In its results for the nine months to 31 December, the press manufacturer posted sales of €1.69bn (£1.4bn) down 11.5% on the previous year.

Heidelberg said negative exchange rates accounted for about a third of the sales fall, along with a reduction in sales in territories suffering weak currencies such as India and Brazil.

More positively, the firm pointed to “a revival in demand” in North America.

Heidelberg said it is focusing its efforts on margin rather than volume, and is actively scaling back low-margin business.

"The systematic application of profitability criteria in order to improve margins continues to have priority over the generation of additional volume. In individual cases, this resulted in the non-acceptance of unprofitable orders," the company stated. 

This, together with the ongoing actions of its Focus efficiency programme, has resulted in a big jump in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) from €4m last year to €67m.

In a statement, chief executive Gerold Linzbach said the group had made “significant progress regarding profitability”.

“As we expect our sales to pick up and the result to increase in the final quarter, we remain confident that we will meet our target of achieving a net profit,” he stated.

The bottom line loss for the period was more than halved at €40m (2013 loss: €94m).

The ongoing restructuring has also involved the business shedding a further 1,050 jobs, with the total number of employees standing at 12,851 at the period end. Heidelberg is pushing to reduce its operating breakeven point further, and is “using all available tools” to make working hours more flexible.

The group has also extended its €340m syndicated credit lines through to 2017/2018 and has increased its bond by €51m, a move chief financial officer Dirk Kaliebe said was an important step toward optimising its financial structure.

The group’s share price has been rising over the past three months, but slipped to €2.777 from €3.059 on the announcement.