Only seemingly a contradiction: Although the group's revenue in 2024 rose to 11.5 billion (previous year: 11.4 billion), and EBIT to 917 million euros (previous year: 791 million), CEO Rob Smith sees the need for cost-cutting measures – not only to maintain the market position, but to expand it further.
“Kion is at a pivotal point in its history. Our preliminary results for fiscal year 2024 demonstrate that we can deliver strong results in a challenging environment,” said Rob Smith. “We are the first in the industry to work with NVIDIA’s physical AI to create the warehouse of the future and reshape our industry.”.
At least it seems the group and its key brands have done their homeworkThese. are interesting formulations that suggest changes are underway.
CEO R. Smith
“European economies are only slowly gaining momentum,” the executive board stated, referring to the macroeconomic environment. This affects key customer industries in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment (forklift trucks), where Chinese competitors are expanding their market position in the wake of the recent pandemic, and where important production areas have already been streamlined. While internal programs for the continuous improvement of product, production, and service processes were already implemented in 2024 and will continue, further structural measures are intended to achieve a cost-optimized setup in Europe. This is expected to impact staffing requirements and will be discussed with the relevant employee representatives.
The planned package of measures aims to achieve annual savings of approximately €140 to €160 million. However, implementing these savings could also incur costs of €240 to €260 million in 2025. CFO Christian Harm confirms: "We need to optimize our cost base. This requires structural and sustainable measures."
The final results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024, as well as the detailed forecast for fiscal year 2025, are scheduled to be published on February 27, 2025.
At the end of 2023, more than 1.8 million KION industrial trucks were in operation worldwide, used by customers of various sizes in numerous industries across six continents. The company currently employs more than 42,000 people.
