Kion Group: New organization to start taking shape In 2016

Forklift manufacturer Kion Group has announced that the Wiesbaden, Germany-based group will be organized into group functions beginning in 2016.

Group functions include research and development, procurement, quality management, finance, human resources and information technology. The new structure will consist of four operating units: Linde Material Handling EMEA and STILL EMEA, which will each concentrate on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, plus KION APAC and KION Americas, which will hold cross-brand responsibility for the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas respectively. The KION Group will start to put the new structures in place at the beginning of 2016 as part of its Strategy 2020.

In the new organisation, the operating units will oversee marketing, sales and service as well as production in their regions and will have individual P&L responsibility. They will be supported by the group administrative functions and the KION research and development, procurement, quality and production processes technical functions, which have been centrally managed under chief technology officer (CTO) Eike Böhm since August 2015.

On the KION Group executive board, the CEO Gordon Riske will have responsibility for the Linde Material Handling EMEA, STILL EMEA and KION Americas units, while Chief Asia-Pacific Officer (C-APAC-O) Ching Pong Quek will be responsible for the KION APAC unit. Chief financial officer (CFO) and labor relations director Thomas Toepfer will continue to be in charge of accounting, control and finance, legal, IT and HR.