Total operating results reached 65 million euros (previous year 3 million euros). The sheetfed press business unit, which had been making a loss for three years, achieved the forecasted turnaround and made a slight profit (+ 6 million euros following -41 million euros). For 2006 MAN Roland expects a further improvement in operating results and thus get much closer to the profit targets of the MAN Group.
The demand for printing systems was more stable compared to the previous year. The web press business area further strengthened its dominant position in the market. In addition to its normal business MAN Roland gained a number of large projects and increased order intake by 14 per cent to 1183 million euros. This makes MAN Roland the global market leader in both its newspaper printing and commercial printing business units. Order intake for the sheetfed press business unit also showed pleasing growth totalling 926 million euros which was 9 per cent higher than the previous year. Altogether MAN Roland increased its order intake by 12 per cent to a record level of 2109 million euros.
Sales for the web press business area rose by 25 per cent to 886 million euros. Total group sales of 1738 million euros exceeded the previous year’s total by 7 per cent. In the sheetfed press business area sales of 852 million euros were 6 per cent below the total of the previous year. This was due to the weaker order intake in the first half of the year. The share of export sales was around 83 per cent (previous year 80 per cent).
The order backlog at the end of 2005 amounted to 1494 million euros which was 39 per cent higher than the cut-off date in the previous year. The order backlog for sheetfed presses rose by 57 per cent to 213 million euros. The order backlog for web presses showed a sharp rise of 36 per cent to total 1281 million euros. On 31 December 2005 8832 people were employed by MAN Roland (core workforce) compared to 9026 in the previous year.
In the 2005 fiscal year MAN Roland increased its operating results by 62 million euros to total 65 million euros. However the sheetfed press results were still burdened by structural modifications in 2005, and the measures implemented will only be fully effective in the coming years. The high earning power of the web press business area continued. Here MAN Roland had an operating result of 59 (previous year 44) million euros, whereby the return on sales of 6.7 per cent was once again extremely good in view of the difficult situation in the industry and the prevailing price pressure
