening the competitiveness of its operating units across segments, brands and regions by consolidating the technical functions of R&D, procurement, quality assurance and production systems in its new CTO (Chief Technology Officer) organisation. Through the resulting uniform standards and global coordination of its engineering activities, it will be able to offer more product variants with less effort and shorter development processes.
Global success with strong brands
Strong brands, which in some cases have long traditions stretching back over 100 years, underpin the KION Group’s global success. The KION Group’s brands are among the best in the industry globally. Dematic, the latest addition to the KION Group, is a global leader in automated material handling processes, providing a comprehensive range of smart supply chain and automation solutions. Integrating Egemin into Dematic makes KION one of the biggest suppliers of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). The Linde and STILL brands serve the premium industrial truck segment, while Baoli focuses on industrial trucks in the economy segment. Among its regional industrial truck brand companies, Fenwick is the largest supplier of material handling products in France, while OM STILL is a market leader in Italy. Voltas serves the Indian market where it is a leading provider of industrial trucks.