Press maker manroland says it benefitted from the economic recovery and continuing strong demand in growth regions to post a 13 per cent rise in orders in the first half of this year.

Incoming orders increased in both web and sheetfed sectors, reaching 520 million Euros, and sales improved by seven per cent to 435 million Euros, the company says.

The “already good” volume of orders in sheetfed increased by another two per cent, while the webfed sector – which had not seen a benefit last year – tracked the positive development of the sheetfed sector to score a 33 per cent gains in orders. manroland achieved an operating result (EBIT) of -25 million Euros and thus reduced the losses incurred in the previous year by almost half.

The company says product innovations developed in response to demand were significant drivers behind the success: “One pleasing aspect is the annual growth of more than four per cent in the services business that is to be expanded,” says a spokesman.

Main drivers of the increase in sales were BRIC countries – especially China – with the company’s export ratio stable at around 80 per cent.

“With a gain in orders and increased sales, manroland achieved a pleasing result for the first half of 2011,” says manroland chief executive Gerd Finkbeiner. “The strategic alliance with Océ in the digital printing sector will further strengthen our position in the future.

“With technical innovations like product safety in packaging printing, automation features with robot technology for newspaper presses, and new developments in high-volume commercial web offset printing, we are showing that print has a bright future.”

As a result, short-time work at the Offenbach factory ended in June, although previously-announced job cuts in the group –due to long-term capacity alignment – are “running according to plan”. By the end of 2012, the number of employees will be down to under 6000. At the end of June, 6630 people – excluding external personnel and trainees – worked for the company, 84 per cent of them in Germany. This is a decrease of roughly 11 per cent from the previous year.

Despite the positive development, manroland does not expect a return to the boom level of 2007. “We are assuming 75 per cent of the pre-crisis volume in the sheetfed sector and around 60 per cent in webfed. Measured against the boom year, our sheetfed results at present are at approximately 60 per cent, and webfed almost 50 per cent,” says Finkbeiner. For the full year 2011, manroland targets sales of more than one billion Euros.

Finkbeiner says product innovations for commercial and sheetfed printing presented in the first half of 2011 were greeted enthusiastically by international customers and were bound to stimulate sales in the second half of 2011. The partnership with Océ and the resulting opportunities for combining both offset and digital printing had also generated strong interest amongst customers.

“The IfraExpo fair in Vienna in October will bring further impetus to newspaper printing. A slight decline in demand is nevertheless expected, particularly in China,” he The new manroland Industrial Services business sector established in January, now has around 100 employees, and is due to rise to 300 in the medium term. Another growth area is the new manroland mechatronic systems business in Plauen, which takes over the complete realisation of projects – including manufacturing and assembly of individual components – from large assemblies right up to plant and equipment that works in tolerances measured in micrometers. The two new business sectors were established as part of the strategic realignment announced last year, and are expected to already make a positive contribution to earnings in the second half of 2011.

“They show how manroland’s core expertise can also be successfully utilized beyond the company’s core business,” says Finkbeiner.