For the year ending 31 March the manufacturer “exceeded its targets” in what it described as a challenging year.
Sales rose by 11.5% to €2.435bn (£2.08bn) compared to a target of €2.3bn, while the EBITDA margin was 8.6% against a target of “at least 8%”.
Incoming orders slipped by 1%, while the order backlog was down 6%.
The net result was €91m, a big improvement on the prior year’s figure of €33m.
However, Heidelberg also warned that the outlook for 2023/2024 would be impacted by “exceptionally challenging conditions” included increases in input costs such as materials and energy, and in personnel costs.
“Heidelberg is intending to carry on compensating for this by increasing its sales prices,” the group stated.
Sales for 2023/24 are likely to be flat, with adjusted EBITDA margin also flat at 7.2%.
Heidelberg’s three-pronged value creation strategy involves: improving group-wide efficiencies and synergies; increasing the amount of cash available for growth initiatives; and growing sales in areas that involve recurring, consumption-based revenues.
CFO Tania von der Goltz, who joined in January, said: “We will provide and redistribute the resources for growth through our own internal efforts so as to successfully implement our growth strategy.”
Heidelberg said that it planned to grow its packaging printing business in cartons and labels – including with new products such as the Boardmaster and Gallus One pure play inkjet label press.
Gallus will celebrate 100 years in business and open its new Customer Experience Center in Switzerland next week.
Heidelberg also highlighted the growth opportunity for digital printing in the commercial print market. The group offers the Versafire range of toner digital presses through its partnership with Ricoh, but canned its own B1 inkjet press, the Primefire, in 2020.
Regarding potential future developments, a spokesperson told Printweek: “The Gallus One is a blueprint for other digital devices and also for further developments in the commercial printing area.”
Other plans include growing new adjacent business areas that “address megatrends” and have a large market size, such as its electric vehicle charging business which is now expanding into other European countries.
In 2022/23 packaging sales grew by 25%, while print solutions nudged up 4%. Packaging is close to overtaking commercial print as Heidelberg’s biggest unit, with net sales of €1,158bn compared to print solutions with €1.254bn.
North America (up 32%) and EMEA (up 15%) were the strongest markets.
The group’s share price fell by nearly 7% following the results announcement.
