WUZBURG, GERMANY—  Koenig & Bauer has reported that, its preliminary group EBIT for 2022 has exceeded its own forecast, as well as market expectations. Koenig & Bauer said that despite a challenging environment by supply chain constraints and an associated increase in material and energy costs, which it was not possible to pass on to customers in full, the EBIT of €22m exceeded the company’s own forecast of €15-20m. It was additionally driven by the accelerated implementation of the P24x efficiency improvement programme, the company said. At €1.186bn, group revenue reached the upper end of the projected range of €1.16bn to €1.19bn. Revenue in the Sheetfed segment climbed from €642.4m to €672m, meaning that it is still on a profitable growth trajectory. Order intake amounted to €1.3bn at the end of 2022 (previous year: €1.29bn), therefore meeting expectations. The order backlog was valued at around €950m at the end of 2022.