Strategy of the KION Group*

In the reporting year 2025, the KION Group started implementing the new ‘Playing to Win’ strategy. With ‘Playing to Win’, the KION Group is strategically positioned to address the increasing global demand for speed in delivery and full traceability throughout the supply chain. The KION Group’s integrated and orchestrated supply chain solutions, ranging from intelligent industrial trucks and automation solutions to innovative software and comprehensive services, address a broad market of automation – from partial to full. The KION Group empowers customers in optimizing their supply chains by providing efficient, reliable, adaptable, and sustainable solutions that deliver enhanced speed and operational performance. The new strategy translates into the vision pursued by the Company: The KION Group is ‘The Supply Chain Solutions Company’.

Objectives of the ‘Playing to Win’ strategy

By pursuing its new strategy, the KION Group aims to benefit from global megatrends that are fueling demand for supply chain solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation, digitalization, urbanization, and skilled worker shortages. With a focus on strategic investments in strategic action fields, ‘Playing to Win’ aims to capitalize on growth opportunities and drive greater value for all stakeholders.

The key strategic goals include targeting significant revenue growth, aiming for a double-digit profitability margin (based on adjusted EBIT) by the end of 2027, increasing customer and employee satisfaction, and improving occupational health and safety. As part of the new strategy, the Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) segment is to be renamed Intelligent Automation Solutions (IAS) at the start of 2026.

‘Playing to Win’ is intended to enable the Industrial Trucks & Services (ITS) and Intelligent Automation Solutions (IAS) segments to complement each other more effectively, thereby addressing greater market potential based on the degree of automation and customer requirements.

Strategic action fields and measures in 2025

The KION Group has defined three core focus themes to implement its strategy with clarity of purpose.

Innovation and Growth

Through its commitment to ‘Innovation and Growth’, the KION Group is focused on strengthening its global and regional presence in the growing automation market by focusing on innovative technologies and solutions and delivering increasingly tailored solutions to its customers. This approach helps both segments to position themselves in the growing market for automation solutions, supports sustainability strategies with targeted products and solutions, and underpins the expansion of the portfolio.

The Industrial Trucks & Services segment aims to achieve organic growth across all regions by further differentiating KION brands addressing various customer segments and enhancing the regional production and sales network. In the service business, the focus will be on systematic lifecycle management and service coverage expansion. For the Supply Chain Solutions segment, efforts will concentrate on further improving project execution and expanding customer service in key sectors. Additionally, growth potential in stand-alone automation solutions is intended to be unlocked through a targeted cross-segment sales approach.

A key priority is the implementation and deployment of innovative technologies and solutions. In 2025, for example, the KION Group made significant progress in developing AI-based networks to control complex processes, coordinate the interaction of individual systems, and manage the use of resources. The KION Group’s AI and software strategy is aimed at delivering customer-facing solutions – from managing manual fleets to controlling multiple lights-out warehouses – based on one common software architecture. It is designed to support an efficient flow of goods and a seamless flow of information that provides the necessary data in real time.

Driving forward its innovation agenda, the KION Group forged a strategic partnership with NVIDIA and Accenture in January 2025 to develop cutting-edge AI-powered solutions. A key outcome of this collaboration is the advanced physical AI-powered Omniverse solution. This technology is expected to enhance customer-facing applications like AI-driven industrial trucks and digital twins, thereby contributing to improved warehouse flow, enhanced safety, and optimized space utilization.

Sustainable Performance

‘Sustainable Performance’ highlights KION Group’s commitment to continuously improving profitability and competitiveness, setting the stage for future investments. In 2025, significant cost reductions were achieved in both direct and indirect purchasing, supported by ongoing product cost optimization initiatives designed to further enhance competitiveness across various customer segments. The ongoing Business Transformation project, which harmonizes processes, data, and systems across the Group, will further enhance cross-functional cooperation, achieve efficiency gains, and create economies of scale.

The KION Group further improved its development processes to accelerate time-to-market and leveraged strategic partnerships to drive innovation and competitiveness. It also advanced its holistic approach to risk and capacity management, strengthening its ability to respond proactively to changing market conditions.

‘Sustainable Performance’ also reflects the KION Group’s ongoing refinement of its sustainability strategy and the identification of key levers within both operating segments to support customers and suppliers on their sustainability journey. The KION Group continues to pursue its goal of achieving net-zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2050 at the latest, as formally validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2024. In 2025, the KION Group received the highest award from EcoVadis, the Platinum rating, highlighting the Company’s steadfast commitment to its sustainability strategy.

Organizational Development

‘Organizational Development’ is dedicated to the further activation of groupwide management principles in the KION Group. It focuses on refining and applying groupwide leadership principles and behaviors embedded in business and HR processes to support the ‘Playing to Win’ strategy.

The HR agenda was enhanced and adapted to the ‘Playing to Win’ objectives in 2025 in order to fully support implementation of the strategy and achievement of the underlying long-term business goals. One of the key action fields refers to effective operational and strategic workforce planning, including taking account of external workforce trends and anticipating future skills requirements. This is complemented by the launch of a new employer branding campaign, designed to attract and retain top talent, and by the building of new capabilities in the business around the KION Group’s defined ‘winning behaviors’.

Implementation of the ‘winning behaviors’ is aimed at strengthening collaboration across the Group and segments. These behaviors complement the existing KION values of integrity, collaboration, courage, and excellence. The ‘winning behaviors’ are designed to establish exemplary behavior and methods to be implemented across the Group, creating significant added value. These initiatives are designed to keep the KION Group’s workforce at the forefront of industry knowledge and expertise, enabling dynamic operation at all levels and contributing to success in a rapidly changing environment.

^* The content of this chapter/section is disclosed voluntarily and is therefore unaudited