Daifuku voted #1 in material handling.
Making the 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.)
The Top 10
Daifuku is still No. 1 on the list, reporting more than $4 billion in revenues for 2019. Although the figure is slightly less than the previous year, it follows double-digit gains contributing to three-year growth of 37%.
“While Daifuku is experiencing an increase in projects from the e-commerce sector and an increase in sales in line with the larger-scale systems being requested, at the same time sales also reflected the impact from the downturn in investments in the semiconductor and flat-panel sectors,” says Stuart Oliphant from Daifuku’s corporate communications department.
In 2019, Daifuku acquired Vega Conveyors & Automation Private Ltd. Founded in 1999 and employing 73 people as of March 2019, the company provides conveyor and other materials handling equipment design, manufacture, installation and after-sales service. Daifuku also acquired Netherlands-based Scarabee Aviation Group B.V. and Australia-based Intersystems (Asia Pacific) Pty Limited. Revenue from the acquired companies are not included in the current fiscal year results.
