Industrial automation specialist Kuka has replaced its CEO, Peter Mohnen, with a new one, Christoph Schell, as it reflects on what it has described as a “challenging financial year”.
Despite the difficult global economic situation, robotics and automation are important growth markets. Kuka has asserted itself well in this highly com-petitive market, has proven to be robust – also in comparison to the mechanical engineering and automotive industries – and increased its order intake by 1.3 percent to around €4.1 billion in the past financial year (2023: €4.0 billion).
The book-to-bill ratio, that is the ratio of incoming orders to sales, rose to 1.09 (2023: 0.99), signaling a positive trend.
Nevertheless, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties are affecting the economy and thus customers’ investment behavior.
In addition, customers are reluctant to invest in e-mobility due to subdue demand. Like many other companies, Kuka is also feeling these effects. Sales revenues fell by 7.9 percent to €3.7 billion (2023: €4.1 billion).
This development was driven by declines in America and Europe, while in Asia Kuka recorded growth and record sales. The more competitive market and one-time effects from a major project led to a 51.6% decline in EBIT to €76.5 million (2023: €158.2 million).
Growth in the first quarter 2025
Despite such cyclical market fluctuations, robotics and automation are absolute key topics for the future and modern industry can no longer be imagined without them.
The Kuka Group is helping to shape this development worldwide, from robotics and intelligent intralogistics to the construction of state-of-the-art, fully automated systems and software solutions for the end-to-end digitalization of industry.
With its products, innovations and solutions, Kuka is convincing more and more customers and recorded increases in orders received, sales revenue and EBIT in the first quarter of 2025.
In one of his final statements as Kuka CEO, Mohnen said: “Our economy is currently facing major challenges that many companies are feeling.
“We need a fundamental change towards an industry that is resilient and flexible. Such a transformation is only possible with the help of new technologies – and that requires new approaches.”
To provide comprehensive support for customers along this path, Kuka founded the digital division Kuka Digital last year. This enables even small and medium-sized companies to digitalize their production comprehensively and seamlessly, independently of the installed hardware.
automatica 2025: Easy solutions in difficult times
In addition, Kuka is placing a special focus on easier automation, combined with digital solutions and AI-based innovations.
This year, Kuka is presenting its latest robot operating system at the leading robotics trade fair automatica, together with a new all-in-one software suite and the latest controller generation.
Peter Mohnen said: “We are focusing on making automation more intuitive and autonomous to use, and thus even easier for our customers.
“Our innovations in the areas of digitalization, artificial intelligence and ease of use are guided by the motto ‘making automation easier’ – because industry needs simple and practical solutions, especially in difficult times.”
