Power finish to Heidelberg's annual results
Heidelberg Australia and NZ invoiced 401 printing units in 2005 and already this year has sold 175 A1 units in the four months to May in a continuation of the industry's massive investment spree. The company is working towards an increase of five per cent this year, in line with Heidelberg's global forecast.
In an upbeat assessment of the local company's performance Andy Vels Jensen, managing director HAN, said the investment spending was across all sizes of presses and sectors. In the hot long-perfecting press sector Heidelberg has now surpassed 70 installs in the region, claiming over 80 per cent of the market.
In the postpress sector the region is running first in the world with 75 per cent of its finishing equipment being installed with fully automatic controls.
Despite having entered the new financial year carrying $63 million in equipment sales, Vels Jensen does not see any danger of bad investment decisions in the current boom.
“This is very different from past investment surges. The deals stack up with good business cases behind them. Printers put their figures through our simulation and can see the facts and benchmarking. These are not crazy deals financed in silly ways. We've walked away from recent deals because the finances were wrong,” he said.
Despite the bullish sentiment for the year ahead, with the company's peak January installation slots all but filled, Vels Jensen warns of a slowdown in 2007.
“I think there will be glut leading into Drupa. There will be a slow down in ad spend. Industry consolidation will continue to happen, but the big boys will hold up because they have new efficient technology, which gives them protection. It means they can go a lot further before they run into hurt money.”
Heidelberg posts sales increases globally
The company's international figures reflected the upturn in graphic arts activity.
"Heidelberg's figures for the last financial year prove we have continued to increase our profitability," said Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen.
He reported:
"We expect the positive trend in the print media industry to continue for 2006," said Dr. Herbert Meyer, the company's CFO. "The new financial year got off to a very satisfying start, thanks to positive trade show activity at Ipex in April and several large orders from Asia. We anticipate further increases in sales and operating result for the full financial year 2006/2007."
Incoming orders in the financial year ending March 31, 2006 were $6.13 billion, around three percent higher than last year's already high figure and well above expectations. At around $1.7 billion, the order backlog at March 31, 2006 was on a par with the previous year's very high figures.