• Carsten Dentler elected to the Supervisory Board to replace Carl Ferdinand Oetker
• New products for the growing packaging market  

In addition to a presentation by president and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann outlining the company’s favourable performance in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 , details of the growth strategy being pursued by the broadly positioned printing press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) played a key role at the company’s 92nd annual general meeting, which was presided over by supervisory board chairman Dr Martin Hoyos. Further items on the agenda of the annual general meeting held at the Vogel Convention Center (VCC) in Würzburg included resolutions on the discharge of duties with regard to the members of the management and supervisory board, the election of a new member to the supervisory board and the creation of new authorised capital.

Koenig & Bauer targeting profitable growth

In the first quarter of 2017, the KBA group’s main performance indicators such as order intake, order backlog and EBIT were up on the previous year. Given this strong position and following the China Print fair, which was held in May 2017 in Beijing and proved very successful for the KBA group, the management board considers the increase in group revenue up to €1.25bn targeted for 2017 in conjunction with an operating margin of around 6% to be achievable.

New demonstration center to spur growth

Active in many markets, Koenig & Bauer sees good opportunities for operating growth in digital printing, industrial functional printing (e.g. decors) and packaging printing. At the packaging fairs MetPack and InterPack in May 2017, KBA companies presented newly developed presses for previously unaddressed fields, such as beverage cans, to address this growing core market. Currently under construction in Würzburg, the demonstration centre for flexo and digital printing presses will additionally spur growth in flexible packaging and corrugated board.