A surge in press deliveries at the end of the year is likely to push Koenig & Bauer's group revenue to 1.25 billion Euros, the company says.

Good earnings in the third quarter and a high order backlog is supporting a board's "guidance" for the full year.

Chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann says numerous press deliveries and service orders in the fourth quarter will trigger a surge in revenue and earnings, and is expected to lad to an EBIT margin of around six per cent.

In the first nine months, order intake rose by 3.9 per cent over the previous year 903.4 million Euros, with increased service orders underpinned those in packaging and digital printing.

The company has taken the first order for its new digital CorruJET press, and was buoyed by an 11.7 per cent increase in sheetfed press orders, although orders in the Digital & Web segment fell to 111.1 million Euros "particularly as a result of fewer new contracts for web offset presses for newspaper and commercial printing".

Some 210 more people now work for the group, bringing the total to 5542, including 44 who joined as a result of consolidation of KBA CEE.

Pictured: Tech aids for Koenig & Bauer engineers support the expanding group's growth