KION Group plans to expand its hydraulics and components business
- Hydraulics & Components business to form a separate division
- Klaus Hofmann appointed Chairman of the new division's Board
- Karl-Heinz Birkner appointed CFO of the division
Wiesbaden / Aschaffenburg, November 29, 2007 - KION Group GmbH, one
of the two leading manufacturers of industrial trucks in the world,
is planning to expand its hydraulics and components business
significantly over the next few years. The first stage in the process
will be the amalgamation of the hydraulics operations of Linde
Material Handling GmbH in Aschaffenburg with the component
manufacturing facilities in the Czech Republic and Germany to form a
separate Hydraulics & Components division with full responsibility
for its own sales and results. The newly formed division employs
approximately 2,000 staff in seven different locations around the
world. The division's product range includes high-pressure hydraulic
pumps and valves, electronic control units, complete drive shafts,
counterbalances and casting components for hydraulics applications.
Gordon Riske, COO of the KION Group and CEO of Linde Material
Handling, said: "We have outstanding technological skills in the
hydraulics and components field. We intend to increase significantly
the marketing of these skills outside the KION Group. Our aim is to
achieve substantial growth in sales over the next few years in the
hydraulics and components business."
Current users of Linde hydraulic systems include numerous
manufacturers of stationary and mobile equipment and trucks used in
the construction industry, in forestry and farming, and by local
authorities. Expansion of the business with OEM customers should
ensure that the Hydraulics & Components division achieves a high
level of growth. The world market for hydraulics and drive
components, which is worth 16 billion euro annually, is growing at an
average long-term rate of around 8 percent. Furthermore, setting up a
separate division is to continue to improve cross-brand cooperation
in the components field between Linde, Still and OM within the KION
Group.
Effective December 1, 2007, the Chairman of the new Hydraulics &
Components division will be Klaus Hofmann, a member of the Management
Board of Linde Material Handling GmbH, who will be responsible for
operations and will work closely together with the division's CFO,
Karl-Heinz Birkner, head of in-house consulting at KION Group GmbH.
Klaus Hofmann will represent the Hydraulics & Components division on
the Executive Committee of the KION Group.
The members of the division's enlarged management team will be Dr
Christoph Kempermann (Marketing & Sales), Dr Bernward Welschof
(Development) and Peter Kolb (Production), who were responsible for
these functions in the former Linde Hydraulics division. Dr Stefan
Rinck, who has until now been responsible for Hydraulics on the
Management Board of Linde Material Handling GmbH, is to leave the
company of his own volition, to assume a new role outside the group.
The KION Group
The KION Group is the market leader in Europe and world number 2 in
the forklift truck and warehouse equipment sector and provides the
highest level of technological competence and service to its
customers. In fiscal 2006, it achieved sales of around 4.0 billion
euro with over 20,000 employees. The KION Group has three
differentiated brands, Linde, STILL and OM, each with different
technologies and specific applications. With its hydrostatic
technology, Linde Material Handling offers a unique drive concept,
while STILL is the leading supplier of electric truck technology to
the European market. Whereas the top-end suppliers Linde and STILL
are technological leaders in their respective fields, KION is also
ideally suited to supply the value segment via its OM product range.
For further information:
Michael Hauger
Head of Communications and Investor Relations
Telephone: +49.611.770-655
