Germany-based Mühlbauer Group has announced its results for the third quarter of 2007, and has revealed that order income increased by 27.1%.

The firm says its sales were boosted in the quarter – achieving a volume of 41.5 million euros, or a growth of 11.5% – driven largely by an increase in sales in its SmartID and smart label businesses.

The company reports that third quarter EBIT did not reach the year-on-year level of 8.6 million euros due to higher operational costs. However, it says, “at 5.8 million euros, a continual upwards trend over the rest of the year is discernible”.

Mühlbauer says the order upswing has carried on into the third quarter. “Order income climbed to 46.9 million euros, thus exceeding the year-on-year value by 27.1%,” says the company. “In so doing, Mühlbauer benefited particularly strongly from the substantial increase of orders in the SmartID area. Due to the strong demand for technology solutions for the production of ePassports and EMV bank cards, this area outperformed the previous year’s quarter by 55.7%, with its order income of 33.0 million euros. In turn, this compensated for weak demand in semiconductor-related products.

The company adds: “The continuation of the plans of many states and public authorities to introduce new security-oriented ID systems in smart card and passport formats is of particular significance to the further development of the Mühlbauer Group.”