By: E&P Staff Germany's MAN AG recently reported that its Printing Systems Division, parent of MAN Roland Inc., based in Westmont, Ill., raised its operating profits to $3.9 million in 2004, representing a $38 million gain over the previous year.
MAN AG said the year-end figures show the division "achieved an operating turnaround," with the "highly profitable web-fed sector and the sheetfed presses, which were able to reduce their losses," making equal contributions to performance.
Year to year, press orders rose 20%, to almost $2.5 million in 2004. Sales rose 7%, exceeding $2.1 million last year.
"We already have turned the corner," said MAN Roland Inc. CEO Yves Rogivue, adding that the company will continue driving costs out of manufacturing.
According to MAN, the division will benefit from a high backlog of web press orders and a series of additional major orders in the segment, as well as from cost-reduction measures and steps taken to streamline the sheetfed facilities in Offenbach. "The sheetfed sector is expected to break even in 2005," MAN said in a statement.
MAN also cited the division as a company leader in research and development.
MAN AG share prices on the more than doubled over the past two years. Compared with the a 7% rise in the Deutsche Aktienindex in 2004, MAN's per-share price rose 18%. For the first two months of 2005, the share price climbed from below 30 euros to above 35 euros.
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