Two global players, one success story

The year was 1996. Volker Haspel still remembers his first day on the job very clearly. “I joined a small group that was discussing a project that was already underway. An electrical design engineer was unavailable, so I was able to step in and help. You could say I was thrown in at the deep end,” recalls the father of two, who is now also a grandfather of three.

After studying electrical engineering in Stuttgart, Haspel spent several years in Oberesslingen, where he developed hardware and software for a company. It was there that he first began exploring ideas for a modular concept, ideas he would later refine at his current employer. 

His goal was always to create something tangible, something you could actually still see when the work was finished. He found what he was looking for at KION Warehouse Systems, or KWS for short. Over three decades at this highly specialized center of expertise for narrow-aisle trucks and vertical order pickers, he earned himself the nickname “Mr. Order Picker.”