First-quarter sales at Agfa Graphics are down year-on-year, but underlying trends are good, especially in the inkjet segment, following successful wide-format printer launches.

The group’s latest results show that revenue fell 1.8% from $357m in Q1 2014 to $351m in Q1 2015 but Agfa-Gevaert Group president and chief executive Christian Reinaudo said this would have been down by 10% if it was not for favourable currency markets.

Agfa reported a 4.9% increase in recurring EBITDA, from $22.3m to $23.4m, and a 9.5% increase in recurring EBIT, from $13.76m to $15.1m, since Q1 of 2014. Agfa Graphics’ gross profit margin was 29.3% of revenue, an improvement on Q1 of 2014, when it was 27.5%.

The analogue side of its business continues to “decline strongly” and the digital CTP business suffered from competitive pressure, Agfa said. However it added “the inkjet segment reported strong top line growth”.

During a conference call presentation Reinaudo said: “Graphics is rather sensitive to the GDP of the market in which we are operating and therefore unless we see the evidence of the recovery of the growth of which we hope, the numbers in terms of top line will be under pressure.” However the company is continuing to invest in R&D and released two new inkjet machines in the first three months of this year.

The Jeti Tauro and Jeti Miro printers target the mid and higher-end segment of the sign and display market and had their European debut at Fespa.

Agfa has also launched the Acorta automatic cutting and finished plotter, Asanti 2.0 wide-format workflow software, new Duratex inkjet media and a range of UV-curable inks.