The 2019 financial year started well for the Koenig & Bauer group, posting a double-digit increase in order intake in the first quarter year-over year to €276.4m. This strong growth was underpinned by significantly more orders for services and for folding carton, direct glass and security printing presses. At €230.7m, revenue exceeded the previous year’s figure by 6.2%. EBIT was still slightly in negative territory due to the low revenue level, coming to –€2.8m despite high market-entry and growth-related expenses, and was thus not far off the previous year’s figure of –€1.9m. At –€4.9m, group net earnings in the first quarter of 2019 translate into earnings per share of –€0.30.
In addition to good service orders, the substantially higher orders for packaging printing presses caused order intake in the Sheetfed segment to rise by 12.4% to €173.5m. Revenue increased slightly by 1.8% to €113m. The good order backlog of €250.5m ensures continued high capacity utilisation. At –€3.1m, EBIT was below the previous year’s figure (€0.4m) due to the product mix and the costs arising in connection with the Print China trade fair.
