This put the company's EBIT to revenue ratio at 9.6%, up from 2.1% in the same period last year and well above its medium-term target of 7%.

Agfa Graphics UK managing director Laurence Roberts said: "Obviously, we had a good year in 2008 because it was Drupa, then we had an absolutely grim year along with everybody else in 2009.

"But, we did some long-term cost-cutting last year and so, as the turnover comes back, obviously we are much more profitable because the overhead is cut to where it was in 2009.

"We haven't built our turnover back to the '08 levels yet, but certainly we're pleasantly surprised worldwide with the way the turnover has gone for the first six months. It's better than we anticipated."

Roberts attributed the company's first half success to hard work in the build up to Ipex and the large volume of orders it subsequently took at the show – most of which were invoiced in June.

He added that general economic conditions had improved and should continue to do so. "I personally don't subscribe to the double dip [theory]," he said. "It will not be easy, but it won't be anything like as bad as last year."

In its interim statement the group, which recorded a recurring EBIT of €137m on sales of €1.4bn, said that it expected full year revenue growth of about €200m, driven by the Graphics division.

Christian Reinaudo, president and chief executive of Agfa-Gevaert, said: "The strong performance in the first half of this year indicates that our targeted strategies and industry-leading technologies have allowed us to rejoin the path to growth.

"We expect that the combination of organic growth and the effects of our recent strategic moves will yield a full year revenue increase of about 200 million Euro."

Shares in the company jumped more than 12% on the news, closing at €5.28 on 25 August.