Agfa has slipped into the red for the first nine months of the year. It was hit by falling sales and restructuring costs, plus the problems experienced by Xeikon, in which it has a 25% stake.

Agfa had already announced that its third-quarter sales would be hit hard and that it would make a loss because it is taking the bulk of the charges for its Horizon restructuring plan this year (PrintWeek, 26 October).

"Were trying to take as much of the restructuring cost this year," said UK Graphic Systems director Laurence Roberts, adding that this would not further affect the 400 proposed job losses at the ex-DuPont plant in Leeds (PrintWeek, 15 November).

Before 11 September and Xeikons problems, Agfa had predicted it would be profitable for the year and that "the acid test" was from September to November (PrintWeek, 31 August).

For the nine months to the end of September it made a loss of 4.4m (E7m) on sales of 2.3bn, which were down 6.1%. During the third quarter it took a 8.7m write-down as a result of its 25% stake in Xeikon.

Graphic Systems sales fell 5.3% to 882m, excluding the sale last year of its digital print division.

"The main thing is were not sitting on our arses hoping it gets better were doing something about it," said Roberts. "If sales come down the only thing to do is to take out manufacturing and sales costs.

"Im sure well have a fantastic Ipex, weve got loads of new things and are looking to the future," he said.

Story by Barney Cox