HEIDELBERG held its own in a difficult market environment in financial year 2024/25 and achieved the targets it had set itself.
According to preliminary calculations, the adjusted EBITDA margin remained stable at 7.1%, bringing the financial year to a successful close. The slightly lower sales volume compared to the previous year, rising wage costs and expenses for drupa were successfully offset by the cost-cutting and efficiency measures initiated.
In the fourth quarter alone, the adjusted EBITDA margin doubled to around 10% compared to the previous year. At €2,280m, sales were slightly below the previous year’s level (€2,395m). After a weak first quarter due to a reluctance to buy in the run-up to drupa, sales increased quarter by quarter in the financial year and closed with a particularly strong fourth quarter. At around €50m, free cash flow was once again clearly positive (previous year: €56m), which did not include any special items in the reporting year, such as from the sale of non-operating assets.
“We were able to achieve our financial year targets in a difficult economic environment and uncertain geopolitical conditions,” said Jürgen Otto, CEO. “With a clearly positive free cash flow for the second year in a row, we have confirmed our financially solid development. The measures initiated to reduce personnel costs will help us to further strengthen our profitability in the new financial year.”
The adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to improve further to around 8% in the next financial year 2025/26.
The company closed the past financial year with a high order intake. At over €600m, incoming orders in the fourth quarter were up on the previous quarters of the financial year. The basis for this is also the global and diversified positioning of the company, which allows Heidelberg to benefit from the different growth dynamics in the individual regions. The significant increase in incoming orders in the EMEA region in the fourth quarter deserves special mention, while the Americas region showed a slight improvement at a still subdued level. After several previous quarters of strong growth, the Asia/Pacific region was below the previous year’s level, mainly to the reluctance to invest ahead of the China Print trade fair.
Both segments in the core business achieved an increase in orders thanks to strong development in the Sheetfed product area, with the Packaging Solutions segment accounting for the higher growth. Preliminary order intake for the year as a whole therefore totaled around €2.430 bn, which was around 6% higher than the previous year’s figure of €2.288 bn. Overall, the improvement can be seen across both segments, with Packaging Solutions accounting for around 52% of order intake for the year as a whole. Compared to the previous year, order intake in this strategically important segment recorded absolute growth of around 7%.
