A number of companies benefitted in 2011 when end users loosened purse strings and invested in materials handling solutions. “There was a lot of pent up demand in the market due to companies not spending money on projects for awhile, and we benefitted nicely from market activity,” explains Jerry Johnson, marketing manager for Knapp. Knapp benefitted to the tune of $94 million, going from $329 million to $423 million.

Market activity also led to a record year for Wynright. In fact, according to Brigitte Janos Brozenec, executive vice president of marketing, 2011 proved to be the strongest year in Wynright’s 40-year history. In addition to a 125% increase in robotic systems sales, the trends toward industry consolidation, productivity related infrastructure investments, planned DC expansion, and distribution center repurposing contributed to this overall revenue growth, she explains.

Stuttgart-based viastore’s reach beyond the four walls resulted in revenue of $125 million up from $104 million last year. New business development and market manager Amanda Rogalski says, “The increase was due mainly to our headquarters out of Germany expanding its export markets. Specifically, the Russian market performed quite well for us in 2011.”

While the Russian market helped viastore achieve a 20% increase, the European market wasn’t as good to System Logistics, which experienced a 15% decrease and missed the Top 20 list this year. Paul Roy, vice president of marketing and product management, believes “the lag was mainly due to the business challenges in Europe last year.” On the upside, Roy adds, “This year is already looking much stronger in both the U.S. and abroad.”

Back in the U.S., Dearborn Mid-West Conveyor saw its revenue increase by $10 million thanks to a boom in its automotive division, explains Michael Paisley, controller for the company’s Michigan division. “Automotive work was slow through 2008 and leading into 2009 with the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. They simply slowed production and delayed plans for new car models during that time,” says Paisley, “But since then, there has been a resurgence of new models being pushed out by the Big 3 starting in late 2010, and going well into this year.”

New to the list
Making its first appearance on the list at No. 13 is Kuka Systems North America. Kuka, which develops, implements and launches robot-based logistics solutions for general industry purposes, reported $352 million in revenue for its North American business alone, as global numbers were not ready for release as Modern went to press.

Industry outlook
On the surface, these larger revenue figures may seem like it’s smooth sailing for the materials handling industry. Let’s hope so. But Modern’s recent State of the Industry reader survey, which ran in our March issue, leads us to believe there are still some rough waters yet to navigate.

We reported that 2011 survey results showed that the budgets for equipment spending increased from an average of $395,000 in 2010 to $451,000 in 2011. That makes sense. A number of factors motivated end users to spend money on materials handling equipment, and that’s reflected in increased revenue for most of the leading systems suppliers.

However, our 2012 State of the Industry survey also showed forward momentum stalling a little. And, while the industry outlook isn’t gloomy, the short-term future might not be as bright as hoped. This was also the message at the State of the Industry meeting held at Modex 2012 in Atlanta in February, when the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) forecasted continued, but slower growth.

In an interview with Modern, George Prest, CEO of the MHIA said, “What I hear from our members is that there is money out there, and there’s a lot of quote activity. However, people are being cautious with regard to when they are releasing orders.”

That said, MHIA anticipates an increase in new orders of 8% for 2012 followed by an uptick in orders to 12% in 2013.

Making Modern’s List

To qualify for Modern’s Top 20 list, companies must be suppliers of materials handling systems, not just equipment providers. In addition to manufacturing at least two major handling system components, a company must also employ full-time staff that designs, installs and integrates materials handling systems.

These systems include at least two of the following: transportation devices, storage and staging equipment, picking units, sortation systems, information management systems, data capture technologies and other types of handling equipment.

To be considered worldwide suppliers, companies must have a presence in North America and must also be able to report materials handling revenues to Modern. (Lockheed Martin, for example, is a systems supplier with a North American presence, but isn’t included in our Top 20 list because they can’t single out the revenue that comes from materials handling contracts.)