Koenig & Bauer is doubling down on the packaging market where annual growth of 3.5% and a transition to digital printing will drive growth for the company. Its medium term goal is revenue of €1.3 billion according to the company’s 2020 annual report.
In his letter to shareholders, CEO Andreas Pleßke reveals that the company is working on an inkjet press for flexible packaging with “an outstanding international player in this field”. The unspecified machine will go into production with our partner in 2021.
This comes on the back of installation of a RotaJet high speed inkjet press for drinks cartons at a TetraPak plant in the US. The start up of this machine has been delayed by the onset of Coronavirus, the impact of which recurs throughout the report.
It has led to customers postponing new investments because of the uncertainty unleashed by the pandemic Pleßke says. However while incoming orders were down 14.6% for the year, this is better than the average for the printing machine sector according to figures from the VDMA. And orders for Koenig & Bauer’s sheetfed division were down just 5.5%, bucking the overall trend. Within this the company highlights strong business for folder gluers.
Trial sites for the Varijet 106 B1 inkjet press have been delayed by lockdowns and the difficulty of travel in the last 12 months. These will get underway “with selected customers” this year the company explains. This is part of the partnership with Durst which has already led to installations of corrugated packaging presses. Installations of the CorruFlex, CorruJet and CorruCut have taken place.
Speaking of the collaboration with Durst, chief digital officer Ralf Sammeck notes: “This is how we would like to advance the digital transformation of production processes and set standards in terms of print quality.”
Elsewhere the company says: “In our view gravure and flexo presses in particular will be replaced by high performance digital press for industrial applications over the next few years”. These applications include corrugated, where a collaboration with HP is bearing fruit, decorative printing, where Interprint has bought three RotaJets for printing decor and laminates, and film and paper, which covers the TetraPak project.
The strategy of becoming a one-stop supplier for the complete packaging sector, including coding, glass and metal decorating, all fall within the remit of the company. This also includes packaging design the company says, though outside of the bank note business there is no identified product.
The company is working on a new generation of banknote machines, taking a modular and scaleable approach aimed at the growing number of countries that consider it crucial to have control of currency production in their country.
The figures for 2020 show the scars of the Covid year. Sales for sheetfed machines fell from €487.2 million to €419.3 million with service revenue in the division dropping to €131.3 million from €143.6 million. Revenue from press sales in the digital and webfed division dropped from €78.6 million to €75.5 million with the equivalent revenue from service fall from €77.0 million to €50.6 million, reflecting the tough year that newspapers have had.
Revenue from machine sale in the specialist segment fell from €352.3 million to €242.8 million while service revenue held up better, slipping from €126.0 million to €121.9 million. Service revenue in the year amount to almost 30% of revenue.
