Turnover up by 20% for KNAPP

This follows a year of modest growth, from €380m in 2012/13 to €384m in 2013/14.

KNAPP set itself the target in 2013 of doubling turnover by 2020. At its current growth rate, the company will not be far away from that ambitious target.

Europe remained the strongest sales region for KNAPP, with a turnover share of almost 75%. The UK market also performed very well. 

Craig Rollason, Managing Director of KNAPP UK said: "These extremely positive results reflect both the long-term growth strategy of the group and the highly successful partnerships developed with key clients over the last decade.”  

KNAPP’s investment in R&D had resulted in innovative system solutions for the core business areas of pharma, fashion, food and retail.

"Research and development are key parts of our corporate culture,” said Christian Grabner, KNAPP CFO. "This year we have again invested about €30m in this area, amounting to 7% of turnover. We need fast thinkers and bright minds to boost research and development further, so increasing our workforce by 300 individuals is excellent news.”

The group now has its highest ever number of employees – 2,700 worldwide, of which some 2,000 are located in the Austrian region of Styria. 

Key milestones 

The year 2014-15 included a number of important events for the group. 

• KNAPP’s investment in the German KHT Apostore Group, which markets automated picking systems for use in pharmacies and by pharmaceutical wholesalers.

• The successful delivery of the Pick-it-Easy Move pallet picking system to SPAR’s regional warehouse in Maria Saal, Austria. This innovative and ergonomic system allows goods to be picked directly from the original pallets to the target load carriers. In 2016, Pick-it-Easy Move will also be installed in SPAR’s brand-new distribution centre in Ebergassing in Lower Austria.

• KNAPP has marketed the YLOG-Shuttle system – enabling shuttles to move both crosswise and lengthwise within the storage solution.

• KNAPP recorded very strong growth in the fashion and lifestyle sectors, where co-operation with the German subsidiary Dürkopp Fördertechnik continued to reap excellent results.

"Taking a walk through a shopping mall shows many brands that are KNAPP customers, such as Hugo Boss, Olymp, Marks & Spencer and Clarks,” said Franz Mathi, KNAPP COO. "Here, bringing high throughput and strict sequencing together is what counts. For this purpose we have further developed our software and put it into operation successfully. We have also equipped our automatic storage system, the OSR Shuttle, for storing cartons and are now able to ensure double-deep and triple-deep storage depending on the carton dimensions.”

The e-tail sector continued to show strong growth and KNAPP’s solutions were well received in the market. "Our development is focused in two directions: our low complexity warehouse and our zero-defect solutions,” explained Gerald Hofer, KNAPP CEO. "Both of these approaches detect and correct any errors within a single process step. This is how we ensure the delivery of the right goods at the right time at the right place.”