April 1, 2008 -- Due to the difficult market environment, Heidelberg will not reach the predicted figures of the sales and operating result (EBIT) for fiscal year 2007/2008 (ending March 31, 2008) given on February 5, 2008. According to today's preliminary calculations, sales of the Heidelberg Group will not reach the result from the previous year of about 3.8 billion Euro but will turn out to be about three percent lower.

This will also negatively impact the operating result (EBIT) but cannot be exactly defined on the last day of the fiscal year yet. As basic line, it will not fall below 260 million Euro. Accordingly, the net profit will also decrease.

Incoming orders did not meet expectations in the last quarter of the fiscal year before drupa trade show.

In the course of today's regular Supervisory Board Meeting, the Management Board presented its measures to reduce the company's dependence on currency fluctuations and on the cyclicality in the advertising industry.

In this context, Heidelberg will speed up its expansion of production facilities and its purchasing activities outside of the euro region as well as the development of its service business. These strategic directions will be defined in detail after drupa trade show and afterwards implemented immediately.

The further business development is regarded as rather critical in the light of the economic slowdown. In case this tendency turns out to be still in place after drupa, the company will undertake adjustments in personnel and structure according to the demands on capacities. "The course of the upcoming drupa trade show will not change the strategic directions mentioned above. However, it will provide us with important indications of our customers' investment behaviour," says Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg. "We have immediately broadened our already implemented measures in order to adjust our cost structures to the current business development."