The manufacturer cited strong demand from North America and Europe, in particular for packaging machinery. 

While incoming orders were down slightly in Q3, from €643m to €630m, the order backlog increased by €44m to €995m. 

For the first nine months of the financial year, incoming orders slipped 1.5% to €1.86bn, the order backlog increased by 4.6% to €995m, while net sales increased to €1.73bn (21/22: €1.56bn).

In Q3, adjusted EBITDA excluding one-off items was up €18m year-on-year at €49m. 

The exceptionals included €15m to cover a €3,000, one-time inflation relief bonus for employees in Germany. This was the result of a collective agreement made between metalworkers’ union IG Metall and the German machinery industry overall. 

CEO Dr Ludwin Monz commented: “We had a positive third quarter and were able to further increase our sales and operating result. Looking ahead, the coming months will continue to be affected by the expected increases in material, energy, and personnel costs.

“We will continue to counter this through price rises and maintain our cost discipline. We are therefore very confident of achieving our targets for the year.”

For the full year, Heidelberg reiterated its expectations for sales of around €2.3bn and an EBITDA margin of at least 8%. 

The prior year was boosted by asset sales including Docufy (€22m) and Heidelberg UK’s Brentford site (€26m), while this year Heidelberg sold a property in Switzerland for €12m in Q1, and gained €7m from its Masterwork joint venture in Q3.  

Tania von der Goltz, who took over as CFO at the beginning of the year, said that a low net financial debt and a higher equity ratio “put Heidelberg in a good financial position”.

“In view of the uncertain situation at present, we will continue to work on our resilience and, in particular, keep an eye on our costs,” she stated.