Jungheinrich in Russia: a Ten-year Success Story

Jungheinrich has been represented in Russia with its own sales subsidiary for the last ten years. Today Jungheinrich is considered a trailblazer for complete logistics solutions on the Russian market.

Jungheinrich is a market leader in Russia in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sector. Last year, the company sold more than 3,000 industrial trucks and is represented in nearly all regions throughout the country, with sales branches in Moscow (where the main office is located), St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk as well as a central spare parts warehouse and a total of 65 service base stations between Kaliningrad in the west and Khabarovsk in the east.

Jungheinrich can look back on many years of experience on the Russian market. It entered the market in 1993 using a Russian and a German distributor. Ten years later Jungheinrich had already delivered over 5,000 trucks for the Russian market. Today some 20,000 Jungheinrich industrial trucks are in service in Russia.

In the first quarter of 2003, the Jungheinrich group decided to establish its own sales subsidiary in Russia. “Based on market exigencies we decided to set up our initial hubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” recalls Stefan Demmig, then and current Managing Director of Jungheinrich Lift Truck Russia. In those days, more than 70 percent of the total Russian market was concentrated in the two Russian regions.

The turbulent pace of market growth was mirrored by the rapid growth of Jungheinrich Russia. The company’s sales volume has grown more than ten-fold compared with 2003. And the number of workers has also risen steadily. Whereas there were fewer than 20 employees back when the company was founded, now some 350 staff are employed in Russia. Today around 130 service engineers ensure that logistics processes run smoothly wherever Jungheinrich trucks are operated – in the country with the biggest land mass on earth.

“Back then the rapidly growing market in Russia and the requirements of our clients were the decisive factors that motivated us to set up our own sales subsidiary,” explains Stefan Demmig. In those days international key accounts as well as major Russian clients already expected complete service packages from intralogistics suppliers. This included, in addition to new trucks, used and rental trucks. Rental forklifts are mainly employed for handling peak demand periods or bridging the gap before a newly ordered truck is delivered. An effective and dense customer service network with rapid reaction times is another important success factor for Jungheinrich. “We not only sell forklifts, we also offer complete, logistically sophisticated warehouses and distribution centres,” adds Demmig. “Now Jungheinrich is the leader in complete logistics solutions on the Russian market!”

Jungheinrich ranks among the world’s leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. The company is an intralogistics service and solution provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, shelving systems, services and advice. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges