HEIDELBERG has started financial year 2026/2027 by systematically continuing its transition to a more broadly based technology company. The company is setting the course for future growth with a number of strategic initiatives. Besides expanding its core business by taking over manroland sheetfed lifecycle business and POLAR production operations, the company is also tapping into additional potential by taking advantage of new market opportunities arising from energy storage systems and the European defense sector.
Integration of the manroland sheetfed Group’s lifecycle business and global sales and service companies, together with full acquisition of POLAR postpress systems, has further enhanced the strategic position as a systems integrator in its core business. As part of the manroland sheetfed transaction, Heidelberg has also secured the intellectual property rights for the Roland 900/Cartonmaster in the large-format sheetfed offset segment. The first press of this model has already been sold, and the company is currently looking into further production and development options for this system at a low-cost location.
“This financial year at Heidelberg is all about investments in line with our strategic agenda. We are looking to further strengthen the company’s market position and tap into new potential. This will create the basis for profitable growth and sustainable value enhancement in the coming years,” says Jürgen Otto, CEO.
During the first quarter of financial year 2026/2027 (April 1 to June 30, 2026), underlying conditions continued to be challenging. Despite this, the incoming orders figure of €537m was only slightly down on the equivalent quarter of the previous year (€559m) and laid a solid foundation for further business development. The phasing-out of a state-subsidised investment program in Italy had a massive impact in the first quarter, reducing incoming orders there by over €60m compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The positive developments in China and the rest of Asia only partly compensated for this.
Sales totaled €404m and, as expected, were therefore below the figure for the equivalent period of the previous year (€466m). Sales were significantly higher in China, the UK, and Brazil, but lower elsewhere, especially in the EMEA region. Adjusted for special items, the EBITDA margin for the first quarter of financial year 2026/2027 was 0.2% (corresponding quarter of previous year: 4.4%), primarily due to the lower volume of sales.
A partly expected downturn in the EMEA region was a particular factor contributing to the Print & Packaging Equipment segment’s lower incoming orders and sales. In the Digital Solutions & Lifecycle segment, incoming orders after three months were around 5 percent up on the equivalent quarter of the previous year, while sales matched the previous year’s quarterly figure.
The forecast for financial year 2026/2027 remains unchanged. The company is expecting stable Group sales matching the previous year’s level in financial year 2026/2027 and a noticeable improvement in the adjusted EBITDA margin compared with the previous year. It is assumed that there will be no substantial changes in relevant exchange rates for business activities.
