The German manufacturer said that in the three months to 31 March 2022 order intake was up 22% at €349.1m (£298.8m), while its order backlog was up 36% year-on-year, and 13.7% on the prior quarter, at €917.5m.
Sales slipped by 2.1% to €238.4m.
K&B’s P24x efficiency programme helped the business reduce EBIT losses by €400,000 to €8.5m, and it saved around €10m via P24x during the period.
The group posted order intake that grew by double-digits across all its divisions, with sheetfed offset and post-press kit orders up 25.4% at €242.1m.
K&B said the war in Ukraine had amplified ongoing issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic, bottlenecks in its supply chain and increases in materials and energy costs.
It is working "intensively" on projects to address the ongoing increase in energy costs, "and the prospect of an interruption to gas supplies" due to the situation regarding Russian supplies.
More than 50% of Germany's imported gas had come from Russia prior to the war, and the country is now scrambling to find ways to wean itself off Russian energy.
K&B said that by 2024 at the latest it would be switching to a "largely carbon-neutral" district heating system using green biomass energy from wood pellets at its Radebeul site.
The group is also exploring further projects for expanding its in-house power generation capabilities.
It said it could not provide a reliable full-year forecast because of the supply chain uncertainties, but affirmed its medium-term target of achieving sales of €1.3bn and an EBIT margin of “at least 7%”.
CFO Dr Stephen Kimmich said: “Although we would all have wished for more forward visibility after the first quarter of 2022 in order to offer reliable details for our 2022 forecast, this should not distract us from what we have achieved, given that in the first quarter we succeeded in fully absorbing the partially unpredictable material and energy costs of around €6m.
“Ongoing orders from our customers and the good progress we are making with our P24x efficiency programme are providing additional support. Consequently, we are firmly convinced that we will achieve our goals for 2022 and beyond.”
Shares in K&B fell to a 52-week low of €17.86 last month. Following the Q1 results announcement the shares reached €19.16, but fell back to €18.04 in early trading today. The 52-week high is €32.65.
Separately, K&B UK has appointed Darren Jones to the new role of key account manager for the UK and Ireland. He joins from Hubergroup.
Sales director Chris Scully said Jones had the right skills, experience and awareness to suit the role and would be able to “hit the ground running”.
"It follows the strategy of what we're doing globally. Darren will be working with our area managers to look after groups in the UK."
