Koenig & Bauer is Optimistic About Financial Year 2025

After a strong fourth quarter in 2024 and with a record order backlog, Koenig & Bauer AG is well positioned to continue its favorable operating performance in the currently volatile market environment and to improve its profitability.

As expected, the implementation of the “Spotlight” focus program in line with plans resulted in crucial efficiency gains and structural optimization effects, which had a positive impact on operating earnings in the year under review.

The cover image for the summary of the Annual Report in this issue was produced – as it was last year – with the aid of cutting-edge AI technology, and highlights Koenig & Bauer’s transformation from a traditional press manufacturer to an agile technology company.

“For Koenig & Bauer, 2024 was a year of change and opportunities – and this transition is currently continuing,” said CEO Dr. Andreas Pleßke. “For over 200 years, Koenig & Bauer has been combining innovativeness with a strong market position to tackle new challenges, drive innovation and seize opportunities continuously.

“We swiftly implemented the group’s reorganization that had been announced in November to align our innovative products and services even more closely to our customers in a challenging market environment,” added Dr. Pleßke. “With the systematic implementation of the “Spotlight” program, we have laid the foundations for future success. The installation of a new generation on the Executive Board reflects this ongoing change. For this reason, this year’s annual report bears the motto “Chance & Change”, which symbolizes both last year’s change and the ongoing opportunities and chances.”


In 2024, Koenig & Bauer achieved all the targets that it had set itself in November 2024 in a difficult global market environment thanks to a strong final quarter, thus meeting the updated full-year forecast.

With revenue coming to €1,274.4 million (previous year: €1,326.8 million), operating EBIT adjusted for extraordinary items reached €25.8 million (previous year: €29.9 million). The adjustments include extraordinary items totaling €50.4 million in connection with the “Spotlight” focus program to strengthen profitability plus one-off costs of €10.5 million for participation in the drupa trade fair.

The high group order intake of €1,402.7 million in 2024 (up 8.9% year on year) caused the group order backlog to widen to €1,039.8 million (up 14.1% year on year) with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.10. This marks the highest year-end figure in Koenig & Bauer’s recent history. It provides a solid basis for 2025 and beyond but is not evenly distributed across all segments.

In the fourth quarter, a very strong positive free cash flow of €67.4 million (previous year: €-18.7 million) was recorded. This resulted in a positive free cash flow of €31.6 million for the year as a whole (previous year: €-93.4 million), although it remained negative at €-35.8 million in the first nine months.

This improvement was attributable to the reduction in net working capital from €379 million in the previous year to €294.2 million in the year under review. Relative to revenue over the last twelve months, it stood at 23.1% (previous year: 28.6%).

“We thus achieved our target of additionally improving net working capital to a maximum of 25% of full-year revenue,” Dr. Stephen Kimmich, CFO and deputy CEO, added. “Given the challenging global economic market environment, this is an outstanding achievement.”

In 2024, Koenig & Bauer advanced and implemented as planned the measures under the “Spotlight” focus program that had been launched at the end of 2023 to strengthen the group’s competitiveness and profitability in the long term.

Non-operating extraordinary items of €50.4 million arose in 2024. These mainly comprise expenses arising from cost adjustments for material and personnel within the “BNSx” projects to boost profitability in banknote business and within the “D&W 2.0” project to rectify the persistent loss situation in the former Digital & Webfed segment, as well as measures to enhance the holding company structures.

Under the “Metal 2.0” project, the Executive Board additionally decided to discontinue the CS-MetalCan business for two-piece beverage can printing, thus exceeding the originally projected ceiling for the “Spotlight” program by €5.4 million.

In connection with the final implementation of all measures, further expenses in the low single-digit million euro range are expected to arise in the first half of 2025 in order to complete “Spotlight” and underpin the group’s sustainable earnings growth. The individual measures under the focus program yielded a positive EBIT effect of more than €20m in the year under review, mainly due to the personnel adjustments implemented.

With its new segment structure, Koenig & Bauer will be able to address its markets and customers in an even more targeted way, make better use of synergies and offer customer-oriented solutions more efficiently. The focus on two segments, Paper & Packaging Sheetfed Systems (P&P) and Special & New Technologies (S&T), marks the logical continuation of the transition to a more divisional group that began in 2014.

The new Paper & Packaging Sheetfed Systems (P&P) segment includes all the previous activities of the Sheetfed segment and additionally integrates the corrugated board printing activities of the Koenig & Bauer Celmacch Chroma series, which had been assigned to the Digital & Webfed segment. The Koenig & Bauer Durst joint venture will also remain in this segment.

Looking forward, the second segment – Special & New Technologies (S&T) – will comprise the previous activities of the Special segment plus the remaining Digital & Webfed business units. This includes web digital and flexographic printing, newsprint and new projects such as the partnership with PowerCo in dry coating for battery cell production. In addition, new applications for inspection systems and product safety will be transferred to the separate Vision & Protection business unit.

With the reorganization of the segment structure, Koenig & Bauer is moving ahead with its efforts to streamline its management structures. The greater allocation of operational tasks to the two new segments means that there is no longer any need for a central group COO. Driven forward by Michael Ulverich, the development of a standardized press platform and modular system will continue to be pursued in the segments.

Christian Steinmaßl joined group management on 1 Dec. 1, 2024. He has assumed a key role in the new Special & New Technologies (S&T) segment with responsibility for production, the Vision & Protection and Kyana (formerly Digital unit) business units and Group purchasing.

In June 2024, Digital & Webfed’s management team was restructured, with Philipp Zimmermann taking over the management of Digital & Webfed AG & Co. KG from Christoph Müller, who has since been devoting his attention to expanding digital printing technologies and partnerships.

As part of the strategic realignment and the planned transition to a new generation, Müller resigned from his position on the Executive Board on March 31, 2025 and will continue to work for Koenig & Bauer as an executive advisor. From that date, Steinmaßl will also be responsible for Digital & Webfed within the S&T segment.

In addition, Ralf Sammeck, CEO of Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed and a member of the Executive Board of Koenig & Bauer AG, will be retiring after 25 years with effect from June 30, 2025.

The succession plan has already been finalized: In his position as Managing Director and CEO of Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed AG & Co. KG, Markus Weiß took over the management of the new Paper & Packaging Sheetfed Systems (P&P) segment on Feb. 1, 2025 and is a member of group management beneath the Executive Board.
On March 20, 2025, the Supervisory Board passed a resolution to the effect that Dr. Kimmich would take over from Dr. Pleßke, with effect from the Annual General Meeting on June 4, 2025. As planned, Dr. Pleßke will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2025, pending which he will be performing special duties in the group as a member of the Executive Board. Dr. Kimmich will be appointed for a period of five years.

In addition, the Supervisory Board appointed Dr. Alexander Blum as CFO for a period of three years with effect from July 1, 2025. Dr. Blum will start working at Koenig & Bauer from May 1, 2025 in the interests of a proper transition to the future CEO and CFO roles.

The imposition of import tariffs on selected products, which is currently being discussed in the United States, will not only affect Koenig & Bauer but also its main competitors, which are predominantly based in Europe.

In principle, higher tariffs could exert pressure on demand in the US market and thus pose a challenge for the entire industry. The extent to which this decline can be offset cannot be conclusively assessed at this stage.

In 2024, Koenig & Bauer generated around 29% (previous year: around 23%) of its revenue in North America and continues to view this market as strategically important. Current assessments indicate that the impact is likely to remain manageable.

“We are optimistic about 2025. We have laid the foundations for this with the systematic implementation of our ‘Spotlight’ program, the significant improvement in free cash flow and net working capital, and a good order backlog. In addition to an improvement in operating EBIT, we again expect to generate a positive cash flow over 2025 as a whole. We are closely monitoring global economic and geopolitical developments in order to continue responding resiliently, as we have been doing over the last 208 years of the company’s history,” said Dr. Kimmich.