Year End Letter from Autoquip President – Chris Kuehni

To Our Valued Customers,
First and foremost, I want to say a big thank you to our customers who continue to support and trust Autoquip for their material handling solutions. Without your valued business, our goals would not be attainable. Despite facing challenges throughout the year, we still have numerous accomplishments to celebrate. Business remains strong which is a reflection of our emphasis on customization, automation, and integrated projects.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Autoquip was awarded major projects this year that involved the seamless integration of our equipment with other warehouse systems including Storage/Retrieval Systems (AS/RS), Robotics and AGVs. We leveraged our custom solutions and controls expertise to seamlessly execute the interconnection of these multiple systems for a successful warehouse automation.

We continue to serve as the premier provider of large, specialized lift systems as our customers have come to know us as the leader in developing tailor-made solutions that significantly improve their operational efficiency. The continued demand for our high-capacity or high-speed lifts among our customers has been a significant catalyst for our success.

We ended our fiscal year with a bang as we announced the acquisition of German based company, J.A. Becker & Söhne. Our new family member (JAB) specializes in highly engineered and heavy-duty lifting technology and high-pressure industrial compressors. This acquisition presents growth opportunities for both companies to expand their markets and product offerings, fitting our strategy of acquiring complementary, highly engineered, high-quality, and differentiated businesses.

EASIEST TO DO BUSINESS WITH
In addition to our major accomplishments, we’ve diligently pursued our mission to become the easiest to do business with, and we’re proud to report significant strides in implementing new processes and tools towards this goal.

• Launch of Autodocs – an innovative new tool that grants access to our customers project documents simply from scanning a QR code that is provided with the lift. Easy access to record drawings, schematics, operation, and maintenance manuals. AutoDocs allows you to instantly engage with the latest version of your factory/equipment documents, all accessible at the point of use, either via a label on the machine, or through an emailable hyperlink.
• Online Training Course through Autoquip University – E-learning courses designed to teach the technical detail of our lift designs, installation guidelines, and troubleshooting methods. We offer tests during the courses to evaluate student knowledge of the subjects discussed. This year we kick off with VRC training with more courses on our other equipment to follow.
• Interactive VRC Application Form – We’ve developed an online VRC form that takes the complexity out of selecting the features and options that go into the quoting and building our VRCs. Customers can self-select their exact requirements and ensure they are submitting exactly what they need for a project quote.
• Total quality management (TQM) is a continued priority and a journey that never ends. This year we strengthened our management team with a new director of operations, which signifies our commitment and mission to be the easiest to do business with; ultimately improving our customer’s experience.

Thank you once again for being with us in 2023/24 as we have concluded another fiscal year, and we look forward to even more successes together this coming year.

Sincerely,

Chris Kuehni, President