With its three business units, viastore completes TICO's range of products and services and in future will enable an end-to-end intralogistics offering and customer-specific solutions - from forklift trucks to fully automated sorting systems.

According to the company, the partnership gives viastore access to the customer portfolio of a leading global mechanical engineering group and long-term growth prospects for all three divisions. The parties have agreed not to disclose further details of the transaction, which is still subject to antitrust approval and is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

viastore will operate as an independent unit under the umbrella of the Toyota Advanced Logistics Group (TALG). The brand, business units, locations and management will remain the same. The management team, consisting of CEO Philipp Hahn-Woernle, CFO Anja Zschernig and COOs Dr. Harald Göbel and Thomas Hibinger, will continue to lead the company.

Philipp Hahn-Woernle, CEO of viastore, said: "Against a backdrop of growing demand for integrated material handling solutions, TICO has recognized viastore's potential and demonstrated a strategically compelling vision for both parties. In TICO, we have found a partner that recognizes the value of our brand and expertise and will support the company in its long-term global growth trajectory. As an independent unit under the umbrella of the Toyota Advanced Logistics Group, we will continue our successful course and open up new potential and long-term stability for our customers and employees by being part of a successful group of companies."

Norio Wakabayashi, Senior Executive Officer of TICO, added: "The viastore GROUP is a successful company with an excellent position in the market. With its complementary business areas, viastore is a 'perfect match' for TICO to be able to offer customers a comprehensive intralogistics portfolio in the future. I am delighted that viastore's outstanding team is strengthening us with its expertise in the intralogistics market and adding another recognized strong intralogistics brand to our family of companies."

Over the past 50 years, the viastore GROUP has developed into an intralogistics specialist. With its three business units Intralogistics Systems, Intralogistics Software and Supporting Services, viastore is a system integrator for the manufacturing industry and other sectors and offers integrated, automated intralogistics solutions. In recent years, the company has embarked on a course of growth and is one of the few companies in the industry to consistently focus on software services as a fundamental part of its business model. Today, the material flow specialist has around 600 employees in 17 countries. The Group reported a turnover of around 140 million euros for the 2021 financial year.

TICO is a world-leading, listed Japanese engineering company operating in three business fields: automotive (vehicle and component manufacturing), textile machinery and material handling (Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG) - forklift trucks, warehouse equipment and lifting platforms) and Toyota Advanced Logistics Group (TALG) - automated intralogistics solutions). TICO has set itself the goal of further strengthening its own global competitiveness and offering its customers a comprehensive range of intralogistics products and services. In 2017, TICO acquired Vanderlande (Netherlands) and Bastian Solutions (USA).