Preliminary figures issued on 2 March reveal that German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) bucked the industry trend in 2011 to post a pre-tax group profit for the third year in succession, the total being in the single-digit millions.

Group sales were marginally lower than in 2010 (€1,179.1m) following slacker demand in the second six months and delays to shipments in the fourth quarter. However, at more than €1.5bn, the volume of new orders surpassed the prior-year figure by over 20%, primarily due to brisk demand for special presses. The order backlog at year’s end topped the €800m mark, exceeding the prior-year figure of €440.8m by over 80%. As management indicated at an analysts’ conference on 9 December 2011, while the world’s second-largest press manufacturer failed to achieve its growth targets for sales and earnings, its performance was once again above the industry average. A major contributory factor was the group’s balance of high-volume and niche products.
KBA reports a good start to 2012 in terms of sales and new orders. The official figures for 2011 will be released on 30 March.