Fundamentals of the KION Group

Strategy of the KION Group

When the KION Group presented its Strategy 2020 in March 2014, it clearly laid out its goals for the next few years. Under this strategy, the Company aims to leverage its strong global position and cross-brand synergies even more effectively and to become the industry leader worldwide. The focus is on growth, profitability, efficient use of capital and greater resilience during economic downturns. An integrated business model – with a high proportion of service business – and a multi-brand strategy form the basis. The targets are an EBIT margin of consistently more than 10 per cent and a far higher level of return on capital employed (ROCE).

To this end, the KION Group is making a long-term investment in its plant structure and other areas of its business. Between now and 2021, more than €80 million will be spent in total on the Linde core plant in Aschaffenburg and the STILL core plant in Hamburg in order to increase the efficiency of the sites in Germany. These two plants will remain the centres of excellence for the KION Group’s premium products. In addition, the Company is investing in a new plant in the Czech Republic for economy and volume products, which will enable it to serve these market segments even more effectively and efficiently. This will also help to achieve the aim of growing at a faster rate than the market as a whole in eastern and southern Europe.

In addition, the KION Group continues to expand its international research and development (R&D) operations. This year, it plans to expand the R&D centre in Asia, where about a third of the Group’s R&D employees are already based. At the same time, the Company is starting to develop trucks for markets such as the United States on the basis of existing product platforms.

The KION Group’s company profile is unchanged compared with the description in the 2013 group management report. The description of the management system also remains the same.