Gordon Riske

Germany's giant KION Group has unveiled a revised blueprint to follow on from its Strategy 2020 which was launched four years ago. That strategy set the course for further profitable growth in the age of digitalisation, automation and Industry 4.0.

KION 2027 takes account of the fundamental changes that the group has undergone in recent years, including the acquisition of Dematic, the specialist for automation and supply chain optimisation, at the end of 2016. It also reflects the reconfiguration of the group into regional operating units.

The new strategy puts the emphasis on innovation, digitalisation, automation, efficient energy use and on achieving better performance of KION products and company processes.

The corporate objectives remain similar to those under Strategy 2020: to grow above the market, to remain the most profitable player in the industry, to generate a profit across the business cycle and to always offer shareholders an attractive return on capital employed.

"KION 2027 builds on the success of Strategy 2020, under which we have achieved profitable growth, efficient use of capital and a high level of resilience to economic downturns," says chief executive Gordon Riske. "Our objective with KION 2027 is to build on our leading position and continue to unlock the potential within our Group. The aim is to focus much more on a joint customer-centric strategy for innovation, sales and branding," he adds.

Under the strategy, KION will continue driving innovation in the materials handling market with an effective innovation ecosystem and cutting-edge, rapid development processes. To this end, it will continue to seek strategic partnerships with research institutes, universities and innovative companies so that it can go to market quickly with new products and solutions.

The company also continues to align its business to an increasingly digital world. The digitalisation of customer solutions, which will even include fully automated warehouses incorporating robotics solutions, will be accompanied by the digitalisation of internal processes.