Heidelberg has started the new financial year 2024/2025 with strong growth in incoming orders.
Thanks to the successful drupa, the company’s incoming orders in the first three months (April 1 to June 30, 2024) exceeded its own expectations of at €701m (previous year: €591m). The best order value since 2016 forms a strong basis for the entire financial year with a high order backlog of €923m (March 31: €652m). The regions of Europe (+25%) and the Americas (+30%) recorded particularly strong growth. Growth was only slightly weaker in Asia (+3%), as the previous year had been particularly strong due to the important industry trade fair Print China.
“The strong recovery in our order intake allows us to look to the full financial year with great confidence,” said Jürgen Otto, CEO. “The pleasing order backlog from drupa will lead to rising sales in the following quarters compared to Q1. At the same time, we are working on our cost situation and personnel costs, which are generally too high.”
As expected, sales in the first quarter of €403m were below the previous year’s level (€544m) due to the reluctance to invest ahead of drupa. The adjusted EBITDA fell by around €51m to € –9m compared to the adjusted figure for the same quarter of the previous year. The corresponding EBITDA margin was –2.3% (previous year: 7.7%). Net result after taxes fell to € –42m (previous year: €10m).
“Heidelberg felt the after-effects of the slump in orders from the third quarter of 2023/2024 in the first quarter,” said Tania von der Goltz, CFO. “Despite the expected improvements in sales and earnings in the second half of the year, we will continue to work on our costs and efficiency. We expect to achieve the previous year’s result in the current year.”
