Dobruška / Twelve days after the announcement of the acquisition by the German company KBA, the new KBA-Grafitec summoned its foreign distributors to a joint meeting in Dobruška. Over two days, from March 22 to 23, intense discussions on international distribution and service for printing machines manufactured by KBA‑Grafitec took place.

It was clear that KBA, as the new owner of Grafitec, took the setting of specific steps leading to the entry into Grafitec very seriously and considered coordination of distribution policy as a priority task, which is a basic condition for fulfilment of the sales plans for this year. Most foreign Grafitec distributors operating on European and non-European markets accepted the invitation. A week before the meeting in Dobruška, there was a coordination meeting between KBA and key Grafitec America dealers at the headquarters of KBA NORTH AMERICA in Williston, Vermont.

The importance of the event was underlined by the participation of KBA representatives. Four regional sales directors attended, under the leadership of the Executive Vice-president for Sales and Controlling, Andreas Moessner. At these meetings Jens Junker, the new CEO, and Jan Korenc, Sales and Marketing Director, represented Grafitec. They also gave a short presentation at the start of each day. Jens Junker explained to the commercial representatives the reasons, objectives and plans of the acquisition. Andreas Moesner presented KBA in detail, including the product portfolio, and outlined the objectives of KBA in relation to the rebranding and change in design for the Grafitec printing machines. Jan Korenc then informed the distributors on the planned participation of KBA-GRAFITEC at the EmbaxPrint 2005 exhibition. There, for the first time, customers will have the possibility of seeing KBA-GRAFITEC as a fully fledged member of the KBA group, including also small-format printing machines of the parent company. In the afternoons of both days there were individual meetings between distributors and representatives of KBA and Grafitec. The objective was to verify current sales channels, establish possibilities for development, continue with successful distributors and replace those without acceptable sales results with KBA distributors.

Despite the fact that dealers came with a certain amount of apprehension about the new sales system and whether they would find a place within it, most of them went away with the assurance that they are expected to continue and to become part of an effective sales and service organisation for KBA-GRAFITEC printing machines. "We realised that a change like the entry of a new owner could cause distributors to have questions and expectations that could be reflected in sales results. That's why we tried to meet with them as early as possible and explain our expectations and objectives, so that they could continue in their activities and be able to precisely and clearly inform the customers on their individual markets", explained Jens Junker in conclusion.