Delays in customers’ projects hit KBA’s first quarter sales and skewed export results, the press maker says.

Against that, it says its ‘turn-around programme’ is beginning to bear fruit, helping KBA to a solid financial profile with continued high liquidity.

The group reported a 15.5 per cent reduction in new orders to 200 million Euros, with sales at 190.7 million Euros also behind last year’s figures because of shipments postponed by customers.

Its order backlog of 657.3 million Euros t the end of March  was slightly higher than at the beginning of the quarter, but still 17.7 per cent down on the previous year’s pre-DRUPA period. Weak sales accounted for an operating loss of 5.9 million Euros, less than half that of last year’s figure, thanks to cost-savings and increased efficiency.

New orders for web and special presses came to 67.2 million Euros (compared to 2012’s 83.7 million) in the first quarter as awaited contract conclusions were postponed “time and again” by customers.

A rise in domestic deliveries of web and sheetfed presses in Germany pushed the export ration down to 71.2 per cent from last year’s 89.2 per cent but this is expected to return to around 80 per cent in upcoming quarters.

The Asia-Pacific region contributed 23.2 per cent to group sales.

KBA says its group workforce is now 6187 including 340 apprentices and trainees – 107 fewer than a year ago. The total will continue to fall because of approved measures including phased retirement schemes.

The company says it still expects to meet 2013 forecasts, thanks to the raft of deliveries scheduled for the following months and a rise in sheetfed orders expected from China Print this month.

“We also expect new contracts in the web and special press division in the second and third quarters, such as the orders for newspaper web presses received in April, vice-president and chief financial officer Axel Kaufmann.

President and chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann says he expects growth in digital printing and flexible packaging with the RotaJet 76 inkjet web, expansion KBA’s packaging product range and planned takeover of Italian manufacturer Flexotecnica.

“We aim to compensate for the smaller market for traditional sheetfed and web offset presses with growing print markets,” he says. “This strategy demands time and appropriate investment which thanks to KBA’s solid financial profile can be realised with our own means.”