KBA outlines movement in the print market

Writing in the latest issue of the KBA’s customer magazine, KBA Report, Bolza-Schünemann said: ‘Shrinking markets, such as newspaper, commercial and publication printing, oppose growth markets, such as packaging, digital printing and coding, as well as special markets, such as banknote printing or metal decorating. We aim to secure our current strong position in these fields and expand on it further.’

The latest KBA Report can be accessed and download here.

In full, Bolza-Schünemann said: ‘The crisis in the Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, numerous conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as economic issues in many threshold countries have acted as a brake on the global economy and our export-intensive business for some time. Nevertheless, in the first half-year the KBA Group was able to increase its order intake by 2.6 percent to 456 million EUR and its sales by 3.1 percent to 517.8 million EUR compared to 2013.

‘Our broad product portfolio once again proved to be an advantage. The slight dip in demand for sheet-fed offset presses and disappointing web offset press orders were balanced out by more orders from security and special packaging printers.

‘We have also made strong progress with the realignment of the KBA Group to an overall smaller and structurally changed press market. The cost savings resulting from our Fit@All program will gradually have an effect on earnings in the coming months and years. Nonetheless, Group earnings before taxes (EBT) of 100,00 EUR were nearly balanced after six months. Previous initiatives have also made a decisive contribution. Both our sheet-fed offset division and our web and special press segment posted an operating profit.

‘The realignment of our capacities and sites to a permanently changed sales structure of the KBA Group has had top priority for many months.’

He added: ‘We serve the key market for flexible packaging through our new subsidiary KBA-Flexotecnica which joined the Group in 2013. Many of our big packaging customers, with whom we have had a longstanding partnership thanks to our Rapida presses for folding carton printing, are also active in this sector. We are now able to supply these and the many mid-sized flexo printers with cutting-edge flexo presses “Made by KBA”, including on-site support via our sales and service network.

‘Aside from large volume markets, there are also small but promising market niches for print in which money can be made with specific know-how. An example of this is the direct decoration of premium glass containers which our new subsidiary KBA-Kammann successfully addresses with its screen and digital printing systems.

‘Our traditional sheet-fed and web offset press volume markets have shrunk considerably in recent years and we have to adjust our capacities accordingly. Therefore, at the sites affected socially responsible solutions were agreed together with workforce representatives in spring for over 700 of the 1,100 to 1,500 jobs to be reduced by the end of 2015. The planned bundling of similar production activities at the best equipped site as part of Fit@All is also making good progress. On May 1, we took the first step with the realignment under corporate law towards defining a new organisational structure within the parent.

‘We expect more transparency and strategic flexibility from a de-central Group and management structure with clear responsibilities for the individual business fields. The reorganization will finalized at the AGM in 2015.’

Bolza-Schünemann concluded: ‘Many things are in motion: in the world, our industry and also at KBA. In a relatively stable economic environment we continue to target group sales of one billion EUR to 1.1 billion EUR. From today’s point of view we also expect the KBA Group to post a balanced pre-tax result (EBT) for 2014.’