Sales in the three months to 30 June slipped 4.2% to 475m (Euro710m), but incoming orders overall jumped 64%. Press orders were up 82.2% year-on-year at 686m, and post-press orders rose 29% to 66m. The order backlog for presses increased by just under 70% to 791m.

The bottom line loss reduced from 51.5m to 42m, but the losses from discontinued operations the black and white digital wing; and Web Systems, sold to Goss last week grew by 6.5% to 22m. A further 5m loss was attributable to NexPress, which Heidelberg sold to its joint venture partner Kodak for $1 in May.

Heidelberg said that excluding Drupa expenses of between 20m-33.5m it would have posted positive EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) for its ongoing business.

There was only a negligible improvement in the performance of the loss-making post-press division, which posted an operating loss of 5.4m (2003: 6m), on sales up 3% to just under 47m. However, a spokesman said: "We are quite optimistic for the post-press division. We announced a lot of new products at Drupa and we expect better things for the rest of the year."

The group separated out the figures for its Financial Services division for the first time, because "it's an important business and we wanted to show that it is not loss-making for us". It made a profit of 6m.

For the full year Heidelberg aims to increase like-for-like sales by at least 5% and wants to achieve net profits in the region of 33.5m.

Story by Jo Francis