COVID-19 impacts Koenig & Bauer financials

Customer investment restraint, travel bans, lockdowns and other restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic have significantly hit the 2020 first half earnings of Koenig & Bauer.

The company said restrictions caused by COVID-19 impeded deliveries of presses to international customers, as well as the global deployment of assembly staff and service technicians.

At €480.2 million, orders were 16.2 per cent lower than in the previous year. At €404.5 million, its revenue fell short of the previous year by 20.1 per cent.

On the cost side, the company took some measures to address the effects of the crisis, including the introduction of short-time working from 1 April 2020 alongside other steps. As a result, the company said its EBIT improved substantially from a loss of €34.9 million in Q1 to a loss of €6 million in Q2.

Despite the substantial gains with large-format sheetfed offset presses and folder gluers, the company said that order intake in the sheetfed segment declined by 12.9 per cent over the previous year’s figure of €330.6 million, to €288 million due to lower orders for medium and half-format presses.

Its revenue of €205.5 million was 20.6 per cent lower than the previous year’s figure (€258.9 million) for delivery-related reasons and due to the effects of the pandemic.

Order intake in the digital and web segment was recorded at €56.7 million, down from €89.9 million in the previous year, due to lower orders in the web offset press business and for flexible packaging printing, the company said.

Koenig & Bauer said the decline in order intake in the special segment – from €175.3 million to €150.7 million – reflects lower orders for security printing, marking and coding as well as glass direct printing.

In metal decorating, its revenue fell from €204.9 million to €160.1 million.

 Koenig & Bauer CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann said, “In view of the high volatility and the great uncertainties surrounding the severity and duration of the coronavirus pandemic and the success of health, economic and monetary policies, the further global economic development is uncertain.

“Given these uncertain underlying conditions, it is currently not yet possible to issue any revenue and earnings guidance for 2020 for our group.

“The management board is working intensively on the Performance 2024 efficiency programme to increase the operating profitability. We have applied for a KfW loan to supplement the existing syndicated credit facilities. In addition, improvements in working capital and cash flow are at the top of the agenda together with the strategic focus on packaging printing and digital services.”

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