Press maker Koenig & Bauer has reported an “extraordinary” order intake at DRUPA and during the days following.

Chief financial officer Stephen Kimmich says new orders were worth 250 million Euros (A$408 million), 200 million Euros (A$326.3 million) of them legally binding. He said the new orders were placed “at and outside of DRUPA.

“The great interest and the remarkable sales successes show that we have once again lived up to our claim of developing pioneering technologies for the printing industry for over 200 years,” he said.

The outcome has prompted confirmation of its forecast of achieving an operating EBIT margin and sales development “at the previous year’s stable level” for the current financial year.

Board member Ralf Sammick said it was clear “after 11 days on the Koenig & Bauer stand” that DRUPA was a “real” show.

“The many exciting technical discussions with customers and experts from the industry make up the very special atmosphere at this trade fair,” he said.

The company says digital innovations generated plenty of enthusiasm among visitors, along with the “world’s fastest” medium-format sheetfed offset press. K&B also reported great interest in its end-to-end packaging production solutions, and in daily demonstrations and panel discussions on packaging workflow, digitalisation, commercial, CI flexo and digital printing.

Chief executive Andreas Pleßke – who is also chairman of the DRUPA committee – said after eight years, both exhibitors and visitors came the show with a great deal of commitment and enthusiasm. “You can see how profoundly the entire industry has changed in recent years. Topics such as sustainability and digitalisation are key issues that visitors are increasingly demanding to be addressed and solutions found.”

The company’s myKyana portal and Kyana Assist AI chatbot caused “quite a stir” among visitors, enabling customers to interact directly and receive direct support without waiting times.

“We showed how the combination of traditional printing and state-of-the-art AI and data-based technologies is shaping the future of the printing industry,” digitalisation vice president Sandra Wagner said.

DRUPA order intake “exceeded targets”, especially in sheetfed offset, with most orders coming from China, Spain and Brazil, as well as the DACH region, other countries in Central Europe, Asia and North and South America.

Pictured: Live shows were a big attention-getter