The German press and post-press manufacturer – Koenig & Bauer has announced details of its ‘Performance 2024’ that aims at efficiency and future profitability programme, likely to cost around €50m but expected to deliver annualised cost savings of more than €100m.
“We have made far-reaching decisions for Koenig & Bauer, made necessary by negative global economic developments in tandem with ever-changing customer needs and demands,” stated President and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann as he disclosed further that the initiative would also reorganise its supply chain, improve productivity through new processes, pool some tasks through shared services and change its sales and service structure. Not only that, the group also plans to relocate and realign some of its production and assembly facilities but maintaining real investment in Research & Development (R&D) that would most especially focus on packaging markets and specialist print areas, including digital printing. “The investments in digital print and direct post-printing on corrugated board are being pursued with vigour, as is the joint venture with the Durst Group; so too are new developments for security printing in the pipeline,” the firm emphasised.
Unfortunately, around 900 positions will go as a result of the cost saving and realignment measures. “They are also associated with painful cuts for the workforce. These difficult and challenging steps were not easy to take, but they are imperative to safeguarding the long-term future of our 203-year-old company,” stated Claus Bolza-Schünemann.
It is however not surprising that the company gave kudos to representatives around the world that have push the frontier of successes recorded in global sales and service orders emphasising K&B’s global and decentralised service abilities as “a major asset in COVID-19 times limiting international travels”.
