The vendor’s result showed a marked improvement following its €87.1m pre-tax loss in 2008.
Although sales dropped 31% to €1.1bn during the past 12 months, the manufacturer introduced a raft of cost-cutting exercises, which included shedding just under 1,000 positions to cut overheads by more than €100m a year.
Despite the rise in pre-tax profit, KBA’s order intake for both sheetfed and webfed presses dipped, falling by 22.4% and 32.8% respectively. The total order intake was €883.9m throughout 2009, down 28.8% year-on-year.
The manufacturer currently has a global payroll of around 6,700, but said it expects this figure to be closer to 6,000 once the restructuring programme is completed later this year.
David Lewis, KBA Australasia’s general manager for sheetfed, told ProPrint that the mood at the vendor was “fairly upbeat”.
“This year will be as tough as last year from a world point-of-view, but we hope to see a local upturn towards the second half of this year, though not so much in commercial,” he said.
“Our main markets are packaging and specialty printing. I don’t really know where the commercial market is going.”
Lewis claimed that KBA is now the “most stable” of the German vendors. He said it was now second in sheetfed sales behind Heidelberg and ahead of Manroland and Komori.
These comparisons were reflected in the company’s results statement, with the vendor taking the opportunity to have a pop at rival manufacturer Heidelberg, which KBA earlier this year claimed was selling off stock at deep discounts.
KBA said: “Thanks to its financial stability and fast turnaround following the loss in 2008, KBA has needed no state guarantees or loans from the German Economic Fund.
“The world’s oldest press manufacturer is drawing on its own resources to complete its realignment to new market realities.”
Heidelberg has so far declined to comment on KBA’s accusations, but said that the continued improvement of its net debt position over the past year (30 Sept 2008-09) from €721m to €675m, along with a reduction in customer financing, did not support KBA’s claims.
Lewis said the improved results are something of a “vote of confidence” for the company going into Ipex
“We’ve got some good customers coming, some quality customers,” he said. “You read about Manroland saying they’re not displaying any presses, and you wonder if that’s a reflection of where the market is, but we’ll be showing five machines on our stand.”
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