More demanding market environment makes achievement of group targets 2019 significantly more challenging for Koenig & Bauer

As a result of significantly increased economic risks and greater price pressure from competitors, the market environment for Koenig & Bauer has become much more demanding. Due to strict price discipline, the sometimes-massive concessions from the competition led to weaker order intake in the third quarter of 2019, particularly in the Sheetfed segment.

In addition to the strong services business, more orders for medium-format presses led to growth in order intake in the Sheetfed segment of 6.7% to €460m (2018: €431.3m). Revenue of €407.4m was at the level of the prior year (€409.4m). The good order backlog of €242.5m (2018: €253.6m) ensures continued high capacity utilisation. Due to the product mix and temporarily higher associated quality costs, EBIT of –€2.2m was below the figure from the prior year (€14m).