2/13/01 - Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has once again improved its sales and revenue figures for the first nine months (April 1 to December 31) of fiscal year 2000/2001. Incoming orders in total rose significantly by 29 % to Euro 4.4 billion. But over the last 3 months they were slightly down compared to the extremely high levels recorded in the first half of 2000/2001 (up 51% over the previous year) due in part to the economic slowdown in the USA. The order book at the end of the quarter was worth Euro 2.2 billion, around 59 percent above the figure for the comparable period in 1999/2000. The company’s sales over the period from April to December 2000 were 15 percent up to around Euro 3.5 billion, the profit after tax climbing around 4 percent to Euro 166 million. Heidelberg was therefore able to continue the pleasing results of the first six months in the third quarter. “These newly published figures reaffirm our leading position as a global solution provider in the graphic arts industry”, states Bernhard Schreier, Chairman of the Management Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, underlining the success of Heidelberg’s strategic approach and repositioning. “We expect sales in excess of Euro 5 billion for the complete 2000/2001 fiscal year and an increase in net profit over the previous year of around 10 percent”, states Dr. Herbert Meyer, Finance Director. The company had a workforce worldwide of 25,618 at December 31, 2000. This represents an increase of 1,527 (6.3 percent) compared with December 31, 1999. Order levels in the digital division increased by 24.5 percent and sales by 25 percent. Heidelberg will deliver the 2,000th "Digimaster" black/white digital press in the spring. Heidelberg’s goal is to reach a market share of 20 percent in this seg-ment by the year 2002. Orders received by the Sheetfed division (sheetfed offset presses) rose by 33 percent in the first nine months and sales by 13 percent. Excellent drupa trade fair results and the orders these generated indicate that the company will exceed last year’s sales over the full fiscal year. Orders received in the Web Systems division (web offset presses) rose 27 percent and sales by 26 percent. Heidelberg also achieved further success in the Newspaper Printing segment through the sale of a Mainstream rotary newspaper press to the Mexican publishing house El Universal. This brought the total number of Mainstream rotary newspaper presses sold to eleven. In North America (USA, Mexico and Canada), sales were 20 percent up on the comparable period of last year. The strong growth in sales of the “Digimaster” digital press were particularly impressive and helped offset the slight drop in orders experienced by traditional offset business in the third quarter in the USA. The Central and South America region recorded the strongest increase in sales, with a rise of 81 percent.