Sales revenue fell by 5.1% to EUR 1.81 billion, which was partly due to delayed project acceptances caused by the shortage of materials. The other business divisions Products & Equipment, Customer Services and Waste & Packaging all recorded increases in sales compared to the previous year.

"The difficult market development due to the geopolitical crises as well as higher material and energy consumption rates in almost all business areas presented us, like the entire intralogistics industry, with major challenges in 2022. Nevertheless, we continued to make good progress in the course of our transformation process, particularly in the areas of innovation and automation as well as in the strategically increasingly important area of sustainability, where we have documented our extensive activities in the Group's first sustainability report. The task now is to consistently implement the measures we have introduced in order to continue the successful course of recent years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all employees who have once again shown great commitment to strengthening the future viability of the SSI Schaefer Group in the past year," says Steffen Bersch, CEO of the SSI Schaefer Group.

Innovation ecosystem and progress in expanding technology leadership

A key focus in the 2022 financial year was on strengthening the Group's ability to innovate. The aim was to play a key role in shaping the digital and sustainable transformation and to achieve the goal of technology leadership in intralogistics as formulated in the Group strategy. To this end, the company is building an innovation ecosystem consisting of collaborations with research partners such as the Fraunhofer IML, various universities and companies and start-ups as development partners. In addition, employees play a central role in shaping the future of the SSI Schaefer Group by promoting a culture of innovation and stronger networking within the Group. An important building block in this context is the new international and interdisciplinary Data Science Team, which aims to pool expertise across the Group in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Another key milestone in the expansion of technology leadership is the recently signed agreement for the SSI Schaefer Group to acquire all shares in DS Automotion. The full acquisition of shares in DS Automotion, a leading provider of mobile robotics, will come into effect on March 1, 2023. It strengthens the competitiveness and innovative power of the SSI Schaefer Group in the future-oriented areas of robotics and automation for intralogistics.