Sales in Q1 jumped by nearly 18% to €281m, which the press manufacturer lauded as “the highest Q1 revenue in the company’s recent history”.

The EBIT loss was €3.2m, a €5.3m improvement on the prior year. 

For the full year, K&B expects sales of €1.3bn and an EBIT margin of “around 3%”.

Some €6m of the €6.5m in cost increases for materials, energy and personnel was offset by prices increases.

K&B’s Digital & Webfed division was the star performer with sales up 26.8% to €35.5m driven by web-fed inkjet RotaJet devices. The division’s EBIT loss reduced to €3.1m (2022 loss: €6.1m).

CEO Dr Andreas Pleßke said: “Our RotaJet has met with a good response on all end markets. Customer demand is huge in both the beverage carton and book printing sectors. New business models are created in collaboration with our customers.”

The Sheetfed division, K&B’s biggest business unit, posted sales up 25.3% at €157.3m, while its EBIT loss reduced from €3.6m to €0.7m. 

Sales of special presses including metal printing, direct-to-object and banknotes grew by 6.4% to €97.1m, and the division was back in the black with an EBIT of €0.9m compared to last years’ €0.7m loss. 

The group achieved the main benefits from its P24x efficiency programme last year, but still expects to make some gains from ongoing actions in 2023.