Heidelberg boosts packaging orders by 8% in the second quarter with first manroland revenues

Packaging and lifecycle services drive quarterly growth

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG) has begun to see the tangible financial impact of its recent strategic acquisitions. During the second quarter of its FY2026/27, the German manufacturer reported a total order intake of €604 million, a 9.6% increase compared to the €551 million recorded in the same period last year. The core driver of this growth was the Print & Packaging Equipment segment, which saw its orders rise by approximately 8.8% year-on-year, confirming the industry's sustained shift toward high-volume packaging production despite broader macroeconomic uncertainties.

The most anticipated metric of the November 12 report was the performance of the newly integrated manroland sheetfed lifecycle and service business. According to CEO Jürgen Otto, the integration is proceeding exactly as planned and has already generated its first concrete orders and revenues during the quarter. This operation provides HEIDELBERG with direct access to a global pool of over 3,000 new customers across 35 markets, supported by approximately 600 transferred employees. The cross-selling potential is already materializing, as evidenced by recent investments from traditional manroland clients, such as Brazilian packaging specialist Macron, opting for HEIDELBERG's Speedmaster technology.

Boardmaster secures major footprint in the Middle East

Beyond the sheetfed offset consolidation, HEIDELBERG's push into high-productivity web-to-print packaging is gaining serious industrial traction. The company confirmed the commissioning of two Boardmaster systems at UFlex ASEPTO's new production site in Egypt. This installation is the technological centerpiece of a greenfield investment exceeding $120 million, designed to serve the global aseptic packaging market.

Dr. David Schmedding, Chief Technology & Sales Officer, highlighted that these two systems will add an annual capacity of 12 billion packs to ASEPTO's operations, pushing their combined global capacity to 24 billion. The Egyptian deployment proves that the Boardmaster platform is successfully penetrating the top tier of the liquid packaging and folding carton sectors, a space where extreme reliability and continuous output are non-negotiable.

With an order backlog now standing at €839 million, HEIDELBERG has secured improved visibility for the second half of the 2026/27 financial year. The strategic pivot is clear: by absorbing manroland's service network and deploying industrial-scale solutions like the Boardmaster, the company is systematically reducing its exposure to the volatile commercial printing market and anchoring its future in the resilient, high-volume packaging ecosystem.