Dematic's boss sees "unprecedented" growth in North America, forecasts more acquisitions

The president and CEO of material handling and logistics systems provider Dematic, forecasting what he called "unprecedented growth" in North America, said today that the company will continue to pursue acquisitions to meet demand both in North America and worldwide.

Speaking at a news conference at the Modex biennial conference in Atlanta, Ulf Henriksson said that Dematic's North American market is growing at a 15 percent annualized clip, a pace normally reserved for emerging markets. To capitalize, the company expects to make four times the investment levels of its competitors, he said.

One of the areas for possible activity will be in "niche robotic acquisitions," Henriksson said. Last month, Dematic acquired NDC Automation, a provider of Automated Guided Vehicles and software.

E-commerce will also be a tremendous growth area, especially because North America lags Europe in the pace of e-commerce automation, he said. An extension of that will be the exponential growth of e-returns. "Returns will be a natural part of the warehouse, and we in the industry will need to define what that means," Henriksson said.

At the conference, Dematic showcased various levels of equipment and technology solutions managed and controlled by its "Dematic iQ" software platform.

For more information, see the Dematic website