The German press manufacturer posted a 33.2% rise in order intake in the six months to 30 June, to €607.5m.
Order backlog was also significantly higher, up 43% to €597.9m.
During the period, KBA’s shareholders also officially ratified its new structure, which involves three autonomous business units: Sheetfed Solutions, Digital & Web Solutions, and Special Solutions.
“Greater transparency and market focus on the basis of clear targets expected from the new business units is already noticeable,” said president and chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann.
The group’s biggest business unit, Sheetfed Solutions, was back in the black. It turned around last year’s loss of €8.4m to post EBIT (earning before interest and taxes) of €3.8m on sales up 1.8% to €239m, while sheetfed order intake jumped 40.3% to €368.1m on the back of increased demand from packaging printers.
KBA has introduced “special measures” at its manufacturing facility in Radebeul as a result. “Completing the raft of existing orders on time poses a substantial challenge,” the firm said. “As demand remains strong in this segment special measures have been introduced to increase production output.”
The special measures include additional shifts, overtime working, the use of extra temporary staff, and the external manufacturing of some parts.
Order intake for Digital & Web Solutions was up 51.7% at €69.2m, but revenues almost halved, at €36.7m (2014: €71.3m) due to previously low order backlog. The unit trimmed its losses from €11.5m to €8.9m. KBA said it had “sustainably adjusted” capacity at its Würzburg facility as a result of the “severely shrunken” web offset market.
“New markets, such as decorative and packaging digital printing, are gaining importance compared to commercial and publication printing which dominated in the past,” the firm said.
The Special Solutions wing, which includes security printing, metal decorating and the Flexotecnica business, posted a big decline in revenues and profits, due to the prior period being boosted by large security press projects. Revenue was down to €169.9m from €227.8m, and EBIT reduced from €33.9m to €3.6m. However, incoming orders rose by 21% to €199m and KBA expects to achieve a significant boost in sales of special presses in the second half, and “greatly improved” profits.
The group made redundancy payments of €15m as part of its Fit@All restructuring programme, which will be completed this year. Headcount was reduced by 884 to 5,266.
Interim group sales overall were lower than last year at €426.9m (€517.8m) and KBA made an EBIT loss of €8.3m (2014 profit: €3.8m). Bolza-Schünemann said “far more” than 50% of revenue would be generated in the second-half and the group continues to target €1bn of sales and a 2% profit margin for the full year.
KBA’s share price was effectively flat on the news, and was down €0.03 to €21.83 at the time of writing.
KBA also celebrated 50 years of unit press production during the period. The unit press design was launched by Planeta in 1965, and was a sensation in its day.
