Nonetheless the figures to 31 March, 2002 "reached the targets for the fiscal year that we set ourselves last October", said chief executive Bernhard Schreier.

Sales dipped 5% to just over 3.13bn (5bn) and operating profit was down almost 30% at 222.5m. Orders for the year fell just short of 2.9bn. But a strong Ipex, during which the group says it sealed orders worth 162.5m, gave it a "good start to the new fiscal year".

Each of the groups divisions, bar sheetfed, showed a drop in sales and profits. Web sales were down almost 14% at 432m; this sales decline coupled with restructuring in the US contributed to an operating loss for the division of 76.3m.

Digital, which includes pre-press, also posted an operating loss of 67m, this compares to a loss of 40m for the previous year. Its sales fell 15% to 405m.

Sales for finishing were down just over 7% at 236m and operating profit was down over 40% at 10m.

But the bright spot was sheetfed where strong sales of long perfectors helped push operating profits up 5% to 355.6m on stable sales of 2.1bn.

Heidelberg UK put in a "creditable" performance according to managing director George Clarke. "We ended up pretty close in fiscal year 2002 to 2001. And we thought that was pretty good as theres no question there is a softer market and more difficult trading conditions," he said.

Clarke said the "high spots" for the UK were its sales of long perfectors, saddlestitchers and CTP devices. "We sold 99 CTP devices, which is disappointingly short of 100," he said.

* German engineering union IG Metall has warned that there could be another one-day strike at Heidelbergs three plants in the state of Baden-Wrttemburg. Last Monday (13 May), 5,000 union members were out. The union has demanded wage increases of 6.5% in this years round of collective bargaining.

Story by Lauretta Roberts