Within five decades, Krone Group’s annual sales volume has increased from approximately €8.5 million to nearly €1.9 billion, with its core revenue stemming from commercial vehicle sales worth about €1.3 billion.
Krone has manufactured close to 52,000 vehicle units (approximately 41,000 semi-trailers and nearly 11,000 swap systems) where Germany is its strongest sales market at 27.2 per cent. All other Western Europe countries combined represent 43. 8 per cent and Eastern Europe countries are at 21.6 per cent. Following these figures, the trailer builder has worked strategically on its infrastructure to facilitate a better service offering.
The Krone Group currently employs 4,500 personnel worldwide, and due to the solid growth of Krone Commercial Vehicle Group, close to 2,500 employees now work at production sites in Werlte, Herzlake (both at Emsland/Lower Saxony), Dinklage (at Osnabruck), Lübtheen (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), and Tire (Turkey).
With an investment of about €8.5 million, Krone opened a state-of-the-art distribution centre of 38,000 square metres at Europastraße 233 in Herzlake. Krone says the covered storage area of 8,400 square metres is spread across twelve storeys where there is space for 17,500 euro pallets and 16,000 containers for smaller spare parts. Currently, about 40 employees pick more than 23,000 orders for fast despatch every month, with all parts either despatched overnight or at a pre-determined time.
Moreover, the central Herzlake spare parts centre supplies key regional Krone depots in Istanbul, Budapest, Lyon, Scandinavia and the Baltic region with parts for trailers, superstructures, container chassis, semi-trailers and box semi-trailers, along with CEP vehicles for courier express services and in-house Krone trailer axles.
“With the launch of our spare parts centre, we continue to build on our service offering for our customers throughout Europe while at the same time sharpening our competitive edge in the spare parts business,” says Krone Group Managing Director, Bernard Krone. “The development of this important service is a central component of our strategy for the future.”
In addition to supporting its commercial vehicle production capabilities, Krone offers a service package that includes telematics, spare parts, financing, rental vehicles and used vehicle sales. Also, in-house components such as the Krone trailer axle and the ‘All-in-Krone trailer’ allow for single points of contact for just about every requirement.
As demand continues to grow for Krone trailing equipment, the manufacturer is committed to refining its aftersales support while keeping pace with current trends in everything from telematics to the identification and delivery of spare parts.
Fast Fact
The Krone family business is among the market leaders in commercial vehicle and agricultural machinery production. Its product portfolio in the commercial vehicle division includes curtain-siders, temperature-controlled semi-trailers, dry freight semi-trailers, container chassis, swap systems, general trailers, motor vehicle superstructures, and CEP vehicles for parcel services.
Fast Fact
German trailer manufacturer, Krone, has unveiled its Box Liner with extendable chassis, providing improved handling capabilities for container operators.
Krone presented the multifunctional Box Liner SDC27 eLTU70 chassis at this year’s Transport Compleet show in Hardenberg, eastern Netherlands, emphasising its flush-fit rear loading for 20- 45-foot containers.
According to Krone, it uses higher strength steel but even so, the chassis weighs only 4,600 kilograms and owing to the flush-fit container positioning, weight distribution is significantly better than comparable container chassis.
Frankfurt-based intermodal operator, Kombiverkehr, has reported a payload advantage of almost one tonne using a 20-foot container and Krone Box Liner chassis with a 6-tonne fifth wheel load, operating at a gross vehicle weight of 28 tonnes.
Weight saving is reportedly due mainly to the compact rear-end design, although Krone has not compromised on strength: the longitudinal beams are constructed from 40mm high-grade steel and the 20-foot container is positioned further forward which brings the centre of gravity closer to the kingpin.
Fast Fact
German trailer manufacturer, Krone, has expanded its senior management team with the appointment of Dr David Frink as Chief Financial Officer of the Krone Group.
Frink is responsible for strategic and concept development and operational areas including finance and accounting, controlling, taxation, M&A, IT and process control, legal affairs and human resources.
According to Krone, by expanding the top management base, the company is adapting to the challenges facing the Agricultural Machinery and Commercial Vehicles divisions, especially in view of the company’s expansion and increasing internationalisation.
“We are delighted to welcome such an acknowledged expert in finance, production, logistics and IT as Dr Frink to our team,” said Bernard Krone and Alfons Veer, CEO of the group.
“The Krone Group has shown encouraging growth over several years. A rising world population combined and the increasing globalisation will trigger a sustained growth in demand for food and vehicles for freight transportation. Since our portfolio reflects two of these global megatrends, we anticipate that the Krone Group will continue to grow significantly for years to come.”