Koenig & Bauer has moved Christoph Müller from his role as head of the digital & web division as this continues to be the most troublesome of the company’s operating sectors. He will be replaced by Philipp Zimmermann who will have the unenviable task of implementing Koenig & Bauer’s Spotlight measures to return the division to an acceptable financial performance.
Müller retains his place on the management board and will focus on future technologies and digital print partnerships. This includes with Durst, resulting in the Varijet 106 and now the MetJet One, with Italian inkjet technology provider Neon on MetJet Pro and with HP which has recently resulted in the launch of the T700 at the Wurzburg factory as an inkjet press for preprint corrugated or for folding cartons.
The moves are explained in the company’s interim figures, the first to include the impact from Drupa. The company says that the continuing challenging environment had led to a fall in revenue, particularly in its core sheetfed sector along with special presses. However, incoming orders were boosted to the tune €250 million by its presence at Drupa which has helped swell order books to record highs, albeit spread unevenly across operations.
“Drupa was invaluable for Koenig & Bauer,” says CEO Dr Andreas Pleßke. “The willingness to invest seems to be slowly recovering. The feedback showed us with are absolutely headed in the right direction with our product and market strategy.”
This does not fill the coffers. Revenue for the first six months reached €532 million (€596.4 million) resulting in an increase in the pretax loss from €13.3 million to €46.6 million. Incoming orders rose to €641.5 million (€552.9 million), increasing the order backlog to €1,021 million (€906.9 million), which provides the platform for Pleßke’s optimisim.
While the company continued in loss for the second quarter, it was Ebit positive in June the figures show.
Sales in the sheetfed division dropped 17.5% to €290.6 million (€353.4 million), largely the result of companies delaying orders at this point last year. Order intake rose to €350.8 million (€342.1 million).
The special products division suffered in terms of revenue as a number of currency projects have not been signed off. Revenue slipped to €180.4 million (€195.0 million).
Revenue in the digital and webfed division fell to €70.1 million (€75.3 million) with Ebit losses increasing to €16.1 million (€11.2 million loss).
The company reports that all management supported motions at the AGM were passed. However, this hides some dissent.
