In response to current and future demand for parts requirements in the commercial vehicle sector, Krone Commercial Vehicle Group has started operations at its new central logistics centre.

With an investment approaching 8.5 million Euros, the ground-breaking distribution centre was built at Europastraße 233 (main road 213) in Herzlake within a total area of 38,000 square metres. This is equal to five and a half football fields.

The covered storage area of 8,400 square metres is spread across twelve stories. Here, there is space for 17,500 Euro pallets and 16,000 containers for smaller spare parts. Currently, approx. 40 employees pick more than 23,000 orders for fast despatch every month, with all parts either despatched overnight or within a predetermined time-frame.

 
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, semitrailers and box semitrailers, along with CEP vehicles for courier express services and in-house Krone trailer axles.

Bernard Krone, Managing Director of the Krone Group, explains: “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.

The development of this important service is a central component of our strategy for the future.”

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 curtainsided semitrailers, temperature-controlled semitrailers, dry freight semitrailers, container chassis, swap systems, general trailers, motor vehicle superstructures, and CEP vehicles for parcel services.

Customer requirements go far beyond the vehicle. Krone offers a comprehensive service package that includes telematics, spare-parts, financing, rental vehicles and used vehicle sales. In-house components, such as the Krone trailer axle and the ‘All-in-Krone trailer’, ensure that customers can rely on one contact person for every requirement.

In five decades, the Krone Group’s annual sales volume has increased from approximately 8.5 million euros to nearly 1.9 billion euros today. The Krone Group’s main revenue generators are commercial vehicles (Fahrzeugwerk Krone and subsidiaries) with sales of approximately 1.3 billion euros.

Krone has manufactured around 52,000 vehicle units (approx. 41,000 semitrailers and nearly 11,000 swap systems); by country Germany is the strongest sales market at 27,2 percent. All other Western Europe countries combined represent 43,8 percent and Eastern Europe countries are at 21,6 percent.

The Krone Group employs 4,500 personnel worldwide. This strong increase in the number of employees is due to the growth of the Krone Commercial Vehicle Group; approx. 2,500 employees are currently working on vehicle production at the Werlte, Herzlake (both at Emsland/Lower Saxony), Dinklage (at Osnabruck), Lübtheen (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), and Tire (Turkey) locations.