Koenig & Bauer needs to be more profitable its CEO Andreas Pleßke tells shareholders in the company’s annual report for 2024. And he says that much of the work to do this is now complete. The company has been ahead of the game in terms of strategy he writes in the report’s Letter to Shareholders section. “A glance at our peers testifies to our strategic forethought. Competitors are entering or re-entering markets that we are are already successfully addressing. Now is the time to reap the fruits of our work which we commenced with the 2023 Growth Offensive in 2018.”
The foundation for this has been the Spotlight programme focusing on both cost saving measures and its focus on areas for growth. This is working in terms of sales as with revenue of €1,274 million (€1,326.8 million) and Ebit of €25.8 million (€29.9 million), a figure that comes after inclusion of €50.4 million of extraordinary items. The order intake for the year and end of year backlog of €1,039.8 million “marks the highest year end figure in Koenig & Bauer’s recent history”.
The task now is to establish the new presses and digital solutions that the company has been developing and introduced at Drupa. A more streamlined corporate managements structure has been implemented with just two divisions and the introduction of new younger executives from both within and outside the company.
This allows a closer alignment with customers and swifter decision making. The final piece of this comes at the AGM in June when Pleßke himself steps down and his deputy and CFO Stephen Kimmich takes over. Pleßke remains on hand until the end of the year. Alexander Blum is joining the company on 1 May as CFO as part of the transition.
Kimmich predicts that things are on the upturn with an improvement b free cash flow, in operating profits and barring impact from geopolitical events the outlook for reaching €1.5 billion in sales for 2026 is good.
The packaging sector continues to be the focus for achieving this growth with the switch to fibre based packaging playing to Koenig & Bauer’s strengths in folding carton and corrugated. The optimism is founded on global trends to greater population growth and higher incomes in parts of the world, a growth in e-commerce and reduction in average pack size, pointing to a 4% growth in demand for packaging.
The Report says that there is great potential for digitally printed packaging, currently responsible for 4% by volume and 18% by value. This will grow to 7% by volume and 25% by value by 2035. The drivers, aside from better technology, include a reduction in waste, a drive for shorter runs and faster turnarounds and shortage of traditional skills. This adds up to great potential for the company’s giant Rotajet inkjet press.
