Schuon Group Grows Double-Digit in Fiscal Year 2021

The Schuon Group presents its figures for the fiscal year 2021. The growth of recent years was able to continue across all business areas. Overall, the company group based in Haiterbach generated a revenue of around 77 million euros. All core business areas have developed positively.

(Haiterbach) A guarantee for Schuon’s success has been the further expansion of the contract logistics business. After a successful start to 2022 and a persistently strong demand, Schuon is currently facing challenges such as high fuel prices and an uncertain market situation.

“The past year was operationally difficult and challenging again. Ongoing supply chain disruptions, vehicle, material, and capacity bottlenecks, as well as continuous price increases have put us under pressure,” says Alexander Schuon, Managing Director of Alfred Schuon GmbH. However, the logistics service provider from Haiterbach has successfully mastered these tasks once again. “We are economically healthy and proud of a strong team that meets the challenges with passion and high commitment. Two important pillars in stormy times,” explains Schuon, adding: “As a result, despite all adversities, we were able to achieve double-digit revenue growth.”

Contract Logistics Grows Particularly Dynamically

In addition to a very good development in the area of transport and forwarding, the growth of the contract logistics division was again particularly dynamic. This now accounts for about 20 percent of the total revenue of the logistics group. “We have established this business area as a second pillar in recent years to respond to the increased interest in logistics services with special value creation depth,” describes the Managing Director. Battery logistics for the automotive industry, in which Schuon offers all logistical processes related to batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, is playing an increasingly important role in the company’s strategy. “Here we have built up special expertise,” says Schuon.

Large Volume Goods Dominate Transport

However, the vast majority still comes from the transport of large volume goods. Schuon primarily works for automotive, insulation material, and packaging producers, managing more than 330 vehicles across Europe for this purpose. For the fleet, the company aims to increasingly focus on alternative drive technologies. “At our Hungarian location in Kecskemét, part of the fleet runs on synthetic fuel, saving 90 percent of CO2 emissions. In Germany, we are already using liquefied natural gas trucks (LNG) and will put our first electric truck into operation this summer,” says Schuon. These developments are being accelerated by the economic consequences of the Ukraine war, which Schuon is feeling primarily through high diesel prices.

Investments in Digitalization

Furthermore, the logistics company is driving innovative projects to make transport processes more efficient. It is a shareholder of the start-up NeoCargo AG, which is developing a digital networking platform for freight forwarders. In addition, Schuon wants to further optimize its dispatching with a new tool being developed in collaboration with a spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that utilizes artificial intelligence. “We initiated this project to further increase efficiency and relieve our employees from the high complexity. Additionally, we want to make better use of the existing data in day-to-day operations,” outlines the Managing Director his plans.

Photo: © Schuon