DRUPA orders worth more than 350 million Euros powered KBA to a 30 per cent rise in half-year revenue.

With capacity booked for the rest of this year, board members have revised revenue and earnings estimates to between 1.1-1.2 billion Euros and a four per cent increase in EBT margin.

Even the digital and web segment did well: While the 66 million order intake was similar to the previous year, revenue rose by more than 75 per cent with digital presses for decor and corrugated making a key contribution. Development expenses for digital led to a 900,000 Euros loss, much less than the 8.9 million last year and well on the way to targetted profit for the year.

The 352.5 million Euros group order intake for the second quarter was up 17.2 per cent year-on-year, even though figures include only a third of DRUPA orders. The six months group order intake at 618.8 million Euros was up 1.9 per cent on a strong prior year, and revenue increased by 29.7 per cent over the same period.

KBA president and chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann described this as "a solid buffer" for the rest of the year. giving ample security to raise targets: "We now expect an EBT margin of around four per cent with group revenue between €1.1 and €1.2bn."

EBIT improved to 20.7 million compared to last year's loss for the period of 8.3 million Euros, although interest was slightly negative.

KBA says it has increased exports from 84.9 per cent to 86.1 per cent - 30.4 per cent to the Asia-Pacific - and cut employee numbers by 65 to 5201.

Despite unfavourable global economic conditions, the positive book-to-bill ratio -with a rise of 30 per cent in group revenue, high order backlog, a raft of promising customer projects and the growing service business - an increase in revenue and earnings targets.

Pictured: KBA benefitted from the strong orders at DRUPA