Annual General Meeting in Hamburg/Strong Growth Continues/Investment Focus on Worldwide Sales
Following its good figures for the first four months of 2015, Jungheinrich has a positive outlook on the future. At the Annual General Meeting on May 19 in Hamburg, Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management, commented on the company's current financials and provided an outlook on its future development. Centre stage in the Group's strategy is taken by continued expansion in growth markets, the consolidation of the position in Europe, the expansion of the Logistics Systems and Mail Order Divisions, and an improved positioning on the IC engine-powered forklift market.
In the first four months of 2015, Jungheinrich increased its net sales by 9 per cent to 846 million euros (prior year: 774 million euros). Production in terms of units climbed by 8 per cent compared to the first four months of 2014 to 30.6 thousand trucks (prior year: 28.4 thousand trucks). In the same period, incoming orders from new truck business based on units totalled 32.3 thousand forklifts—up 14 per cent on the figure achieved in last year's corresponding period (28.4 thousand trucks). The value of the Jungheinrich Group's incoming orders, including all business fields, advanced by 10 per cent to 897 million euros (prior year: 812 million euros).
Jungheinrich's encouraging business trend is being buoyed by the continued growth of global demand for material handling equipment. In the first quarter of 2015, it rose by 4 per cent to 282.4 thousand forklifts (prior year: 272.3 thousand trucks). Europe, Jungheinrich's main sales market, recorded a strong increase of 13 per cent. Western Europe's market volume grew by 17 per cent, whereas in Eastern Europe, demand declined by 11 per cent owing to the weakness of the Russian market. Excluding Russia, the Eastern European market posted 8 per cent growth. In Asia, demand dropped by 5 per cent, whereas in North America, it rose by 9 per cent.
At the Annual General Meeting on May 19, 2015, the shareholders were presented with a draft resolution to increase the dividend by 0.18 euros to 0.98 euros per ordinary share and to 1.04 euros per preferred share.
The company intends to stay the course for growth on which it has embarked this year. Says Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management of Jungheinrich AG: "To this end, we will enlarge our global footprint—above all on the growth markets that we have identified. Having updated our manufacturing sites to the state of the art and significantly expanded our production capacity in the last few years, stepping up our sales activities has become our top priority. To this end, we will enlarge the existing sales and service network, establishing new Jungheinrich sales and service companies in the process." Mr. Frey went on to say: "Furthermore, Jungheinrich's main construction projects such as the training centre at the Norderstedt factory, the modernization of production of counterbalanced trucks at the Moosburg plant, the expansion of the Dresden Used Equipment Centre as well as the new corporate headquarters in Hamburg form a major part of our activity. This year, capital expenditures on fixed assets will total between 90 and 100 million euros."
Jungheinrich ranks among the world's leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. The company is an intralogistics service and solution provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, logistics systems, services and advice. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges.
