The Dutch manufacturer posted a €15.3m (A$28.7m) profit for the three months to the end of February, defying market expectations of an €8m (A$15m) loss.

Chief executive Rokus van Iperen (pictured) described the performance as “encouraging” and said the company had been able to mitigate the impact of the economic downturn.

He added: “Océ has strengthened its competitive position in key segments of business services, display graphics, colour continuous feed printing and cut-sheet production printing.”

Total revenues for the quarter fell 6.3% to €658m (A$1.23bn) – a fall mitigated by an increase in sales of colour machines, led by its flagship JetStream range, which now account for 27% of the group’s revenue.

Iperen said the company had made “good progress” in the group’s cost reduction programme.

“We are weathering the storm to a certain extent,” he said.

Océ expects to save around €80m this year following the loss of 1253 employees across the group over the last 12 months.

It announced today that a further 250 positions were to be cut at its manufacturing facility in Poing, Germany.

“We have not reached the most difficult marketing conditions yet,” Iperen said. “We are continuing to implement our cost reduction programme. We have to anticipate a further decline of the economy and our market.”

Iperen added that customers were delaying investment decisions and facing difficulties getting credit. He claimed the coming year would be a more difficult than 2008.

Océ’s shares rose over 30% to over €3 in morning trading.

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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