In the past financial year, the Krone Group employed a total of 5,375 people (previous year: 5,292) in over 15 countries, including an average of 293 trainees (previous year: 270).

In the 2019/2020 financial year, total assets amounted to EUR 1,333.6 million (previous year: EUR 1,305.5 million). The total investment volume of EUR 60.2 million (previous year: EUR 92.9 million) was offset by depreciation and amortization of EUR 37.2 million. The additions mainly resulted from various investments at different locations.

Cash and cash equivalents increased by EUR 69.6 million to EUR 205.0 million. This was mainly due to the reduction in trade receivables and inventories. Equity increased from 585.1 million euros to 588.7 million euros as at the balance sheet date. The equity ratio remained stable at 44.1% (previous year: 44.8%).

In the 2019/2020 financial year, medium and long-term debt capital increased slightly from EUR 424.4 million to EUR 426.4 million. The Group has medium and long-term capital of EUR 1,015.5 million (previous year: EUR 1,010.0 million) at its disposal. This covers not only fixed assets, but also all inventories and the majority of receivables.

Investments to secure the future

In order to further increase product quality and production capacity, Krone has continuously invested in digitalization, automation, networking and telematics at all production sites. In summer 2020, the new Future Lab validation center at the Lingen site also went into operation. Here, components are tested for durability, quality, function and operability in various high-tech test procedures, which has a positive effect on product quality. In addition, the approximately 1.2 km test track enables tests on autonomous driving.

Bernard Krone, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Krone Holding, summarizes: "A pandemic has shown us very clearly which sectors are really important in our society. Agriculture and transportation are both among them. When we look back on our 2019/2020 financial year, we are pleased to see that Krone was able to gain market share in all segments. In the agricultural machinery segment, this is also reflected in a further increase in sales revenue of 732 million euros; in the significantly more volatile commercial vehicle segment, we were able to generate sales revenue of 1.16 billion euros. This brings the Krone Group's turnover to EUR 1.9 billion, which is still a respectable result in a generally difficult environment. Although the current consequences of the pandemic and the climatic, political and economic developments make it difficult to assess future prospects, we believe that sales for the current financial year are likely to remain at the previous year's level. In the long term, however, we continue to serve two megatrends. Around 10 billion people are expected to live on the planet in 2050, all of whom will need to be supplied with food. This will require modern agricultural technology as well as excellently networked logistics. That makes us optimistic."

Krone commercial vehicles

When a slight economic recovery emerged at the beginning of 2020, the global Covid-19 pandemic suddenly dominated the markets. The lockdowns led to a further decline in demand for transport equipment. Although Krone succeeded in further expanding its overall market position in Europe, it suffered a decline in sales of around 24.2%. Turnover fell to around EUR 1.1 billion (previous year: EUR 1.5 billion). At 32.0%, Germany remains the strongest individual market (sales of EUR 372.7 million, previous year EUR 495.1 million). Sales on foreign markets fell to 793.6 million euros (previous year 1.04 billion euros). The most important sales markets include the Western European markets with 43.3% (previous year 43.9%) and the Eastern European markets with 18.9% (previous year 17.7%).

Krone implemented modernization and automation measures at all production sites, in particular at the Herzlake plant, where highly automated assembly lines for the Dry Liner series and body-in-white lines for swap bodies were implemented. A new robot production line for swap bodies is currently being completed. The investment in a new double-head friction welding system, which will increase capacity at the Dinklage site to over 100,000 axles per year, is also noteworthy.