KION Group

Kion Group AG (styled as KION Group) is a German multinational manufacturer of materials handling equipment, with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Its principal products are intralogistics, warehouse automation equipment, and industrial (forklift) trucks. Kion Group was founded in 2006 by the demerger of Linde's materials handling equipment operations. It is the world's second-largest manufacturer of forklifts measured by revenues (after Toyota Industries).

Name
"Kion" is an invented name derived from the Swahili word "Kiongozi", which means "leader".

Foundation and beginnings
On 6 September 2006, Linde AG announced a new structure following the completion of its acquisition of BOC, with the gas and engineering businesses of the combined entity operating as The Linde Group and the materials handling businesses (Linde Material Handling, Still, and OM Carrelli Elevatori S.p.A.) operating as Kion Group from then on. Linde AG sold Kion Group to a partnership of KKR and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners for approximately €4 billion.

Acquisitions and expansion abroad
In January 2009, Kion Group formed a China-based forklift manufacturing joint venture, Kion Baoli (Jiangsu) Forklift, with Jiangsu Shangqi Group and Jingjiang Baoli Forklift. In May 2010, Kion Group acquired full management control of Kion Baoli. In March 2011, Kion Group and the Indian engineering company Voltas agreed to form a new joint venture, Voltas Materials Handling, consisting of the two companies' material handling equipment operations in India. Kion Group acquired Voltas' 34% shareholding in the venture in November 2012. In August 2012, the China-based Shandong Heavy Industry's Weichai Power subsidiary agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Kion Group for €467 million, and a 70% majority stake in Kion's hydraulics business for €271 million. In February 2013, Kion Group sold product rights for Linde brand's reach stacker, empty, and laden container handlers to Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes for an undisclosed sum.

Initial public offering and further expansion
The company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 28 June 2013, and in September 2014, the company was admitted to the MDAX of the Frankfurt stock exchange. Also in September 2014, Voltas Material Handling was renamed Kion India. Since then, the company has been selling forklift trucks with electric drives, combustion engines and warehouse technology products under the Voltas and Baoli brands in India. The Belgian company Egemin was acquired in 2015, followed by the US-based company Retrotech in 2016. In June 2016, Kion Group acquired Dematic for €1.9 billion. In 2017, the Group headquarters with around 200 employees was relocated from Wiesbaden to a new development area at Frankfurt Airport. One year later, Kion opened the Kion Digital Campus in Frankfurt, where digital projects are developed and implemented. In 2018, Kion Group expanded its presence in China and agreed a strategic partnership with EP Equipment Co. Ltd in the light-duty or "entry-level" warehouse equipment segmente. KION has acquired a minority stake in the Chinese truck manufacturer, which in the previous year, 2017, achieved record shipments of 50,000 units. In July 2019, Kion Group and BMZ Holdings announced a 50/50 joint venture to manufacture lithium-ion batteries (80V, 48V) for the Kion Group's trucks at BMZ's manufacturing facility. In November, Kion India opened a production facility for diesel and electric forklift trucks as well as battery-powered pallet trucks and reach trucks on an area of around 25 hectares in Pune, India. In March 2020, Kion acquired the UK-based company Digital Applications International Limited (DAI) for around €123 million.

Recent developments
In July 2021, Kion opened an industrial truck plant in Kołbaskowo near Szczecin, Poland, where counterbalance trucks for all brands in the Kion Industrial Trucks & Services segment are produced. In order to speed up delivery times, production of other product series, which had previously been manufactured exclusively in Xiamen, China, was also relocated to Kołbaskowo one year later. In December 2021, Kion opened a counterbalance truck plant for the Kion companies Linde Material Handling and Baoli in Jinan, China on an area of around 223,000 square metres, which includes a research and development centre, a training centre and office space.

Corporate structure
In the 2023 financial year, Kion Group AG had around 2,000 sales and service locations in over 100 countries, employed an average of 42,325 people and generated consolidated revenue of €11.43 billion (up 2.67% from 2022), an operating income of €791 million (up 170.9% from 2022) and a net income of €306 million (up 188.7% from 2022). The company operates plants and research and development centres in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. The company is represented by 25 subsidiaries in Germany and 107 subsidiaries abroad.

Products and brands
The Kion Group is a provider of industrial trucks and supply chain services. Its range of products and services includes industrial trucks such as forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, as well as integrated automation technologies. The Kion Group markets its products under six brands: Dematic offers products for automated material flow for supply chain and automation processes. Linde and Still serve the market for industrial trucks in a higher price category, while Baoli focuses on the economy segment. Fenwick is the largest supplier of industrial trucks in France, OM Still is the market leader in Italy, while OM Voltas serves the Indian market as the leading supplier of industrial trucks.

Research & development
In August 2020, Kion entered into a strategic partnership with the Chinese manufacturer of autonomous mobile robots, Quicktron Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd, which, in addition to the global distribution of Quicktron products by Kion, provides for the joint development of automated vehicles. In December 2023, Kion and Aschaffenburg Technical University presented the results of a research project in which scenarios for the use of autonomous counterbalance trucks equipped with electro-hydraulic steering were developed. In October 2021, Kion licensed an AI-equipped autonomous vehicle fleet for sorting and distribution, developed by Fraunhofer IML in Dortmund and has collaborated on its further development since.

Sustainability
Since the beginning of 2023, the company has been developing and producing fuel cell systems for the company's own industrial trucks in the field of hydrogen drives. In the same year, Kion began production of a 24-volt fuel cell system for warehouse trucks and the construction of a state-funded hydrogen refuelling station with an electrolyser. As part of the "Kion 2027 Strategy", Kion committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in July 2023. In line with the principles of the SBTi, the company is pursuing the Net Zero target of being emission-free by 2050 at the latest. Kion Group, through its subsidiary Kion Battery Systems in Karlstein am Main, manufactures lithium-ion batteries for its electric industrial trucks (Linde MH, Fenwick, Still, Baoli) and automated warehouse operations. In September 2023, Kion partnered with Li-Cycle Holding Corp. to launch an eco-friendly lithium-ion battery recycling program in Magdeburg, aiming to reclaim up to 95% of the batteries' valuable minerals and materials. According to their own statement, Kion intends to recycle up to 5,000 tonnes of battery materials by 2030.