The company reports that while preliminary sales fell to €2.306bn compared with €2.999bn the previous year, savings from the package of cost-cutting measures were achieved ahead of schedule and mitigated the results significantly.

They were therefore able in large part to compensate for the shortfall in profit contributions resulting from the substantial decrease in sales, according to Heidelberg.

The preliminary operating result, excluding special items, came to € -130m at the end of the financial year (previous year: € -49m) and was thus in line with the most recent forecast. Special items for restructuring measures amounted to a total of €28m during the financial year as a whole.  

Bernhard Schreier, Heidelberg CEO says, “The Heidelberg Group was able to maintain its leading market position and expand in a number of sectors in what was a difficult market environment in financial year 2009/10.

He continues, “A marked upward trend was evident in the second half of the year. Now the aim of our further cost-cutting measures introduced at the end of March is to achieve a break-even operating result for the next financial year.”

Also commenting, Dirk Kaliebe, CFO of Hiedelberg says the upward trend that was already apparent within the financial year as a whole continued in the fourth quarter. He says, “We recorded a further increase in our sales volume of around 24 per cent on the previous quarter and, for the first time since the economic and financial crisis started, we achieved a positive operating result excluding special items.”

Employee numbers fell by a further 1,524 in the fourth quarter of 2009-10. As of March 31, 2010, the Heidelberg Group had a workforce of 16,496 worldwide.

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