Revenue fell at all three of its divisions in Q1 resulting in group sales down 9.9% at €253.2m, while gross profit fell by 13% to €66.9m.
Losses at the EBIT level increased from €3.2m to €10.2m.
CEO Dr Andreas Pleßke said that areas of the business that were currently loss-making would be restructured, and he will take personal charge of a fresh project to improve performance at Digital & Webfed operation.
“Against the backdrop of the many geo-economic uncertainties, we find ourselves in a challenging environment,” he stated.
“Under the ‘Spotlight’ focus programme, Koenig & Bauer is working on measures to enhance revenue in profitable areas and on efforts to restructure areas that are currently not profitable.
He added: “A lot also depends on the impetus generated during and after the world’s leading trade fair Drupa, which is taking place again for the first time after an eight-year hiatus.”
He said K&B was “agile, fast and flexible in adapting to changing conditions. We have proven this in the past, and this extraordinary ability has been firmly entrenched in our company’s DNA for more than 200 years.”
The new ‘D&W 2.0’ project aims to address the ongoing losses at the turnover Digital & Webfed division, which made an EBIT loss of €6.4m in the three months to 31 March.
In the last full financial year the division posted a 23.2% increase in sales at €172.3m, but EBIT losses increased to €23.9m.
Pleßke will oversee the D&W 2.0 actions, while Christoph Müller the management board member responsible for the division “will concentrate to a greater extent on sales, service and strategic partnerships”.
K&B said that order intake at the division reflected current temporary weakness in the market for corrugated board, as well as the mega-merger between Smurfit Kappa and WestRock.
At its Special presses division, a new ‘BNSx’ project aims to optimise the operational value-creation structures at its sites in Austria and Switzerland.
This project will be overseen by CFO Dr Stephen Kimmich.
At Sheetfed, the group’s biggest division, Koenig & Bauer reported an “encouraging’ improvement in order intake to €171.7m after the downturn in orders at the end of last year.
Sheetfed revenue was €141.2m, compared to €157.3m the prior year and the division posted a small EBIT loss of €300,000.
Further Spotlight cost cutting and performance improvement measures will be made across the group, and the programme will be “scaled accordingly on the basis of real post-Drupa effects”.
Shares in Koenig & Bauer fell by 5.53% on the news, to €12.64 (52-week high: €20.20, low: €9.69).
