"The Augsburg-based robot manufacturer is getting a new boss. He's not a mechanical engineer, but a software expert. Either way, the question immediately arises as to whether the pressure from Chinese owner Midea has once again become too great for the German market leader.
It's unusual that Kuka is participating in Automatica in Munich without its first man – after all, this world-leading robotics trade fair in Munich is a kind of home game for the Augsburg-based company. It has long been able to feel like a top dog here, close to its Bavarian headquarters. But Christoph Schell hasn't yet settled into his new position; he won't become Kuka's new CEO until the beginning of July, succeeding Peter Mohnen. Schell is already a member of the supervisory board, but the former Intel manager and Chief Commercial Officer is still in Silicon Valley, according to Munich. The relocation is not yet complete.
So, Kuka will have a software specialist as its new CEO, not a mechanical engineer, but that's neither historically nor substantively surprising. His predecessor, Till Reuter – under him, Kuka was practically a company of national interest – was an investment banker, and the fact that a manufacturer of industrial robots can need software expertise during the heyday of artificial intelligence applies not only to Kuka.
Schell hadn't even arrived in his new position to reignite the speculation that has accompanied Kuka since its takeover by the Chinese household goods group Midea in 2016: namely, whether the influence of the Chinese, especially their profit expectations, would literally crush the Augsburg-based company and not be as beneficial as had been promised after the takeover. At the time, there was great excitement in the country; there was talk of a sell-off of German cutting-edge technology, even federal politicians got involved – and the biggest skeptics were certain: This won't end well for Kuka, the rising star of so-called Industry 4.0 in Germany – and Midea. Recently, it was said that Mohnen didn't leave voluntarily, but because he disapproved of the course and was under too much pressure from China. Just as Till Reuter once did. There's a lot of speculation, but it's certain that Mohnen's contract would have expired at the end of the year.
He's handing over a company that was doing better – but also significantly worse. It was Reuter who saved Kuka from collapse after the 2008/2009 financial crisis by literally knocking on the doors of investors. The situation today is far from this threatening situation. The former M-DAX-listed company Kuka – with around 500,000 robots installed globally, factories in Augsburg, China, and Hungary, and branches in more than 50 countries – is still a colossus of the industry and, despite various setbacks, is on par with competitors such as ABB from Switzerland or the Japanese companies Fanuc and Yaskawa. After all, they're grappling with the same problems.
If the automotive industry, the main customer of robotics companies, is doing poorly, then they can't be doing well either. The dependency is too great for that.
Today, around 3,000 people work for Kuka in Augsburg; it used to be 4,000. But sales have also fallen from more than four billion euros to around 3.7 billion euros – although robots are still something of Kuka's crown jewels, compared to the weakening systems business, logistics, and software within the holding structure. They account for about half of sales. Nevertheless, the margins are not such that Midea – an industrial colossus with annual sales of 50 billion euros, half of which are in China – could be satisfied. In this respect, speculation about a connection between the mediocre results and Peter Mohnen's resignation is not unreasonable.
Kuka already had an EBIT margin of just 3.9 percent in 2023 – a record year for sales and profits, which also marked the company's 125th anniversary. It fell to 2.0 percent in 2024, when order intake also suffered significantly. That Midea expects more is obvious. If things go well, the industry could even achieve a double-digit margin. However, there is also the assessment that an American, capital market-driven investor would probably be even more impatient than Midea.
Christoph Schell is taking over a company that won't recover overnight – but is still so broadly positioned that the opportunities are likely to outweigh the risks.
This is demonstrated by a meter-high robot like the Titan with a payload of 1.5 tons, which adorns the Kuka booth in Munich, as well as the many more delicate small robots from the Augsburg company, or the dramatically simplified programming across all product classes thanks to artificial intelligence.
The decisive factor will be that the investment reluctance in the industrial sector and automation turns to the upswing that many companies at Automatica expect. Kuka is no exception. If demographics around the world result in the loss of millions upon millions of workers, there is no way around automation.” [1]
1. Eine Dosis Silicon Valley für Kuka. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 26 June 2025: 19. UWE MARX
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