Sales fall as Heidelberg pushes toward profitability goal
In the three months to 30 September sales at the group were up on the previous quarter’s €504m (£424m), but down 14.9% year-on-year at €593m. Half-year sales fell 9.9% to €1.09bn. EBITDA (earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in the quarter jumped to €33m from €13m. The world’s largest press manufacturer is still losing almost €1m a week, but it more than halved its net losses at the half-year stage from €108m to €47m. It also reduced its net debt by €118m to €239m. Heidelberg said the strong euro combined with weak currencies in the US, Japan, India and Brazil had hit sales to the tune of €42m in the first half, while the prior year was also boosted by Drupa sales. The manufacturer shed a further 1,129 jobs in the period as part of its Focus 2012 restructuring initiative, and now has 13,616 employees worldwide. It said the EBITDA improvement was the result of Focus 2012 actions, price increases, and “a gradual scaling back of low margin business.” Heidelberg is pushing its workforce for more flexible working hours and stated that its operating break-even point “needs to be adjusted further in order to be better prepared for volatility in individual markets.” This will involve additional exceptional restructuring costs this financial year. Chief executive Gerold Linzbach said the results had “exceeded our expectations” and that Heidelberg had made “major progress toward achieving our target for the year of a net profit.” It announced the results alongside news of a major strategic alliance with Fujifilm for inkjet printing. Heidelberg shares rose by 12 cents to €2.10 in early trading....
read moreKBA downgrades sales target and issues profit warning
The German press manufacturer has issued a profit warning in light of “much lower sales volume than expected” in both its web and sheetfed business segments in the third quarter. As a result of the Q3 shortfall, which it attributed to “economic and market development”, KBA said that its previous full-year sales and earnings targets would no longer be attainable. The group’s initial target of annual sales of €1.3bn in 2013 has therefore been downgraded, with KBA’s management now estimating that revenues will fall €200m short of that target at approximately €1.1bn. While KBA still expects its operating result excluding special items to be positive, it said it now expects its pre-tax and net result after restructuring costs and impairments to be negative. “Given reduced sales, anticipated extraordinary expenses for impairments and restructuring measures, it is likely that KBA will post a loss for 2013,” the company said. “Excluding the special items mentioned, management continues to target a positive operating result and balanced Group earnings before taxes.” The group’s share price fell sharply on the news, dropping 10% to €12.85. It subsequently recovered to €13.00 (52-week high: €18.85). The announcement marks a mixed 12 months for the manufacturer, which this time last year announced double-digit operating and pre-tax profits, reversing the previous year’s nine-month loss, on the back of a 34.1% increase in web sales, which counteracted a €21.4m loss from the sheetfed division. However, since then KBA has suffered from a slowdown in web sales, leading to the restructuring of the division – including the closure of the Trennfeld site in December 2012, while its sheetfed division has continued to struggle. This has led to the worsening group position, as seen in KBA’s half-year results, where an operating profit of €4.5m from web and special press sales in H1 2013 was insufficient to counteract the €9.4m operating loss from sheetfed press sales. Compare that with 2012, where KBA returned a profit for the half-year in spite of a much larger sheetfed operating loss (€18m) because its web and special presses division returned a sizeable €30.5m operating profit. Earlier this year, KBA announced a 2.5% price increase for sheetfed presses from 15 April 2013 while it also signed a deal with union IG Metall that protected jobs until mid 2015 in exchange for changes to working hours (in place until the end of 2014)....
read moreAPS launches wide-format textile range
The Slough-based supplier launched its new digital textile division, headed by Peter Miles, at the end of August in response to customer demand. The new textiles, targeting UV, dye-sub, solvent and latex wide-format printers and sign makers, include brand names Red-Eye, Butterfly and Man O’ War. Miles said: “This is just the start. We’ll be launching two more products in the division in the next two weeks and we aim to eventually push the portfolio up to around 20 to 25 products.” “The soft signage market is booming in the UK at the moment, demand is massive, and it’s really important we don’t miss that boat,” he added. “We are taking a really proactive approach on this. We are listening to our customers and this growth we are investing in should prove that.” Red-Eye, designed for printing roll-ups, hanging banners, backlit displays and tents, is a 225gsm matt white woven, water-resistant fabric suitable for dye-sublimation, solvent and latex inks. The 1.5m-wide rolls are available in 25m and 100m lengths and cost £187 and £680 respectively. Butterfly is a 120gsm, matt white knitted, double-sided flag fabric compatible with solvent and latex printing. Targeted at the beach flag, tear-drop and feather flag market, the 1,520mm x 25m rolls are priced at £130. Third in the new range, Man O’ War, is a woven 200gsm fabric for UV, dye-sub, solvent and latex inks. Its water-resistant, fire-retardant and crease-free properties are designed for use on inflatables, tents, parasols, tension and backlit displays. The fabric is available in 1, 520mm x 35m rolls at £245 each. APS, which Miles said has experienced record sales over the past two months, has a turnover of around £12m and employs around 42 people across its Slough and Rotherham sites....
read moreAPS launches wide-format textile range
The Slough-based supplier launched its new digital textile division, headed by Peter Miles, at the end of August in response to customer demand. The new textiles, targeting UV, dye-sub, solvent and latex wide-format printers and sign makers, include brand names Red-Eye, Butterfly and Man O’ War. Miles said: “This is just the start. We’ll be launching two more products in the division in the next two weeks and we aim to eventually push the portfolio up to around 20 to 25 products.” “The soft signage market is booming in the UK at the moment, demand is massive, and it’s really important we don’t miss that boat,” he added. “We are taking a really proactive approach on this. We are listening to our customers and this growth we are investing in should prove that.” Red-Eye, designed for printing roll-ups, hanging banners, backlit displays and tents, is a 225gsm matt white woven, water-resistant fabric suitable for dye-sublimation, solvent and latex inks. The 1.5m-wide rolls are available in 25m and 100m lengths and cost £187 and £680 respectively. Butterfly is a 120gsm, matt white knitted, double-sided flag fabric compatible with solvent and latex printing. Targeted at the beach flag, tear-drop and feather flag market, the 1,520mm x 25m rolls are priced at £130. Third in the new range, Man O’ War, is a woven 200gsm fabric for UV, dye-sub, solvent and latex inks. Its water-resistant, fire-retardant and crease-free properties are designed for use on inflatables, tents, parasols, tension and backlit displays. The fabric is available in 1, 520mm x 35m rolls at £245 each. APS, which Miles said has experienced record sales over the past two months, has a turnover of around £12m and employs around 42 people across its Slough and Rotherham sites....
read moreKBA downgrades sales target and issues profit warning
The German press manufacturer has issued a profit warning in light of “much lower sales volume than expected” in both its web and sheetfed business segments in the third quarter. As a result of the Q3 shortfall, which it attributed to “economic and market development”, KBA said that its previous full-year sales and earnings targets would no longer be attainable. The group’s initial target of annual sales of €1.3bn in 2013 has therefore been downgraded, with KBA’s management now estimating that revenues will fall €200m short of that target at approximately €1.1bn. While KBA still expects its operating result excluding special items to be positive, it said it now expects its pre-tax and net result after restructuring costs and impairments to be negative. “Given reduced sales, anticipated extraordinary expenses for impairments and restructuring measures, it is likely that KBA will post a loss for 2013,” the company said. “Excluding the special items mentioned, management continues to target a positive operating result and balanced Group earnings before taxes.” The group’s share price fell sharply on the news, dropping 10% to €12.85. It subsequently recovered to €13.00 (52-week high: €18.85). The announcement marks a mixed 12 months for the manufacturer, which this time last year announced double-digit operating and pre-tax profits, reversing the previous year’s nine-month loss, on the back of a 34.1% increase in web sales, which counteracted a €21.4m loss from the sheetfed division. However, since then KBA has suffered from a slowdown in web sales, leading to the restructuring of the division – including the closure of the Trennfeld site in December 2012, while its sheetfed division has continued to struggle. This has led to the worsening group position, as seen in KBA’s half-year results, where an operating profit of €4.5m from web and special press sales in H1 2013 was insufficient to counteract the €9.4m operating loss from sheetfed press sales. Compare that with 2012, where KBA returned a profit for the half-year in spite of a much larger sheetfed operating loss (€18m) because its web and special presses division returned a sizeable €30.5m operating profit. Earlier this year, KBA announced a 2.5% price increase for sheetfed presses from 15 April 2013 while it also signed a deal with union IG Metall that protected jobs until mid 2015 in exchange for changes to working hours (in place until the end of 2014)....
read moreM Partners launches wide-format division with DGI deal
M Partners joint managing director Murray Lock said the company had spent the past year researching the market to find a machine that combined high-performance with low-production cost rather than just entering the market with a “me too” product. “Anyone can be a reseller in this market – that’s the easy bit,” he said. “The difficult bit is doing your homework to find a product that is going to add value and then identifying the right resellers – whether they’ve got specialist contacts or cover a specific sector – with no cross-over.” Key to the deal was DGI’s latest range of machines, launched at Fespa in London earlier this year, which use Konica Minolta’s KM1024MN printheads and includes the Velajet VE-3204D, a 3.2m wide eco-solvent printer capable of 120sqm/hr at 720x360dpi and with a maximum resolution of 1,440dpi. “We were looking for Japanese technology on a cheaper base – we represent Japanese products [in offset litho] and so we know how good the quality is and we do see a real opportunity in this sector for a high quality machine with low running costs,” he said. “Wide format is still growing but it is also becoming more competitive, so it’s not just the upfront cost of the machine that’s important, it’s going to start coming down to the cost per square metre.” At around £75,000 for the machine, the Velajet VE-3204D is similar in price to Mimaki’s JV5-320S (£86,995) and Lynx Europe’s Lynx 320PQ (€57,000). However Lock claimed that the production cost of the DGI machine, at £1/sqm, was around half the price of rival machines; he said the comparison was done using TimeHarvest’s software and based on ink usage. The Velajet VE-3204D is a four-colour machine, with eight printheads (2x CMYK) capable of printing 120sqm/hr in draft mode (720x360dpi), 60sqm/hr in production mode (720x720dpi), 45sqm/hr in quality mode (720x1080dpi) and 30sqm/hr in high quality mode (720×1,440dpi). Lock said M Partners Wide was in the process of appointing a reseller network and that it was “looking out for different products to cover a range of processes”. This will include a textile printer, also from DGI, and a UV machine, although Lock said the firm had yet to find the right solution for UV. DGI has previously had a UK distributor in Tamworth-based Grafityp, although it’s UK install base remains small relative to mainland Europe, where the bulk of its customers are in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, according to Lock....
read moreMacro Art smashes print world record
The new record has been set with a 55x59m print of Bollywood film star and producer Akshay Kumar, which was unveiled and verified by an adjudicator from Guinness World Records and an independent surveyor, at an airfield local to Macro Art. The poster was printed on 36 PVC mesh panels, each measuring 5m x 18m, using an EFI GS5000 UV machine. The panels were then welded together using an FIAB high frequency table (Macro Art has in the past produced a larger, 90m x 60m Paralympics print, but this didn’t qualify for a Guinness World Record as it was assembled as separate panels. Over 40 staff were needed to help fold and lift the 1.4 tonne poster onto a specially made pallet and 30 to unfurl it at the other end. A total of 250 ground pegs were needed to hold the print to the ground. The key challenge was handling of the poster, said Macro Art’s technical advisor Adam McMonagle. “It weighed over a tonne and so took a lot of people to move,” he said. “We had to fan fold it then fold it onto itself.” The poster took 30 hours to print, reported McMonagle, significantly less time than a job of this epic scale would have taken in the past. “You have to shut down all other work to print something of this size and that could have been an issue a few years ago when printing took longer. But with the speed of our EFI machine, it only took a weekend,” he said. The poster was commissioned by Akshay Kumar’s fan club Team Akshay and the production company of Kumar’s latest film The Boss. It has now been shipped to India to be used to publicise the film. “We are honored and thrilled to break the world record and make our idol Akshay Kumar proud of his ace fan club,” said Team Akshay in a statement. “The only aim…was we always wanted the world to see our idol on a larger than life canvas, just like his persona.” “I am grateful to my fans for this unique gesture which speaks volumes about their eternal love and support,” said Kumar. “God bless them all.” The record for the World’s Largest Movie Poster was previously held by Macro Art for a 52m x 52m Michael Jackson print. The poster, detailing the launch of the This Is It album following the singer’s death in 2009, was unveiled in a field near Heathrow to catch the attention of those flying in and out. Macro Art also holds the record for the World’s Largest Advent calendar, hung from one end of Birmingham city centre’s historic old Town Hall to the other in 2001, and measuring 50m x 20m....
read moreM Partners launches wide-format division with DGI deal
M Partners joint managing director Murray Lock said the company had spent the past year researching the market to find a machine that combined high-performance with low-production cost rather than just entering the market with a “me too” product. “Anyone can be a reseller in this market – that’s the easy bit,” he said. “The difficult bit is doing your homework to find a product that is going to add value and then identifying the right resellers – whether they’ve got specialist contacts or cover a specific sector – with no cross-over.” Key to the deal was DGI’s latest range of machines, launched at Fespa in London earlier this year, which use Konica Minolta’s KM1024MN printheads and includes the Velajet VE-3204D, a 3.2m wide eco-solvent printer capable of 120sqm/hr at 720x360dpi and with a maximum resolution of 1,440dpi. “We were looking for Japanese technology on a cheaper base – we represent Japanese products [in offset litho] and so we know how good the quality is and we do see a real opportunity in this sector for a high quality machine with low running costs,” he said. “Wide format is still growing but it is also becoming more competitive, so it’s not just the upfront cost of the machine that’s important, it’s going to start coming down to the cost per square metre.” At around £75,000 for the machine, the Velajet VE-3204D is similar in price to Mimaki’s JV5-320S (£86,995) and Lynx Europe’s Lynx 320PQ (€57,000). However Lock claimed that the production cost of the DGI machine, at £1/sqm, was around half the price of rival machines; he said the comparison was done using TimeHarvest’s software and based on ink usage. The Velajet VE-3204D is a four-colour machine, with eight printheads (2x CMYK) capable of printing 120sqm/hr in draft mode (720x360dpi), 60sqm/hr in production mode (720x720dpi), 45sqm/hr in quality mode (720x1080dpi) and 30sqm/hr in high quality mode (720×1,440dpi). Lock said M Partners Wide was in the process of appointing a reseller network and that it was “looking out for different products to cover a range of processes”. This will include a textile printer, also from DGI, and a UV machine, although Lock said the firm had yet to find the right solution for UV. DGI has previously had a UK distributor in Tamworth-based Grafityp, although it’s UK install base remains small relative to mainland Europe, where the bulk of its customers are in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, according to Lock....
read moreMacro Art smashes print world record
The new record has been set with a 55x59m print of Bollywood film star and producer Akshay Kumar, which was unveiled and verified by an adjudicator from Guinness World Records and an independent surveyor, at an airfield local to Macro Art. The poster was printed on 36 PVC mesh panels, each measuring 5m x 18m, using an EFI GS5000 UV machine. The panels were then welded together using an FIAB high frequency table (Macro Art has in the past produced a larger, 90m x 60m Paralympics print, but this didn’t qualify for a Guinness World Record as it was assembled as separate panels. Over 40 staff were needed to help fold and lift the 1.4 tonne poster onto a specially made pallet and 30 to unfurl it at the other end. A total of 250 ground pegs were needed to hold the print to the ground. The key challenge was handling of the poster, said Macro Art’s technical advisor Adam McMonagle. “It weighed over a tonne and so took a lot of people to move,” he said. “We had to fan fold it then fold it onto itself.” The poster took 30 hours to print, reported McMonagle, significantly less time than a job of this epic scale would have taken in the past. “You have to shut down all other work to print something of this size and that could have been an issue a few years ago when printing took longer. But with the speed of our EFI machine, it only took a weekend,” he said. The poster was commissioned by Akshay Kumar’s fan club Team Akshay and the production company of Kumar’s latest film The Boss. It has now been shipped to India to be used to publicise the film. “We are honored and thrilled to break the world record and make our idol Akshay Kumar proud of his ace fan club,” said Team Akshay in a statement. “The only aim…was we always wanted the world to see our idol on a larger than life canvas, just like his persona.” “I am grateful to my fans for this unique gesture which speaks volumes about their eternal love and support,” said Kumar. “God bless them all.” The record for the World’s Largest Movie Poster was previously held by Macro Art for a 52m x 52m Michael Jackson print. The poster, detailing the launch of the This Is It album following the singer’s death in 2009, was unveiled in a field near Heathrow to catch the attention of those flying in and out. Macro Art also holds the record for the World’s Largest Advent calendar, hung from one end of Birmingham city centre’s historic old Town Hall to the other in 2001, and measuring 50m x 20m....
read moreFujifilm partnerships leads to MicroDot sales boost
The tool, which is made by UK technology company ccDotmeter, combines a high-spec, off-the-shelf digital microscope with software from Centurfax. It allows users to measure the image on a plate and then calibrate the platesetter. In addition to being used in-house by Fujifilm’s plate specialists, the manufacturer recommends that its plate users purchase a dotmeter in order to check that their platesetter remains within tolerance. Fujifilm UK offset solutions product manager Sean Lane said: “Complex electro-mechanical equipment such as a platesetter does need checking regularly to ensure that the highest quality standards are still being maintained. “This is not a flaw in the plates or the imaging device. This is why printing standards such as ISO 12647-2 stipulate the need for a device to accurately measure plate creation equipment. “By investing a few hundred pounds in a MicroDot printers can save themselves a lot of expensive wasted time, spoilt print that goes in the bin, and annoyed customers. It’s a no brainer!” Paul Foster, sales director for ccDotmeter, said: “This is another great success for British software in the printing industry. Fujifilm is a company that focuses on print quality. “The microDot itself was thoroughly tested by Fujifilm both in the UK and at its Tilburg factory prior to Fujifilm Europe recommending the product to its subsidiary operations and dealerships.” The MicroDot is suitable for reading a wide range of plate types including Fujifilm’s Brillia HD PRO-T3 plate....
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