The press manufacturer revealed in a trading update during its AGM that sales in the first six months, although up on last year, will fall short of the level needed to hit its annual sales target of 994m (1.5bn), even though for the first five months of the year sales were up 15% on the previous year.

Despite this setback, and the ongoing pressures of low machinery prices and high raw materials costs, president and chief executive Albrecht Bolza Schnemann said that higher sales and more profitable products in the second half of the year meant the firm was still on track to beat last year's pre-tax profit of 10.5m.

Results for the first half of the year will be released on 12 August.