Material handling equipment market posts dynamic growth / Board of Management proposes dividend increase 
Hamburg—In 2007, Jungheinrich AG developed successfully on a material handling equipment market posting dynamic growth. The company looks back on the best financial year in its corporate history. Demand for all products and services rose significantly. Jungheinrich stayed its course for profitable growth on the strength of a significant rise in incoming orders and positive earnings. Consolidated net sales reached a record level of 2 billion euros for the first time. The reengineering of manufacturing procedures at the Norderstedt plant was completed successfully.

"We increased operating income for the eighth consecutive year," stated Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management, at the company’s balance sheet press conference in Hamburg. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were up 19 per cent to 140 million euros compared with the previous year (118 million euros). Jungheinrich’s EBIT return on sales (ROS) improved to 7.0 per cent (prior year: 6.8 per cent). At 24.1 per cent, the EBIT return on capital employed (ROCE) was markedly up on the 23.5 per cent recorded a year earlier. Earnings after taxes (net income) advanced 22 per cent to 82 million euros (prior year: 67 million euros). As a result, earnings per share grew to 2.40 euros (prior year: 1.96 euros).

Incoming orders, including all divisions, climbed by some 14 per cent to 2,120 million euros (prior year: 1,864 million euros). By December 31, 2007, the value of orders on hand in the new truck business had risen by 27 per cent to 334 million euros (prior year: 263 million euros).

In the year under review, consolidated net sales totalled 2,001 million euros, surpassing the 2 billion euro mark for the first time and exceeding the year-earlier figure (1,748 million euros) by 14 per cent. Domestic business posted a year-on-year gain of about 9 per cent, while foreign sales advanced nearly twice as much, growing by 17 per cent. The foreign ratio thus increased by two percentage points to 75 per cent. All the divisions contributed to the uptick in net sales. The biggest jump was made by the new truck business, which posted an increase of 19 per cent, followed by the used and short-term hire equipment business, achieving a rise of 15 per cent. Posting a gain of 19 per cent, the short-term hire business made a disproportionately high contribution to the increase in net sales. After-sales service operations gained 7 per cent.

As in the preceding years, Jungheinrich invested heavily in research and development, thus strengthening the company’s innovative power. Capital expenditures remained high, at 41 million euros (prior year: 44 million euros).

The shareholders are to partake of the positive business trend. The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board will thus propose to the Annual General Meeting on June 10, 2008, that an increased dividend of 0.52 euros per ordinary share (prior year: 0.48 euros) and of 0.58 euros per preferred share (prior year: 0.54 euros) be paid.

The Jungheinrich Group enlarged its labour force in the 2007 financial year, As of December 31, 2007, the Group employed 10,178 people (prior year: 9,274), 5,417 of whom worked abroad (53 per cent). This includes personnel from 11 companies that were added to the basis of consolidation for the first time.

The project aiming to reengineer manufacturing processes at the Norderstedt production plant was completed. The company now has a much higher capacity for producing warehousing equipment. The second capacity-enhancement phase of the central used equipment reconditioning plant in Klipphausen near Dresden was implemented. The company is thus doing justice to the mounting demand for used equipment. Trucks, which are often returned on expiry of financial services agreements, are sent to Klipphausen from all of Jungheinrich’s European sales companies.

Outlook for 2008

In the first two months of 2008, the value of orders received was up some 15 per cent to 368 million euros compared with the year-earlier level (prior year: 319 million euros). Sales will benefit from this development in the next few weeks. At the end of February, accumulated sales already exceeded 307 million euros (prior year: 288 million euros). This corresponds to an advance of 7 per cent.

"All in all, we expect to see moderate economic growth in 2008, based on a reduction in momentum compared with last year. We anticipate that the world material handling equipment market will have a volume of approximately one million trucks (2007: 910 thousand units). This will open up addition sales opportunities for Jungheinrich," says Hans-Georg Frey. In sum, the company expects to maintain its positive business performance in the current financial year and achieve growth rates in the middle single-digit percent range for both incoming orders and sales.

Jungheinrich will adapt its production capacity in order to keep up with expected market growth and the resulting increase in incoming orders in the years to come. At the end of 2007, a decision was made to construct a new plant for manufacturing battery-powered low-platform trucks in Landsberg, which is in the vicinity of Halle (Saxony-Anhalt), in order to provide relief for the plant in Norderstedt. This work commenced in the year underway and will continue into 2009. This will create more than 100 jobs in Landsberg. The project has a budget of around 30 million euros. The expansion of the Moosburg factory is also being considered; the ideas will be concretized over the course of this year.

At the 2008 CeMAT, the international lead intralogistics fair in Hanover (May 27 to 31, 2008), Jungheinrich will focus on energy efficiency and drive technology. A large number of new products and refinements will be presented as well.

Jungheinrich ranks among the world’s leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. Jungheinrich is a logistics service provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, shelving systems and services covering the entire field of intralogistics. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges.
Please address press-related inquiries to:
Jungheinrich AG; Markus Piazza, Head of Corporate Communications
Tel.: 040 6948-1550, Fax: 040 6948-1599, markus.piazza@jungheinrich.de
www.jungheinrich.com