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Kion completes Dematic acquisition
Kion Group AG has completed its acquisition of U.S.-based systems integrator
Dematic Corp., positioning the firms to
combine their strengths in warehouse
hardware, software, and material handling
automation, the companies said in early
November.
The German industrial truck manufacturer made waves in the industry when it
announced in June that it would spend
$2.1 billion to take over the Atlanta-based
automation and supply chain optimization
specialist Dematic.
Now that the deal is complete, the Kion
Group can leverage a broad portfolio of
products ranging from forklift trucks to
fully automated material handling solutions, allowing it to tap into high-growth
trends, Kion said.
“Things are changing, not just e-com-
merce but technology, globalization, indus-
trialization, and the ability to use IT, dig-
italization, and the Internet of things all
converging,” Kion CEO Gordon Riske said
in an interview with DC VELOCITY. “So our
customers are looking not only for forklifts
but for entire solutions, automated vehicles,
all those types of things.”
The company also announced a new
leadership team, including former Dematic
North America CEO John Baysore as pres-
ident and CEO of the new Dematic oper-
ating unit. He replaces departing Dematic
CEO Ulf Henriksson. Reporting to Baysore
will be Jeff Moss, executive vice president
international; Frank Herzog, executive vice
president finance and CFO; and Scott Watts,
executive vice president North America.
One of the priorities of the merger will
be to create new products and technologies
that meet the supply chain requirements of
the future, specifically in automated guided
vehicles (AGVs), Baysore said. The companies will pursue that goal by combining
Kion’s $125 million research and development (R&D) budget with Dematic’s $70
million R&D budget under a new division.
“We’ve been working with autonomous
navigation, and where Kion is is ahead
of where Dematic is,” Baysore said in the
interview. “So I think we’ll be able to
bring products to market faster to
Dematic’s customer base in auton-
omous navigation. And if you look
at where Dematic’s robotic picking
and mobile robotic picking are, then
that autonomous navigation and
what we’re doing with AGVs will
just catapult us to another level.”
Following the acquisition,
the Kion Group will start man-
aging its business in three seg-
ments: Industrial Trucks and
Services (including Linde Material
Handling EMEA, Still EMEA,
Kion APAC, and Kion Americas),
Supply Chain Solutions (including
Dematic, Egemin Automation, and
Retrotech), and Corporate Services
(including headquarter functions
and groupwide services such as
internal logistics and IT).
The two divisions will comple-
ment each another with cross-sell-
ing opportunities, as Dematic lever-
ages the reputation and leading
market positions of Kion’s fork-
lift brands in Europe, China, and
Brazil, while the Kion Group bene-
fits from Dematic’s strong position
in the U.S. and European automa-
tion markets, Kion said.
“We are really in a high-growth,
high-tech industry,” Riske said. “I
know many people thought of logistics 10 years ago as ‘Oh, you’ve got
to drive a fork truck; it’s kind of
dirty and greasy.’ But the whole
thing about industrialization, supply chains, e-commerce, and so on
is driving this business globally. I see
very positive market development
in the next years to come.”
