The manufacturer will showcase its Rapida 75, 105, 106 and its B3 five-colour GeniusUV press under the banner 'KBA: Champions in Print' at stand 6D560 in hall 6.

"It is going to be critical. Ipex comes at a good time and hopefully confidence and finance will return in time. I'm hopeful that the Ipex impetus will bring back confidence to the marketplace," he said.

Knapp explained there were still a large number of issues for manufacturers to deal with and that KBA was in the middle of "a perfect storm".

"The consolidation within print and publishing is still hitting suppliers and the reluctance of finance companies is still one of the biggest issues in our industry," he added.

The announcement came as KBA reversed a 2008 loss to post a small pre-tax profit in 2009, despite the poor market conditions.

Knapp said the return to profit "may have come as a surprise to some competitors, but not to us" after KBA posted a €2.7m (£2.42m) pre-tax profit in its 2009 results, up from an €87.1m pre-tax loss in 2008.

Although sales dropped 31% to €1.1bn during the 12 months, the manufacturer introduced a raft of cost-cutting exercises, which included shedding just under 1,000 positions, cutting its overheads by more than €100m a year.

Its order intake for both sheetfed and webfed presses dipped, falling by 22.4% and 32.8% respectively. This combined to produce a total order intake of €883.9m throughout 2009, 28.8% down on the year previous.

In the company's results statement, KBA also took the opportunity to have a swipe at rival manufacturer Heidelberg, which it claimed was selling off stock at deep discounts earlier this year.

It said: "Thanks to its financial stability and fast turnaround following the loss in 2008 KBA has needed no state guarantees or loans from the German Economic Fund.


KBA RESULTS BOX
For the year ended 31 December 2009
Order intake €883.9m (2008: 1,241.5)
Sales 1,050.4 (2008: 1,531.9))
Operating profit 8.7 (2008: 79.9 loss)
Pre-tax profit 2.7 (2008: 87.1 loss)
Net profit 6.6 (2008: 101.0 loss)