Press maker KBA says it has made a good start to its bicentenary year of 2017 with an increase in orders, order backlog and EBIT.

Earnings (EBIT) rose from 2.1 million Euros to more than five million.

While revenue and earnings from the digital and web division, orders are up 18.5 per cent, leading to an increase in the order backlog. The division now includes expanding flexo packaging activities, where optimisation of KBA-Flexotecnica, high R&D expenses and a revenue shortfall "left traces" on segment earnings, reducing them by 2.3 million Euros.

At 259.1 million Euros, group revenue remained at the previous year's level, while order backlog widened by 6.4 per cent to 619.9 million Euros.

Chief financial officer Mathias Dähn says the group's focus on packaging, industrial and digital printing is "increasingly paying off".

The board expects group revenue to grow "more dynamically" over the remainder of the year, with organic growth to "up to 1.25 billion Euros" in group revenue and an EBIT margin of around six per cent expected.

• Ralf Sammeck (54) and Christoph Müller (56) have been appointed to the executive board, Sammeck to lead sheetfed and Müller the digital and web division. At the same time, Sammeck takes over coordination of equipment sales and Müller coordination of services initiatives, where an increase in revenue to 30 per cent by 2021 is planned.

Supervisory board Andreas Pleßke has been delegated to lead the special products division for a year, with the intention of "swiftly optimising" the security printing business.