Even a ten per cent increase in sheetfed press orders as a result of DRUPA wasn’t enough to bring KBA’s order intake of 826 million Euros failed to achieve last year’s record high of 1.16 billion Euros.
Orders for web and special presses were also down – at 308.2 million Euros, only 45 per cent of the previous year’s exceptional high of 683.7 million Euros, boosted by a number of major orders.
The nature of the business however, is that sales in the long-term orientated business segment rose by 34.1 per cent to 520.8 million Euros, with numerous deliveries resulting from an earlier wave of orders.
Higher contribution margins, the growth in the service business and an advantageous product mix resulted in the web and special press division showing an improved profit of €41.9 million Euros, compared to 1.7 million Euros in 2011, the company said.
President and chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann presented “generally positive” figures in the company’s third quarter report to shareholders.
“We are on target as far as the whole year is concerned,” he said.
For the first three quarters, group sales increased 16.6 per cent to 916.2 million Euros, with contributions from non-core markets such as packaging, security, digital printing as well as marking and coding, which are less economy-dependent.
Following a loss of 20.4 million Euros the previous year, operating profit stands currently at 20.5 million, an improvement of more than 40 million Euros.
Exports now accounts for almost 90 per cent of sales, with 24.4 per cent of sales coming from the Asia-Pacific, with China playing a major role. Latin America and Africa also soared to an above-average 25.3 per cent.