Storage- and racking systems
KION Group achieves new records in 2015
Wiesbaden, 11 February 2016 - New records for the KION Group: according to preliminary and unaudited figures, the Wiesbaden-based company has achieved its forecast for 2015 across the board. In terms of order intake, revenue, adjusted operating profit and net income, the KION Group performed better than in any previous year. Meanwhile, profitability remained at the previous year's high level, as forecast. The final quarter of 2015 also contributed to these very good results.
"The recent record results in the past financial year show that the KION Group is ideally positioned to benefit from strong market trends such as those in western Europe," said Gordon Riske, CEO of the KION Group. "The fact that we recently renewed our financing structure on terms that are customary for established large companies also increases our flexibility to consistently drive our profitable growth with our Strategy 2020," he added. "With our comprehensive range of automation and system solutions, we are also excellently positioned in this increasingly important market."
The value of order intake at the KION Group - one of the two largest suppliers of forklift trucks, warehouse technology and related services - increased by 9.3 per cent to €5.216 billion for the year as a whole. Positive currency effects of around €114 million contributed to this in 2015. The Group also started the new year with an order backlog of EUR 864.0 million, 13.1% more than twelve months previously. Turnover exceeded the EUR 5 billion threshold for the first time and improved by 9.0% to EUR 5.098 billion in 2015. Around 109 million euros were attributable to favorable currency effects. The operating result EBIT also grew by 9.0% to 482.9 million euros. At 9.5%, the EBIT margin once again reached the very high level of the previous year.
The KION Group increased its orders for new trucks by 7 per cent in 2015, primarily thanks to the momentum in its core market of western Europe. Globally, 1.1 million trucks were ordered, compared with 1.09 million in the previous year. The KION Group received a total of around 165,800 orders in 2015, more than ever before in a single financial year. In 2014, the figure was around 155,000 industrial trucks.
In China, the world's largest single market, the company significantly outperformed the shrinking market (-12.8 per cent) with a 5.6 per cent increase in the number of units ordered thanks to warehouse trucks and electric forklift trucks. However, with growth of 10.0 per cent in western Europe, the KION Group benefited from the strong overall performance (+11.3 per cent) in 2015.
The expected Group result improved by 24.0% to EUR 221.1 million, compared to EUR 178.2 million in 2014, primarily due to the good operating business performance.
Free cash flow rose by 8.8 per cent to €332.7 million (2014: €305.9 million). As a result of the improved free cash flow, net financial debt reached its lowest level in the KION Group's history at around €573.5 million. The number of employees climbed from 22,669 to 23,506 as at the reporting date of December 31, 2015.
According to preliminary and unaudited figures, the KION Group achieved strong year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2015, with the last three months of the year always being the strongest due to seasonal factors. The value of order intake rose by 8.8 per cent to €1.397 billion, while revenue increased by 10.3 per cent to €1.441 billion. The KION Group's operating profit (EBIT[1]) improved by as much as 13.2 percent to €151.8 million. The EBIT[1] margin rose accordingly from 10.3 percent in the previous year to 10.5 percent, a new record for a single quarter.
In its forecast for 2015 in the 2014 group management report, the KION Group had predicted a slight year-on-year increase in order intake, revenue and adjusted EBIT. At the same time, the KION Group expected the adjusted EBIT margin to remain stable at the previous year's record level due to the costs of implementing the Strategy 2020. red
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