Dematic began in 1819 in Wetter, Germany with the founding of, which was incorporated 1910 by and 1973 by Mannesmann. After the acquisition of U.S. Rapistan, Mannesmann DEMAG Fördertechnik AG was established. In 1993, Australian racking and shelving manufacturer Colby was added, and in 1997 the company was renamed to Mannesmann Dematic AG. Four years later, Siemens bought the company and merged it with its own logistics activities to form Siemens Dematic AG. In 2006 Siemens carved out the industrial and distribution logistics portion as Dematic GmbH & Co. KG. In the same year, the investment firm Triton acquired the majority of shares. On September 15, 2010, Dematic Group successfully completed the acquisition of HK Systems, a North American automated material handling and software provider. The expanded manufacturing footprint allows Dematic to manufacture within the USA storage and retrieval machines and automated guided vehicles in addition to conveyor, sortation and order fulfillment technology. On December 28, 2012, AEA Investors LP and Teachers' Private Capital, the private investment division of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, completed their acquisition of Dematic from private equity firm Triton. In January 2015, Dematic acquired SDI Group Europe, a supplier of garment on hanger and flat sorter technology in Europe. In November 2015, Dematic acquired Reddwerks Corp. pending approval of the shareholders. The acquisition became final in December 2015. In March 2016 Dematic acquired NDC Automation, a leading provider of automated guided vehicles and software. In June 2016, KION Group agreed to buy Dematic for about $2.1 billion. In November 2016, KION Group completed the acquisition. On March 13, 2017, Dematic announced the integration of Egemin Automation to create the world's leading provider of automated guided vehicle technology. In March 2020, Dematic acquired Digital Applications International, a global logistics software firm, for approximately $134 million.
Business segments
Primary markets for Dematic systems include e-Commerce, grocery food and beverage, general retail, wholesale, manufacturing, apparel, parcel, pharma/healthcare, third-party logistics, and document management.
Products and services
Dematic designs and manufactures individual products and material handling equipment such as automated storage and retrieval systems and different types of conveyors, sortation systems and order picking systems. Dematic also offers consultative, planning, and design services that integrate hardware and software components into total logistics solutions. In addition, the company provides software and IT solutions like warehouse management systems and systems that support material flow and paperless order picking operations. Dematic also offers customer services such as the technical operation of facilities and their maintenance, including complete enterprise asset management.
