HANNOVER, Germany -- BT Industries president and chief executive officer, Carl-Erik Ridderstrale, who retires at the end of May, used an international press conference at CeMAT 2002 last month to reflect on a decade of leadership at BT, and to comment on the world materials handling industry yesterday, today, and in the future. This is the full text of Mr Ridderstrale's speech.
When I joined the company in 1992, BT was a very different company to what it is today. We were facing some significant challenges as a result of the weak world economic situation and a slow-down in demand for capital equipment.
At that time, BT was primarily a European organisation, manufacturing in Sweden, and distributing principally via our 12 sales companies in western Europe and some additional distribution channels in other continents. Since then the pace of change has been quite dramatic.
Turnover has increased from SEK3 billion in 1992 to SEK13.2 billion in 2001. Ten years ago we were hardly on break-even. Last year we recorded a profit of nearly SEK900 million.
In 1992, we manufactured 15,000 powered units. Last year we made 60,000 units. And if we look at hand pallet trucks, our production has increased from 70,000 units to 130,000 units in the same period.
Ten years ago we were purely a warehouse truck-oriented organisation. Today we offer a full range of solutions, including warehouse and counterbalance trucks. We produce trucks in many parts of the world, and have distribution and service operations in every continent. With Toyota, we are the largest manufacturer of industrial trucks in the world.
Our customers' needs are continually changing. We've seen clear trends in recent years. Expansion into neighbouring countries may often be the first step - then working on a regional and, beyond that, on a global basis with world-wide operations. We have correspondingly developed our operations to make sure we can maintain high and constant service standards throughout the world.
There have, of course, been structural changes to the BT organisation to improve our global market position. The acquisition of the Raymond organisation in the USA was a major step, back in 1997, and we have made other acquisitions, such as MHC - now known as BT International Ltd - to serve the fast-growing Eastern European markets. We also acquired the Italian counterbalance manufacturer, Cesab, in 1999 - a subject I will return to later.
But much of our growth has been organic, taking advantage of tremendous growth in the world market for industrial trucks throughout the 1990s.
We have ensured that every time customers visit us we take time to listen to their plans, discuss the logistical challenges they are facing, and work with them to develop the optimum solution to meet their changing business needs.
Overall, the requirements placed on us by our customers have changed BT in two ways. Firstly, we've grown from being a European company to a global company. And secondly, we have moved from being a supplier of warehouse trucks to a full-range supplier with our own range of counterbalance machines.
The development of our counterbalance range is an interesting chapter in BT's history. In the mid-1990s we recognised that we needed our own range. We looked around for a suitable partner, and identified a company called Toyota. They had an excellent range of products.
We had discussions in an effort to reach a distribution agreement which would provide Toyota-made forklifts in BT 'clothes'. Ironically we were unable to reach a conclusion then, and we decided to buy Cesab, and launch the BT Cargo range of counterbalance trucks.
At the same time, Toyota looked for a supplier of warehouse trucks, and we agreed to produce warehouse trucks in Toyota 'clothing' in 1999, ultimately resulting in Toyota acquiring BT two years ago.
Where does that leave our Cesab operations in Italy? In short, we are totally committed, having doubled production of counterbalance trucks in Cesab during the past two years, and made substantial investments in new production facilities. It means we can offer a wide range of counterbalance trucks to meet the requirements of different customers.
In the long term, we anticipate continued market growth. There are several reasons for this. Consumers are becoming more demanding. They want more variety, more choice and, generally speaking, a higher standard of living.
We are striving to meet that demand, passing added value to the consumer in the way that they do business. Combine this with an effort by all companies to reduce inventory and consequently improve efficiency, and we see a combination of more product lines, faster and more frequent deliveries, and fewer items being held in bulk stock.
What that means to us is a shift in the type of equipment we sell. We are selling more machines that are designed to move goods around quickly and efficiently in, for example, cross-docking applications.
Our 'identity card' - if there were such a thing - would today show BT as a company that works with customers to provide the optimum solution for their materials handling operations. We always aim to meet customers' ever-changing needs, and ensure the total support we provide before, during and after the point of sale exceeds our customers' expectations.
In short, we deliver! We find the formula works. It is our business idea and I am confident it will remain so for years to come.
And what about Toyota and BT in the future? This is invariably the most-asked question by the industry today. We were the first major marriage in our industry, and there will probably be others in the years ahead, when it comes to product range and world coverage.
Many spectators, inside and outside our industry, expected us to experience a few difficulties, even problems, due to the experiences of other industries - what Daimler did to Chrysler, BMW to Rover, and so on.
We have avoided these problems by recognising that we have strengths in our existing brands and operations. We learned a lot about this when we acquired Raymond, allowing the brand to develop and grow in its own right.
In the future, you can expect to continue to see three very strong brands within our group: Toyota, BT, and Raymond. They are all strong when it comes to development, manufacturing, and distribution - and we can now start to realise the benefits of shared experiences.
We are learning from our colleagues in Toyota about their production processes, and we are able to work jointly in the technical area and take advantage of shared sourcing of components. These first steps will result in even better performance for our three business brands.
Of course, we will continue to monitor the way the market and our industry develops in the years ahead. As I leave my post as president of BT Industries, I will continue to work as a consultant for the Toyota group.
In that capacity I look forward to meeting you again in the future, and I would like to thank you for your excellent support during the past 10 years.