Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG Records Sales of Around 4.6 Billion Euro

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) concluded the 1999/00 fiscal year (1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000) with a new record high.

The Heidelberg Group recorded sales of around 4.6 billion Euro. This corresponds to an increase of some 17 percent over the previous year (1998/99: 3.5 billion Euro). "This reaffirms our strategy as a solution provider for the entire printing and publishing industry", states Bernhard Schreier, Chairman of the Management Board. "drupa (18 - 31 May, Dusseldorf), where we are presenting solutions to satisfy a whole spectrum of customer needs, has so far been a tremendous success for Heidelberg. The new strategy has enabled us to penetrate established markets and open up new ones."

The company received orders of around 4.7 billion Euro over the last fiscal year. It is therefore some 39 percent higher than the comparable figure for the previous year (1998/99: 3.3 billion Euro).

The provisional profit after tax is around 251 million Euro (1998/99 fiscal year: 256 million Euro). This already takes account of the expenditure for restructuring Kodak's former Office Imaging Division and the production startup for the Digimaster black/white digital press. "The expenditure was far less than expected, however", states Finance Director Dr. Herbert Meyer. "The Digimaster has been particularly successful. This drupa has already seen us sell the 1000th unit".

In offset, too, sales during the first half of the Dusseldorf fair have been extremely positive. On the very first day of the fair, Heidelberg received a major order for a complete web offset solution from a US customer. "Orders received at drupa 1995 were just below 500 million Euro", stated Schreier. "Half way through drupa 2000 we have already exceeded this figure."

Heidelberg will announce further details of the 1999/00 fiscal year at its Annual Press Conference on 4 July 2000 (10 a.m., Print Media Academy, Heidelberg).