The company, which has recently undergone a major restructure, adopted a cautious tone in its Q1 report, citing global uncertainties caused by the new US tariffs for potential consequences to global supply chains, cashflow and productivity.
Group revenue for the period was €252.2m (£213.7m), 0.4% down on the same period last year (2024: €253.2m) while seasonal factors especially in the Special and New Technologies (S&T) segment, were attributed to a “subdued” start to the year, yielding an operating EBIT loss of €11.4m compared to -€10.2m last year. Group EBIT fell by 39.2% year-on-year to -€14.2m. The figure includes non-operating extraordinary items of €2.8m mainly for the implementation of Spotlight, its efficiency and business optimisation programme.
After income taxes of €2.6m, the group posted a bigger net loss of €23.2m in Q1 of 2025 (2024 loss: €16.6m), while gross margin slipped to 24.6% (2024: 26.4%).
On a positive note, order backlog was up significantly to just over €1bn from €901.2m in 2024, the highest figure for the start to the year in the company’s recent history, although this is not evenly distributed across segments, the company said.
At €172.8m, order intake in the Paper & Packaging Sheetfed Systems (P&P) segment was up 0.6% (2024: €171.7m) but down on the strong final quarter of 2024, while revenue was up 7.4% to €151.6m from €141.2m in Q1 of 2024, despite an unfavourable product mix.
Order intake in S&T climbed 6.8% year-on-year to €81.6m. However, it was significantly lower than in the previous quarter, which K&B attributed largely to reduced orders from the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. At €108m, revenue was down 7.2% on the previous year’s figure of €116.4m, mainly due to seasonality, primarily in the Special & New Technologies (S&NT) segment.
In November last year, the group underwent a complete restructure, reducing its three divisions of Sheetfed, Digital and Webfed and Special, to two new segments: P&P and S&NT, while the company removed the role of COO and reconfigured its executive board.
Looking ahead, the company said: “Despite difficult and uncertain global economic and geopolitical conditions, Koenig & Bauer sees itself well positioned for 2025. Thanks to a historically high order backlog and additional savings under the Spotlight focus programme, the executive board anticipates a slight increase in revenue to €1.3bn, accompanied by higher operating EBIT in a corridor of €35m-€50m. Within this corridor, target achievement is highly dependent on actual global economic and geopolitical developments over the next few months.
“Koenig & Bauer continues to project group revenue of roughly €1.5bn in 2026, accompanied by an operating EBIT margin of around 6%. Due to the global economic and geopolitical uncertainties and, resulting from this, the limited forward planning visibility, group revenue is currently expected to come to between €1.4bn and €1.5bn, with the operating EBIT margin reaching 5%-6%.”
Koenig & Bauer's share price fell from €15.72 to €13.38 on the news (52-week high: €17.82, low: €6.92).
