Heidelberg said it had started the new financial year with strong growth in incoming orders following a “highly successful” Drupa that exceeded expectations.
Incoming orders for the three months to 30 June were €701m (£591m), the highest since 2016.
Sales of €403m in Q1 were down by €141m year-on-year as customers held off orders until Drupa.
CEO Jürgen Otto said: “The strong recovery in our order intake allows us to look to the full financial year with great confidence.
“The pleasing order backlog from the Drupa trade fair will lead to rising sales in the following quarters compared to Q1. At the same time, we are working on our cost situation and personnel costs, which are generally too high.”
Koenig & Bauer announced that operating profits for the full year were likely to come in at the lower end of expectations, which ranges from €25m-€40m.
The manufacturer spent around €10m on its Drupa showcase, which weighed on its earnings in H1.
Group sales in the first half were down 10.2% year-on-year at €532m, while order intake jumped by 16% to €641.5m on the back of Drupa, resulting in an order backlog of more than €1bn – the highest figure in K&B’s recent history.
“A large part of this order backlog will manifest itself after 2024 and is spread across the segments unevenly. It was not only for this reason that Drupa was invaluable for Koenig & Bauer,” the firm stated.
It has also scaled up its ‘Spotlight’ cost saving and efficiency programme.
CEO Dr Andreas Pleßke said: “With ‘Spotlight’, we are focusing on a combination of cost optimisation, process improvements and targeted investments in future-oriented technologies and markets.
“This programme will help us to address the current challenges and secure our long-term competitiveness.”
Sustainable packaging and paper manufacturer Mondi has reported a “robust” performance in its first half on the back of improving market conditions.
The group said this had enabled a number of price increases to be implemented across all of its paper grades over the course of the first half of the year.
Group CEO Andrew King said: "Our underlying EBITDA of €565 million in the first six months, although lower than the comparable period last year, reflected an encouraging performance, supported by improving market conditions resulting in stronger order books and higher sales volumes.
He said the benefit of the price increases would continue into the second half of the year although H2 is expected to be impacted by higher planned maintenance shuts and “a likely forestry fair value loss”.
Sales slipped from just under €3.9bn to €3.74bn, and underlying EBITDA operating margins fell from 17.5% to 15.2%.
Mondi had hoped to take over DS Smith, but International Paper gazumped its bid with a higher offer.
