Agfa’s Digital Print & Chemical substances operation overtook Radiology final 12 months to turn out to be its largest division – with inkjet ink gross sales up 14%, boosted by the conversion of former Inca clients.
Group gross sales on the Belgium-headquartered producer rose by 3.2% final 12 months, excluding foreign money results, to €1.15bn (£983m).
Adjusted EBITDA jumped by 52% to €76m.
The underside line loss was €101m (2022 loss: €223m) after expenses together with restructuring and for discontinued operations.
Income at Digital Print & Chemical substances grew by 12% to €409m. Adjusted EBITDA elevated greater than five-fold to €18.6m, with margins bettering from 0.9% to 4.6%.
Radiology Options gross sales slipped by 4.5% to €425m; whereas Healthcare IT gross sales had been up 4.9% at €249m.
Gross sales at Contractor Operations and Providers – the division that has manufacturing and provide agreements for movie and chemical compounds with spun-off offset enterprise ECO3 – had been flat at €68m. Its adjusted EBITDA margin was 3.9%.
Agfa stated that, inside Digital Print & Chemical substances, outcomes had been pushed by “development engines” Digital Printing Options and Inexperienced Hydrogen Options, together with basic value enhance actions,
Its Digital Printing Options wing posted worthwhile development regardless of a “subdued gear funding local weather”.
The enterprise benefited from increased ink gross sales “throughout all segments” in addition to its ongoing push to transform Inca’s buyer base to Agfa’s ink units.
Agfa had beforehand in contrast the ink utilization on its Tauro UHS wide-format printers operating at 600sqm/hour as being round 3,000 litres per 12 months; whereas an Inca Onset would eat double that quantity at greater than 6,000 litres per 12 months if operating at 1,400sqm/hr.
A significant product launch for 2024 would be the first shipments of the SpeedSet B1 single-pass inkjet press – with The Delta Group simply introduced because the world’s first SpeedSet beta buyer and a second “coming quickly”.
Printweek understands {that a} SpeedSet could be more likely to eat round €1m-worth of ink per 12 months.
At subsequent week’s Fespa Agfa will present its new Anapurna H3200 higher-speed printer, and a 5m roll-to-roll machine by way of its recent partnership with EFI.
The agency can also be planning to launch a brand new mid-range printer on the present alongside a rebrand of its inkjet portfolio.
Agfa stated it anticipated the worldwide take care of EFI to herald €15m-€20m of additional gross sales between mid-2024 and mid-2025; after which in following years €30m-€40m of additional gross sales.
EFI will add Agfa’s high-end hybrid printers to its product vary as a part of the deal.
Nevertheless, based mostly on the present Drupa floorplan Agfa is not going to be exhibiting at Drupa. ECO3 shall be on the present, in Corridor 5.
Commenting on the outcomes, Agfa president and CEO Pascal Juéry stated: “In 2023 all our development engines carried out very nicely, powering the profitability of the group.
“We’ve got made robust progress in all of them, with the launch of our HealthCare IT cloud and internet streaming actions, our strategic partnership with EFI and an unprecedented variety of revolutionary product introductions, together with our SpeedSet single-pass packaging printer.
“Moreover, our Zirfon membrane enterprise grew exponentially and began to contribute to our profitability in the midst of 2023. This validates the repositioning of the Group in these future-oriented actions.”
He stated the “tangible transformation of Agfa was in full swing… that’s not executed in two years, it takes a little bit of time.”
Concerning the outlook for 2024, Agfa stated it anticipated to realize vital high line and profitability development at Digital Print & Chemical substances, pushed by Digital Print Options and Inexperienced Hydrogen Options.
Agfa’s share value had descended to a brand new 52-week low of €0.98 on the finish of final week, however jumped by greater than 15% following the outcomes announcement and was at €1.24 on the time of writing (52-week excessive: €2.94).