Heidelberg has started the new financial year 2024-25 with strong growth in incoming orders. Thanks to the highly successful drupa industry trade fair, the technology company’s incoming orders in the first three months (April 1 to June 30, 2024) exceeded its own expectations of around € 650 million at € 701 million (previous year: € 591 million). The best order value since 2016 thus forms a strong basis for the entire financial year with a high order backlog of € 923 million (March 31: € 652 million). 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 of Heidelberg. “The pleasing order backlog from the drupa trade fair 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.”
Forecast confirmed despite after-effects of the order slump
As expected, sales in the first quarter of € 403 million were below the previous year’s level (€ 544 million) due to the reluctance to invest ahead of drupa. The adjusted operating result (EBITDA) fell by around € 51 million to € –9 million 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 € –42 million (previous year: € 10 million). As expected, free cash flow was negative at € –103 million (previous year: € –27 million) due to the quarterly loss, the increase in inventories because of the high order intake and seasonal effects.
“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.”
In the Print Solutions segment in particular, Heidelberg recorded strong drupa-related growth in incoming orders of around 21%. In contrast, sales declined by around 23% from April to June due to the low order intake in the third quarter of the previous year. Incoming orders in the Packaging Solutions segment improved by 17%, while sales in this segment fell by 29% as expected.
Heidelberg presented itself at drupa as a total solution provider for the printing industry with offset and digital. In particular, the cooperation with Canon is intended to open up the growing market in digital industrial commercial printing. Heidelberg aims to significantly increase its sales in this area in the medium term.
The forecast for the 2024/2025 financial year is confirmed against the backdrop of the strong order intake. Assuming that the global economy does not grow more slowly than predicted by economic research institutes, Heidelberg expects stable earnings development with sales remaining the same.