Additionally it warned that its medium term goal of achieving sales to in excess of €3bn (£2.56bn) over the next three years, which it announced as recently as August, may now be delayed.

The news sent Heidelberg shares down nearly 6% to €1.35 at the time of writing.

It did however maintain it is on course for an operating result of €150m over the next two financial years.

Second quarter results came in as expected in its preliminaries last month taking half year sales to €1.18bn (1H 2010 €1.20bn) while incoming orders and backlog were at €1.33bn (1H 2010 €1.44bn) and €731mn (Q2 2010 €718m). This produced an operating loss of -€21m for the half year and a pre-tax loss of -€19m (Q2 2010 -€50m) for the quarter.

"Stable sales, the continued consistent cost management that forms part of the reorganisation and the associated efficiency gains have led to a significant improvement in profitability compared to the previous year," said Heidelberg Group CEO Bernhard Schreier.

"To achieve our medium-term earnings target, we will take action to counter the fact that the global economic situation has become more uncertain and the market is not recovering as expected."

The company said it would continue to reorganise its structure as well as address capacity and cost issues "to create long-term profitability".