Heidelberg has released the figures for the first quarter of its 2014-15 year with a promise of further restructuring. Sales in the first quarter but thanks to a higher order backlog at the end of the first quarter, the company is expecting an increase in sales in the following quarters.
The figures were in line with expectations at €435m, though this is 14 percent down on the same quarter in the previous year, where Heidelberg managed sales of €504m. Heidelberg has attributed this to a strong year-end rally in the preceding quarter, renewed negative exchange rate effects, and a slackening of business in the Asia/Pacific region, noting that in the other regions, sales matched the previous year’s level.
The figures also show that Heidelberg’s operating results have been improving over the last two years, up from €-20m to €-11m, though this has been offset by lower financial income and the refinancing in the previous year so that the financial result dropped from €-12m last year to €-17m in this quarter. But income before taxes improved so that the net result for the first quarter was €-34m, an improvement on the €-38m from the same period last year.
Heidelberg has already announced that it will abandon its own range of post press products in favour of OEM arrangements, as it seeks to cut down on low margin products.
The company currently expects that sales in financial year 2014/2015 will match those in the previous financial year. As in the previous year, sales are once again likely to be higher in the second half of the financial year than in the first. The goal is to achieve an operating profit of eight percent in the 2015-16 financial year.
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