In his last annual meeting before he retired, Siewert repeated an earlier prediction that sales would fall 10% this year, mainly because of newspaper publishers postponing major investment projects.

KBAs preliminary figures for the first six months of 2003 show a 10% drop in new orders to 345m (EUR495m), while sales have fallen by 30% to 332m. The final figures for the first half will be published on 14 August.

But KBA expects sales to pick up in the second half due to a major security contract that will be awarded in July and more orders for web presses, said Siewert.

Negotiations with employee representatives over the closure of web press assembly plants in Berlin and Kusel (PrintWeek, 6 June) were still continuing, he said. The group wants to cut a total of 345 jobs, including redundancies at its Wrzburg and Frankenthal sites too.

Siewert retired on Monday (30 June) after eight years as president. He is succeeded by Albrecht Bolza-Schnemann, the sixth generation of KBAs founding family. His brother, Claus, is deputy president.