Letter to our shareholders

Dear shareholders, customers, partners, and friends of KION,

World trade today is more digitally and physically interconnected than ever: raw materials, food, components, industrial and consumer goods move across continents, oceans, and time zones, with billions of single movements every day. This massively complex system has grown and been refined over decades. And today, it’s under pressure. From blockages of important trade routes to pandemic shutdowns and geopolitical issues: recent years have shown that rising complexity makes global supply chains more vulnerable. To make them future-ready, we need to make them resilient and flexible – and the whole complex orchestra needs a conductor.

KION is present at every crucial point of the world’s supply chains: in factories, warehouses, ports, hubs and distribution centers. Building on the strong heritage of our brands and driving our industry with automation and digitalization, our focus is clear: we offer our customers reliable, intelligent solutions and shape the future of global supply chains with confidence and responsibility.

As a decisive part of our ongoing transformation to become ‘The Supply Chain Solutions Company’, we strongly believe our business is an integrated one. We combine everything modern supply chains rely on: industrial trucks, automation, robotics, software and AI, with systems and solutions that learn in real-time, adapt within seconds, and plan ahead. This transformation is reflected in the strategic renaming of our Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) segment to ‘Intelligent Automation Solutions’ (IAS). We position our Dematic brand to an even larger extent in the supply chain orchestration space, integrating all key aspects that underpin and drive KION’s strategic vision.

Industrial Trucks & Services and Intelligent Automation Solutions will offer end-to-end solutions to our customers with an integrated approach, starting a new chapter in KION’s history. In 2016, we were creating the intralogistics industry with the acquisition of Dematic. In 2026, it is now our vision to become ‘The Supply Chain Solutions Company’.

Resilient performance in a volatile global environment

Looking back on the 2025 financial year, in a challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, customer demand increased and order intake in all of KION’s business lines was considerably higher year on year. Our core key performance indicators were in line with our updated outlook, with free cash flow slightly exceeding expectations. For our Industrial Trucks & Services segment, 2025 was a look-through year as expected. Our Supply Chain Solutions segment improved all main key performance indicators on its sustainable continuous improvement journey.

To prepare now for the next, and to protect the cycle of competitiveness, order intake, profitability, and investment in innovation, in 2025 we introduced a leaner, simpler and faster organization in EMEA to best serve our customers – all in line with our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy, driving our industry leadership and securing the long-term success of our company.

In a globally volatile stock market environment, the development of our share price significantly outperformed the reference indices DAX (22 percent) and MDAX (19 percent): The increase of 114 percent over the year 2025 was a strong signal of trust amongst our investor community in KION, our strategy and our markets. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board of KION GROUP AG will propose a dividend of €0.62 (2024: €0.82) per share with an increased payout ratio of 35 percent (2024: 30 percent) at the Annual General Meeting on May 28, 2026.

Shaping our industry with strong ecosystem partners

In late 2024, we started our work with NVIDIA and Accenture bringing AI and digital twins to the physical world in the supply chain. KION is redefining how automation is designed, tested, and leveraged through physical AI, as demonstrated at international trade fairs in 2025 with our Kick-off at CES in Las Vegas, USA, at LogiMAT in Stuttgart, Germany, at GTC AI conference in San Jose, USA, and CeMAT in Shanghai, China. In 2026, lighthouse projects are underway.

Adding now our partnership with Siemens, we are taking this forward further and faster, seamlessly integrating engineering data, automation logic, and physical assets into digital twins in the NVIDIA Omniverse. The vision is ambitious: We are scaling up physical AI and automation solutions to orchestrate our customers’ supply chains – inside the four walls of a warehouse or distribution center and up and down the supply chain.

A new supply chain solution will begin its life as a digital twin compressing solutioning from years to months, containing all the automation elements and mature system software to simulate, emulate and prove the solution upfront, and then serves as the blueprint to install and commission the physical twin. For customers, it will translate into shorter project timelines, lower risk, and more resilient performance.

Sophisticated software solutions are the foundation of such ecosystems – and customers expect an increasing share of these solutions to support their automation journey, especially with integration of AI, from managing their truck fleet to orchestrating multiple lights-out warehouses. In line with our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy, we drive and implement innovative software solutions as an integral part of our business and a key differentiator in our industry.

Driving sustainability forward

Sustainability continues to be an integral part of KION’s journey. It is firmly anchored in our products, solutions, and our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy. We continue to pursue our goal of achieving net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2050 at the latest, as formally validated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2024.

We are electrifying our production processes and service fleet, increasing the share of renewable energies. Additionally, we are integrating circular design concepts into practical solutions, and working with suppliers in the area of sustainable procurement in 2025.

Our progress in sustainability was again recognized in 2025: with 69 out of 100 points, we achieved our best result to date in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. The rating is a key factor for inclusion in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class Europe Index, which we have been part of since last year.

In addition, KION received the EcoVadis ‘Platinum’ rating for the first time in 2025 and, with 86 out of a possible 100 points, ranks among the top one percent of the more than 150,000 companies assessed by EcoVadis across all industries and countries. A further significant achievement was the Cradle to Cradle Bronze certification for the Dematic Multishuttle 2, which is the first supply chain solution to receive this award for a waste-free circular economy.

20 years of KION – building on a strong heritage

KION’s roots go back more than 200 years – the heritage of our KION brands has been shaped by decades of engineering excellence, innovation, and customer trust. Building on this long legacy, our company was founded as a carve-out from Linde AG in 2006 as a leader in material handling, and this year, we celebrate KION’s 20th anniversary. A milestone that highlights how far we’ve come – and how much potential lies ahead. Two decades that reflect our ability to adapt, grow, and create value in an increasingly complex global environment.

Our people in EMEA, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region are passionate about innovating, automating and orchestrating our customers’ supply chains in an increasingly complex world. KION’s strategy is about delivering growth and profitability – and about shaping the future of our industry. It means opportunity and responsibility.

Our partnerships, our technology and our people give us the strength to accelerate innovation and unlock new opportunities – in a market that is evolving at incredible speed. And most importantly: The work we’re doing today is building the foundation for the next decade of KION. What started as a bold step in 2006 has grown into a global journey shaped by our people, our brands and our innovations. KION is shaping world trade – globally, regionally, and locally.

Best regards

Rob Smith
Chief Executive Officer
KION GROUP AG