In financial year 2021/22, Heidelberg benefited from the Group’s successful realignment over the previous two years.
Sales rose by 14% to €2.183 bn, which met the target of at least €2.1 bn. Significant growth was achieved in both commercial and packaging printing, with increasing demand for virtually all products and in all regions. Customer investments in new equipment were the main driving force in this regard. Incoming orders increased by more than €450m to €2.454 bn, which reflected this improved investment climate. The order backlog reached a level of around €900m (previous year: €636m).
Thanks to the significant growth in Group sales and greatly improved cost-efficiency, EBITDA increased to €160m (previous year: €95m). Besides operational improvements, non-recurring asset management effects also made a positive contribution to this figure. Write-downs associated with the economic sanctions against Russia in the fourth quarter had the opposite effect. Corrected for non-recurring expenditure and income from the previous year, the operational improvement that serves as a basis for EBITDA was over €100m. Thanks also to the financial result, which improved by €11m to €–30m, the net result after taxes increased from €–43m to €33m.
“Over the past financial year, HEIDELBERG has further strengthened its resilience by significantly improving its sales and results,” says Ludwin Monz, CEO. “Financially speaking, the Group is in a better position than for quite some time. In financial year 2022/23, too, we are looking to benefit from this, from the successful growth initiatives focusing on the core markets and our digital business models, and also from our e-mobility success story. That makes us optimistic about being able to counteract the very challenging circumstances, including the huge price increases. We will be keeping a very close eye on the markets so that we can take any necessary countermeasures. As things stand at present, though, we are expecting further growth in sales to around €2.3 bn and – primarily as a result of operational improvements – an increase in the EBITDA margin to at least 8%.”
