KBA to continue consolidation and realignment

Koenig & Bauer (KBA) is to continue its work to focus on further diversification in print-related growth markets.

Speaking at the 88^th AGM of the world’s second largest press manufacturer, president and chief executive officer Claus Bolza-Schünemann said this will see it diversify further into the digital and package printing markets.

This includes organic growth, as with the RotaJET 76 press, and the addition of profitable product lines through acquisitions over the last decade.

Many projects are soon to be finalized for the KBA RotaJET 76 digital press, which was first unveiled at Drupa 2012 as a prototype. The first KBA RotaJET was sold a few days before the AGM.

And KBA recently announced it is taking over Italian press manufacturer Flexotecnica, a company specialising in presses for printing on film and other substrates. The deal should be completed in September.

Bolza-Schünemann (pictured, top) said: ‘This diversification strategy implemented at an early stage helped us significantly during past crisis years and shall be continued with targeted acquisitions in promising print segments. Our healthy balance sheet and sold financial standing give us room to actively shape our future.’

This strong financial position has been furthered by a positive response to its sheet-fed product portfolio at China Print and Printtek, in Istanbul. This has been offset by slow demand for commercial and newspaper web presses. Business with special presses for security printing has also returned to normal following an extraordinarily high order volume in 2011.

Other niche markets and KBA’s service business have shown positive developments.

All in all, group order intake after five months came to €362 million, 25 percent down on last year’s figure, which was boosted by Drupa.

KBA’s objectives for 2013 include achieving similar annual sales to 2012 of €1.3 billion with a different product structure.

KBA anticipates a slight decline in the sales volume for web offset presses and systems for security printing due to current market developments. In the sheet-fed segment, management is pursuing a less volume-orientated business strategy and an additional program to reduce costs has been in place in both divisions for some time.

Furthermore, management sees a need for further consolidation in the web business, which continues to be affected by slow market demand below expectations.

Bolza-Schünemann said: ‘We know that there is room for improvement and we are pushing forward in many areas to increase profitability.’

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