Koenig & Bauer’s focus on growth markets such as packaging is ‘paying off’, according to CEO Dr Andreas Pleßke, as the company reported a ‘good’ first six months in 2021 with improved earnings despite lower revenue.
At €493.2 million as of 30 June, 2021, group revenue fell short of the previous year’s figure of €515.7 million due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sequentially, revenue in the second quarter of 2021 increased by around 2.5% over the first quarter of 2021. At €754.1 million, the order backlog as of the end of June 2021 was up 15.9% on the previous year. Despite the lower group revenue, EBIT came to €6.4 million, versus a loss of €19.8 million in the first half of 2020. The improvement of around €26.2m is mainly due to the more efficient implementation of the company’s P24x personnel measures, which is also reflected in the adjustment of the restructuring provisions for the efficiency programme, as well as the P24x cost-reduction effects and reduced functional costs, despite the volume and margin effects, the lower use of short-time working, and the extraordinary income achieved in the previous year. In particular, Koenig & Bauer succeeded in replacing the cost reduction effects from the use of short-time working in the previous year with long-term and sustainable measures under P24x. As a result, the EBIT margin improved from -3.8% to 1.3% in the first half of 2021. Group net profit increased from a loss of €24.3 million in the previous year to €1.1 million as of 30 June 2021, translating into earnings per share of €0.05.
During the first half of 2021, customer orders were up roughly 28% on the same period in the previous year. This performance was particularly underpinned by the increase of around 45% in orders in the company’s Special segment. Orders were up on the previous year in all parts of this segment. Order intake was also up in the Sheetfed segment, rising by around 30%, with the sharply growing and more pandemic-resistant packaging printing market accounting for the bulk of this growth, according to the company.
Koenig & Bauer also celebrated a number of successes in China during the first half of 2021, including at this year’s China Print in Beijing at the end of June and where a new record was set for this trade fair in terms of the number of orders received. Koenig & Bauer used this to example how, ‘customers’ spending reticence is beginning to dissipate in many areas.’ Some new investments are still being postponed due to the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the first half of 2021, this mainly concerned incoming orders in digital decor and corrugated printing. However, as of the end of July 2021, a total of five machines from the CorruCUT series had been successfully marketed to beta customers as well as new customers.
Dr Pleßke said, ‘Our customers’ decisions also show that we have done very good work in recent years and that our focus on growth markets such as conventional and digital packaging printing is paying off. We expect to place incoming orders on our books in the third quarter of 2021, with production of the new presses to commence next year. This makes it clear that the end markets that we address and particularly also the structurally growing packaging printing segment are fundamentally intact. Accordingly, we still see our proven broad product range as appropriate for achieving our goals.
‘In addition, sustainability is gaining momentum as a cross-cutting issue for both customers and the company. This is why we are very proud to be the first press manufacturer to join the Healthy Printing initiative, and to be confirmed as a member of the Holy Grail 2.0 project, thus further expanding our commitment to sustainable corporate development.’
