Another high-growth business year for KEBA

The Linz-based KEBA Group saw revenue grow from €304 million to €373.5 million in the last fiscal year (April 2019 - March 2020).

Average annual growth over the past five years lies at 14.5 % (CAGR). KEBA Industrial Automation Germany (formerly LTI Motion), which has been part of the KEBA Group since late December 2018, is included in the total annual revenue of €373.5 million.

The share of international business remains unchanged at around 88%. 66% of exports went to the EU (excluding Austria) and 16% to Asia.

For a technology company like KEBA, research and development is critically important and serves as the basis for the future success of KEBA and its technological position on the market. Accordingly, the KEBA Group dedicates a significant portion of its revenues to research and development (R&D) every year.

Over the last year, R&D investment rose from almost €50 million to €62 million.

The size of the KEBA Group workforce remained unchanged at 1,730 employees.

As a direct response to the escalating situation in China, KEBA formed a corona task force in January with the aim of protecting employees and maintaining production levels and customer support as much as possible.

Thanks to early and extensive measures and the amazing dedication of our employees, we were able to continuously produce and deliver at all production sites during the lockdown. Only in China were operations suspended for three weeks due to local government orders.

In the current situation where international travel is limited, KEBA benefits from its worldwide branches. Our professional teams have the autonomy to service customers on-site. In addition, the company has an array of digital options available to keep in contact with customers and partners. All business divisions offer webinars which are very well attended. At the Linz headquarters, a real exhibition booth was even set up for the industrial automation business. Via live video, our KEBA experts can attend to customers or prospective customers anywhere in the world. This allows KEBA to actively service its markets despite the travel restrictions and trade show cancellations.

By acquiring the German drive technology company LTI Motion, which now operates under the name KEBA Industrial Automation Germany, the Group has gained a new dimension to their business. The banking and logistics divisions now also share a common vision. It therefore made sense to map these new developments in terms of structure. The three business divisions are:

• Industrial automation

In this business division, KEBA develops and produces automation solutions using hardware and software for machines and robots. The solutions range from operation and control to safety engineering and drive technology.

• Handover automation

In essence, this business division seeks to provide intelligent automation solutions that facilitate the handover of goods and services between the physical and digital world. This involves, in part, the ATMs and self-service kiosks used in banking, or the parcel lockers from KEBA, which are used by postal and logistics companies.

• Energy automation

Electromobility has been a mainstay of the KEBA service range for more than 10 years. KEBA is one of the pioneers and top providers in the field of smart charging solutions for electric cars. Our charging solution, which we call the wall box, allows you to not only charge your electric car safely and reliably, but also connect your car with different systems through various interfaces. This business division also produces heating controls for heat pumps or biomass heaters.

In the past 10 years KEBA has quadrupled its revenue from €92 million to €373.5 million

Average annual growth over the last 10 years has been about 15% (CAGR).

The number of employees has increased by almost exactly 1,000.

This growth was made possible through consistent investments in research and development and the products and solutions that have resulted from such investments. As our average R&D expenditure of 17% shows, KEBA has always made major investments into research and development over the years. The new energy automation business division was established.

Through the founding and acquisition of new subsidiaries such as DELEM, specialist in automation systems for sheet metal bending machines (2013), KEMAS, expert in transfer solutions (2016) or the LTI Motion Group (2018), we have managed to greatly increase the international profile of our company in the last 10 years.

Share of international business rose from 80% to around 88%.

You can read the full press release here

Gerhard Luftensteiner, CEO of KEBA AG ©KEBA AG/APA-Fotoservice/Hartl

Gerhard Luftensteiner, CEO of KEBA AG ©KEBA AG/APA-Fotoservice/Hartl

In order to remain in dialogue, the KEBA experts will come directly to the customer via live video at the newly constructed KEBA exhibition stand at the headquarters in Linz. © KEBA AG/APA-Fotoservice/Hartl