KBA president and chief executive Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann said: “For several months, there has been a decline in the number of major web press projects put out to tender by the newspaper and gravure industry.”

The company warned that there would be a “substantial drop in capacity utilisation” at its Würzburg, Frankenthal and Trennfeld factories. KBA is consequently reassessing the capacity needs of its web arm, based on market projections.

However, it does not expect the weak demand for multi-unit web presses to impact turnover until next year. The firm predicted that sales and profit targets for 2007 would be met.

Sales were up 34% to £211.4m (€309.4m), while the £4.4m pre-tax loss of 2006 was transformed into an £8.9m profit.