The world's Top 20 materials handling system suppliers
In our second annual survey of the world's largest systems suppliers, we see it's not only tougher to make the cut but there's been 25% growth in total revenues of the top 20.
By Gary Forger; Sonja Randall -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/1/1999
It's been a year since Modern Materials Handling published the first ever global listing of the 20 largest materials handling systems suppliers. And just in case you don't have that original list right at your fingertips, there are some important changes in 1999.To begin, the world got bigger, the materials handling world that is.
Total sales of companies on the list rose from just over $7 billion last year to more than $9 billion this time around. Using that as a gauge, 1998 was a pretty good year for global materials handling systems suppliers that do business in the U.S.
For example, sales of the largest company, which is still Mannesmann Dematic, rose 15% from $2 billion to $2.3 billion.
Last time, there were 11 companies with sales of $200 million or more. This time, there are 13.
Even the smallest company on the list got bigger. Last year the cutoff was $42 million. Now a company had to post at least $60 million in sales to make it. In fact, five companies with less than $100 million were here last time, but only two are here now.
Who is eligible for the list?
Even though the materials handling world got bigger, the idea behind the top 20 list is just the same as it was when originally created.
Modern Materials Handling wanted to identify the largest materials handling systems suppliers as determined by annual revenue. But this was no international free for all. Companies had to clear some important hurdles to make the list.
To begin, a company must have a business unit in the United States. All worldwide revenue counts toward the ranking but if a company doesn't have at least a beach head in the United States, it's not eligible for the list.
We also limited participation to companies that are systems suppliers. This is not intended to exclude suppliers of industrial lift trucks or returnable containers or ergonomic equipment. Instead, we consider those companies to be specialists with tightly defined areas of expertise rather than true systems suppliers.
That also meant we had to create a definition of a materials handling systems supplier. So we did.
A systems supplier uses full-time staff to design, install, integrate, and implement materials handling systems that include two or more of the following materials handling activities-transportation, storage/staging, picking, sortation, and data capture/information management. In addition, the company must manufacture or assemble at least one major system component (transportation device, storage/ staging equipment, picking unit, sortation mechanism, data management capture device, or information software). Additional components of each system can be supplied by other companies which serve as sub-system integrators.
The table on the second page of this story details the top 20, their parent companies, U.S. operations, and revenues. What each company supplies is covered in the table on the final page of the article.
Other changes in the list
It's worth noting that there have been shifts behind the scenes at several companies in the past year.
This time last year Vanderlande Industries was partially owned by Daifuku. The acquisition was expected to be completed sometime in 1998. Instead, there was a reversal, and Vanderlande purchased itself back from Daifuku. Both companies retain their previous positions on the list, #2 for Daifuku and #11 for Vanderlande.
Meanwhile, Swisslog (#6) acquired a second U.S. based division-Munck Automation Technology. A year ago, Munck was #19 on the list.
Another name that has been modified on the new list is Constructor Group. During the past year, it merged to form the Constructor Dexion Group and jumps into the #9 slot.
The new parent of Dearbon Mid-West Conveyor is Tomkins Industries (#12). And FKI sold Acco Systems to Durr, which debuts on the list as #20.
In short, it's been a year of strong growth and important changes. It will certainly be interesting to see what next year's list brings.
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