Koenig & Bauer AG, Würzburg (“Koenig & Bauer,” WKN: 719350 / ISIN: DE0007193500), a globally leading printing press manufacturer, held its 100th Annual General Meeting one 4 June 2025, at the Vogel Convention Center (VCC) in Würzburg Germany. Under the motto ‘ChanGe and ChanCe’, the meeting marked a significant generational change in the Executive Board and a consistent focus on go-to-market strategies and profitability. As in the previous year, around 70 per cent of the company’s share capital was represented at the physical event, demonstrating the great interest and commitment of shareholders to Koenig & Bauer.
Leadership change at the top – a well-considered step for continuity and foresight
A key highlight of the Annual General Meeting was the official handover of leadership at the top of the Executive Board: Dr Stephen Kimmich succeeds Dr Andreas Pleßke as CEO, effective from the end of today’s meeting. Dr Pleßke will assume special responsibilities within the Group until his scheduled retirement on 31 December 2025. This smooth transition underlines the continuity and foresight in the company’s leadership.
The Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Professor Dr-Ing Raimund Klinkner, explained the company’s strategic and organisational realignment. He congratulated Dr Stephen Kimmich on taking over as Chairman of the Executive Board: “Today’s handover marks the beginning of a new era for Koenig & Bauer – a special moment for our company.” He thanked Dr Pleßke, who, with prudence and foresight, enabled a smooth handover, adding: “It is impressive how seamlessly this transition has been achieved without our ship losing momentum – a testament to your joint leadership strength in challenging times.” At the same time, he thanked Michael Ulverich, Christoph Müller, and Ralf Sammeck for their long-standing dedication and valuable contributions, and welcomed Dr Alexander Blum as the new CFO from 1 July 2025, adding: “With him, Koenig & Bauer gains a distinguished leader for the next stage of our transformation.”
A company in transition: strategic realignment and future prospects
In his speech, the Chairman of the Executive Board, Dr Andreas Pleßke, looked back on a challenging financial year in 2024. He stated: “The world has become more hostile to free trade and more unpredictable, which brings new challenges given an export ratio of around 87 per cent.” Despite these circumstances, important successes were achieved with the ‘Spotlight’ focus programme and the ‘Exceeding Print’ corporate strategy, thus sustainably strengthening the basis for profitable growth.
Furthermore, Dr Pleßke highlighted the Group’s strategic realignment, which is now even closer to the market and customers with two segments. He also underlined the company’s role with the words: “Koenig & Bauer is not just an established machine builder and metal processor – it’s also a European company in the world of high-tech printing presses and digital applications with start-up qualities”. He also referred to the successful completion of the proof of concept for a dry coating system for battery cells in cooperation with Volkswagen subsidiary PowerCo SE the previous day.
In his speech, the new Chairman of the Executive Board, Dr Stephen Kimmich, first addressed the business development for 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, highlighting: “Despite the challenging market conditions, we managed to achieve the target ratio of net working capital of a maximum of 25% of annual revenue for the first time.” He then categorised the past 25 years of the company’s history into different phases. For the upcoming ‘performance phase’, which will continue to be characterised by volatility, he outlined five strategic priorities: a clear focus on ‘go-to-market’, strengthening the company’s competitiveness and resilience, expanding intelligence through AI initiatives, and consistently developing the customer-first approach.
Dr Stephen Kimmich concluded his speech with a clear statement on taking office: “The 100th Annual General Meeting marks a milestone – and a new chapter. I am ready for it.”
Important resolutions and voting results of the Annual General Meeting
The shareholders elected Karoline Kalb to the committee as the successor to Professor Dr-Ing Gisela Lanza. Professor Lanza will leave the committee on 4 June 2025 and was not available for re-election. Professor Dr-Ing Raimund Klinkner acknowledged Professor Lanza’s work, especially for her commitment to the strategy committee and for her perspective. In addition to the successful election to the Supervisory Board, seven other agenda items required shareholder resolutions, including the approval of the remuneration report and the confirmation of the remuneration of the Supervisory Board members. Furthermore, the authorisation to hold a virtual Annual General Meeting was put to the vote. These agenda items, as well as the election of PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor and Group auditor and the discharge of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board, were approved by a large majority.
Focus on AI: company demonstrates innovative applications and also relies on artificial intelligence as a future driver
The Annual General Meeting offered a comprehensive live insight into Koenig & Bauer’s innovative strength. The event began with an impressive video featuring an AI-generated avatar of Dr Andreas Pleßke, who delivered statements on the company’s strategy. This short video highlighted the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Koenig & Bauer, which is a key component running through all functions and organisational units. With AI, the company not only optimises its internal processes but also actively shapes the future of printing and packaging.
Matching this thematic introduction, the attending shareholders were able to directly inform themselves about the future-oriented product portfolio in the ‘showroom’. Here, Koenig & Bauer presented impressive connected packaging applications from Koenig & Bauer Kyana GmbH. These solutions underscore the company’s deep commitment to AI and impressively demonstrated how consumers can achieve a seamless and interactive user experience by simply pointing their smartphone camera at the packaging – from the purchasing decision and commissioning to reordering consumables.
The highlight of this technology is its simplicity: Only the print data of the existing packaging needs to be uploaded and linked with diverse, up-to-date information. This generates dynamic digital content directly on smartphones, while the physical packaging in the market remains unchanged. This approach is therefore literally ‘on demand’ and highly efficient, as no physical packaging changes are necessary.
Koenig & Bauer sees AI as an essential component for a digital, connected, and sustainable printing world and is driving this development forward through strategic partnerships with, among others, Google and Siemens.
