Dr Cletus von Pichler

Jungheinrich CEO Dr Cletus von Pichler, who moved the German forklift manufacturer towards globalisation, left the company on October 31.

Von Pichler, who was also president and chairman of the board of management, left Jungheinrich AG of Hamburg, Germany, by "mutual consent", a Jungheinrich statement said. No further details were provided.

Jungheinrich head of corporate communications Markus Piazza said Jungheinrich had prospered "significantly in sales and earnings" since von Pichler became company president and CEO in January 2000.

"He has completely reorganised the sales force [to focus on the Jungheinrich brand]. He also reorganised the structure of the product plants.

"Dr von Pichler strongly emphasised globalisation of the company and strengthened overseas sales activities significantly," Piazza said.

Von Pichler has a PhD and a master of science diploma in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Graz, in Graz, Austria. He was a lecturer at the university's Institute for Manufacturing Technology & Machine Tools from 1969 to 1971. Before joining Jungheinrich, von Pichler was president and CEO of Munich-based plastics machinery manufacturer Krauss-Maffei AG, from 1997 to 1998.

The group's supervisory board has appointed Wolfgang Kiel as a temporary board of management chairman from November 1. Kiel has been with Jungheinrich for 30 years.

From 1990 to 1995, he was a board of management member and deputy chairman. After that he joined the company's supervisory board. His supervisory board mandate has been suspended for the duration of his position as board of management chairman.

Modern Materials Handling magazine placed Jungheinrich fourth on its latest list of top 20 global forklift suppliers. The ranking list, based on 2005 global sales revenue puts Jungheinrich (USD1.95 billion) behind Toyota (USD5.07 billion), Linde (USD4.50 billion) and Nacco Industries (USD2.40 billion) (Forkliftaction.com News #272).