Heidelberg has finally changed, CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer told the company’s AGM last week. It was the second time that the event had to be conducted online. “And Heidelberg is back,” he told those that were logged in online.
While the official figures will not be released for another ten days, orders and sales for the first quarter of Heidelberg’s financial showed significant improvement over the same period last year, reaching €600million in new orders, compared to €346 million in the same March to June period in 2020.
Last year the world was in the grip of the first wave of Covid-19 and this year, with the pandemic still present, China Print took place. “Order intake and demand far exceeded our own expectations,” he said. It amounts to orders for more than 550 CX104 press units, the majority from Chinese printers. It is not just what is the largest market for printing presses in the world. “There is a broad market recovery in almost all regions of the world,” says Hundsdörfer.
China is one of the key areas of growth for the next five years. The company already enjoys a 50% market share for the most important sheetfed offset presses there, he says, without specifying what these are. Its sales in the region are currently €300 million. By the 2026 financial year, sales will have grown to €360 million.
Packaging is likewise earmarked for growth. It now reckons to have sales of €860 million from packaging. It plans to have sales of more than €1 billion by 2026. And its digital lifecycle business, involving consumables, software and support, will grow from €200 million currently to €450 million.
In addition its charging point business Wallbox is to expand beyond Germany, will gain a third and fourth production line and will experience mid-double-digit growth.
It means, says the CEO, that Heidelberg is poised to reap the rewards of its three-year transformation process. Most of the costs have been incurred in year 1. It is now in the middle year where sales will be at least €2 billion and there will be “a small after tax profit”.
The next chapter of Heidelberg’s history has begun and, according to Hundsdörfer, should be about growth: “In the next fiscal year, we will be able to realise the full savings from the programme. Now we need to make a gradual transition from a restructuring story to a growth story – and a profitable one at that.
“We are developing from a printing press supplier into a technology company.”
