The printed bottles are symbolic for press maker KBA, with plenty to celebrate in its third-quarter report.

The group says it is "in the black" again, with earnings before tax of 2.1 million Euros and a net profit of 2.4 million Euros.

New orders were up 28.5 per cent year-on-year and sales - currently at 679.7 million Euros - are expected to grow to more than a billion by the end of the year.

The turnaround in earnings was accompanied by a continued good order intake, up 28.5 per cent at the end of September, with an order backlog of 597.3 million Euros, although it says the economic climate for the engineering industry has cooled in China and other key threshold countries.

Sheetfed offset - now the group's largest segment - helped compensate with more orders from other regions especially the USA and Japan.

KBA says a turnaround at its Digital & Web company is in sight: New orders rose by 47.4 per cent compared to 2014, even though the nine months' revenue in this segment (63 million Euros) was significantly below the previous year's 93.8 million Euros.

Higher development costs for new digital printing markets hit earnings and the segment posted a loss of 12.2 million Euros, just under the same period in 2014. In the fourth quarter, management expects a turnaround resulting as higher revenues and reduced costs kick in.

At 85.4 per cent KBA's export level was on par with the previous year (85.3 per cent). Fewer web and special press installations led to a decline in the proportion of group sales attributable to other parts of Europe, but North America's contribution jumped from 10.1 per cent to 14.1 per cent and Asia and the Pacific rose from 24.2 per cent to 33.6 per cent.

A significant increase in revenue and a sizeable earnings improvement over the next quarters is expected at KBA-Digital & Web following the elimination of capacity underutilisation and a stronger focus on the growing digital printing market. Good market opportunities in digital decor printing and the alliance with HP in digital corrugated printing provide the division with considerably brighter prospects.

Revenue in the Special Solutions segment is also expected to increase in the fourth quarter primarily driven by KBA-NotaSys and KBA-MetalPrint active in banknote printing and metal decorating.

Pictured: Direct decoration of premium glass packaging using screen and digital print systems from KBA-Kammann