In its interim results announcement, the manufacturer said that its €3bn sales target by 2013/14, announced with its first quarter results in August 2011, would take longer than originally planned.

Sales were down 8.2% for the quarter and 3.8% for the nine months to 31 December, at €631m (£527m) and €1.8bn respectively, while incoming orders fell 6.1% to €642m and 6.8% to €2bn for the same two periods. Order backlog was also down, falling 5.5% to €728m.

The manufacturer pointed to trade show revenues from Ipex and ExpoPrint, which benefitted its previous year's results, as well as ongoing economic uncertainty and the impact of exchange rate movements as reasons for the fall in sales.

However, Heidelberg's struggle to combat the cyclical nature of the industry - by boosting non-cyclical service revenues and relying less on equipment sales - was in evidence as the restructuring efforts of the past three years failed to have a noticeable impact on the bottom line.

Operating profit excluding special items was €2m for the quarter, compared with €15m the previous year, while the nine month figure was a €19m loss, although this was an improvement on last year's €26m loss. The pre-tax result fell from a €3m profit to a €25m loss for the quarter, but improved from a €103m loss to a €91m loss for the three quarters.

Heidelberg chief executive Bernhard Schreier said: "The economic uncertainty and the resultant reluctance to invest have impacted on the business operations of Heidelberg as expected.

"Nevertheless, consistent cost management has ensured that the operating result in the third quarter is positive and on the whole in line with the scaled-down expectations."

The net result also moved into the red in Q3 at -€14m versus a €10m profit last year, although it was flat for the nine months at around -€79m (Q1-Q3 2010/11 -€78m).

The world's largest press manufacturer said that due to "weak demand" it would take longer than originally planned to increase sales to more than €3bn.

In fact, given the poor economic climate and uncertainty in the current (final) quarter, as well as the proximity of Drupa, Heidelberg will be hard pushed to better it's 2010/11 turnover of €2.6bn when it publishes its year-end results in June.

However, the manufacturer said it was sticking to its medium-term profitability targets and appeared to be banking on a strong performance in the current trading period to 31 March 2012 when it said that it expected its full-year operating result excluding special items (currently at -€19m with the final quarter to come) to be "noticeably better than that of the previous year" (when it posted a €4m profit).

Net debt stood at €273m while the group's global headcount was 15,666 (15,828), although it is due to shed a further 2,000 staff as part of its latest restructuring plan, Focus 2012, which was announced last month and aims to achieve an operating result excluding special items of around €150m in 2013/14.

Meanwhile, Schreier voiced the thoughts of the global print sector when he spoke of the "opportunity to boost confidence in our industry once more" at Drupa 2012.