Heidelberg’s order backlog has reached €900 million, its highest for ten years and around a 25% higher than at this point last year.
The reasons combine a growing order volume as printers regain the confidence to reinvest as the pandemic eases and problems on the supply chain front which are a legacy of the pandemic and of the war in Ukraine. There will also be impact from further lock downs in China slowing shipping out of Shanghai, close to Heidelberg’s factory there. This is not mentioned in the publication of its figures for the 2021/22 financial year.
Nor is it mentioned by new CEO Ludwin Monz who took charge on 1 April from Rainer Hundsdörfer who has retired. “The high order backlog resulting from the noticeable market recovery in the past fiscal year provides a good foundation for sales in the new fiscal year. However, the effects of the war in Ukraine are currently presenting us, like most other companies, with challenges. We have to deal with the economic uncertainty and the significant increase in raw material and energy prices,” says Monz.
He will be continuing the strategy put in place by his predecessor including sale of unneeded assets and a focus on packaging, supported by emobility and potentially printed electronics.
“Heidelberg,” he says, “has been extremely successful in coming out of the trough of the Covid-19 pandemic. We will continue to work on strengthening our core business in the printing sector. This will free us up to expand into new markets at the same time.”
The strategy is starting to bear fruit with sales achieving Heidelberg’s €2.1 billion target at €2.183 billion for the 12 months to the end of March. Incoming orders topped €2.4 billion with a positive free cash flow of €88 million and net profit of €33 million. This is a 14% increase on sales for the year and a 23% rise in incoming orders.
The growth in sales was across the board, both commercial print and packaging and in all regions. In the UK a larger carton press has recently been delivered as well as the first Speedmaster CX104, the so called Universal press launched at China Print in June last year.
The wall box charger business is growing fast with a 120% increase in sales to €50 million and with a better margin due to greater production efficiencies.
The company is not out of the woods, at least as far as investors are concerned. Heidelberg may no longer be regarded as a penny stock, but its shares continue to trade below €2.
