KBA-Grafitec in close cooperation with its local dealer VIP Polygraphic materials has supplied Belarus with the first KBA Rapida 75-5 printing press. The owner of the press is the Akvarel Promkomplex company from Minsk. The Akvarel printshop held an Open Day on 10th November attended by around fifty guests.

KBA-Grafitec, a member of the multi-national KBA group, took over the direct responsibility for sales and service of the entire KBA sheet-fed printing press lines on the Slovak market, effective immediately. This definitely brings to the end the era of dealer representation of the KBA in Slovakia.

KBA North America in Dallas, Texas, has announced that 4D Printing, Inc., a general commercial printer located in Conyers, Ga., quickly took delivery and began production on its KBA Rapida 75 23 x 29-inch six-color plus coater press after it made its North American debut at the KBA booth on the show floor at PRINT 09 in Chicago in September 2009.

Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) and its Russian subsidiary KBA RUS were represented with a 200 m² stand at the recent Polygraphinter fair in Moscow, where the exhibition centrepiece was a five-colour Rapida 75 press in a coater configuration for inline finishing. KBA was thus one of the few companies to cast away the worries of the economic recession and offer the local trade public live demonstrations of modern press technology.

Some 40 print experts from companies around the Czech Republic came over to KBA in Radebeul on 18th September to pick up information on the latest developments in sheetfed offset. Their group comprised representatives of long-standing KBA users, for example Model Obaly from Opava and Vychodoceska Tiskarna from Pardubice, Performa users such as Tiskarna K & B from Most, and a number of potential new customers who have to date been printing on presses from other manufacturers.

KBA Grafitec continues to successfully supply printing presses to the Polish market. The latest installation is the KBA Rapida 75 with a configuration of four printing units and a varnishing tower operating in the Zamość Attyla company.

For more than two years now the US print media market has suffered the impact of the financial, economic and mortgage meltdown. The persistent downturn since 2007 was reflected in attendance figures and the number of contracts signed at PRINT 09 from 11 to 16 September at McCormick Place in Chicago. Among visitors from abroad it was the exhibitors who predominated, while most of the US nationals at the show were from Illinois, Indiana and adjoining states. Total attendance was well below the disappointing figure for PRINT 05. PRINT is held once every four years, with GraphExpo taking place at the same venue in the intervening years. In view of the high costs involved it is not surprising that for some time now exhibitors have been advocating a change in schedule to a two-year cycle, with the fairs being held alternately.

Over the years, KBA has built up a reputation as the manufacturer of choice for innovative high-tech printing technology incorporating ultimate levels of automation. Although the KBA Rapida 75 takes over many technically refined solutions from the 3B format class, KBA pursues a slightly different strategy on the half-format market. The extremely compact press has been engineered above all for those print companies looking for a high-performance, all-round means of production with a small footprint and low energy consumption at an affordable price.

Länggass Druck AG in Bern has once again produced the best trainee printers. Honouring the final celebrations held on 24th June 2009, Marc Zürcher accepted the much sought after Cicero prize awarded by Viscom - the Swiss Association for Visual Communication - for the best final tests held in the Canton of Bern.

Despite the global financial and economic crisis, which has by all means also had its impact in the Far East, this year's China Print trade fair in Beijing proved an outstanding success for KBA. The 900 m² KBA stand was the largest which has ever been booked for an exhibition in China and was in many details reminiscent of drupa 2008. The KBA brand name was thus instantly recognisable to the over 70,000 fair visitors, and correspondingly large audiences flocked to regular live demonstrations. The presses on show were a five-colour Rapida 75, a Rapida 105 with five printing units, coater and extended delivery, and a four-colour version of the high-tech medium-format Rapida 106. The latter was the only representative of the “18,000 generation” at the fair and thus naturally a major focus of interest for the crowds. Alongside, the Asian market launch of the new KBA Rapida 75, which was first unveiled at drupa last year, was a further glittering highlight.

KBA Russia has held a presentation of the Rapida 75 printing press which was installed in a research laboratory at the Moscow State University of Graphic Arts. The printing press was presented at the press conference by the MSPU Director, Alexandr Maksimovič Cyganenko, a member of the KBA Board of Directors, Ralf Sammeck, Vice President for Sales of KBA Radebeul, Sven Strzelczyk, General Manager KBA Russia, Jurij Ukolov and also Pavel Černý, Head of International Sales of KBA-Grafitec where the Rapida 75 model is manufactured.

China Print, the premier print media trade fair in Asia this year, has got off to a flying start, with KBA booking sales soon after the doors opened on 12 May. Alongside five-colour coater versions of the Rapida 75 and Rapida 105, KBA’s 900m² (9,700ft²) stand features the first high-end Rapida 106 four-colour B1 (41in) press to be exhibited in China. The advanced technology demonstrated and the scale of its presence reflects KBA’s confidence in the Chinese market.

Following slack demand in the final quarter of 2008, the first quarter brought little relief to the printing press sector. The group order intake for Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) totalled €219.5m, a drop of 40.7% from the prior-year figure of €370.3m. However, this was better than the industry average, largely thanks to KBA’s broad product range addressing both volume and niche markets. While orders for web and special presses were down 28.7% at €142.2m (2008: €199.3m), the knock-on effects of the financial and economic crisis caused demand for sheetfed presses to shrink by more than half to €77.3m (2008: €171m).

Despite the economic crisis attendance was high at the Poligrafia trade fair from 21 to 24 April in Poznan, Poland. The focus of attention was a six-colour B2 (29in) KBA Rapida 75 – the only sheetfed offset press demonstrated at the fair and evidence of the strong presence that KBA and its local subsidiaries, Warsaw-based KBA-Polska and KBA-Grafitec in the Czech Republic, have established in the Polish market.

German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) published its 2008 financial statements on 30 April following preliminary disclosures on 26 March.

At this year's China Print, to be held in Beijing from 12th to 16th May, Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) and its Chinese subsidiaries KBA Printing Machinery Shanghai Co. Ltd. and KBA (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd. will be presenting sheetfed offset high-tech for the most varied production demands on a stand covering almost 900 m² (Hall E1, Stand 016).

KBA North America in Williston, Vermont, and Dallas, Texas, announces that MOSAIC, a carbon neutral printing company specializing in commercial, digital, UV and waterless printing, has installed the first KBA Rapida 75 five-color 29-inch sheetfed press plus aqueous coater in the U.S. at its Cheverly, Maryland location. The firm took possession of the press in January 2009.

In November of last year, a new Rapida 75 was installed in the Poznan printshop, Atol. The owner of the company, Piotr Kaczmarek, decided to invest with the arrival of the first signs of the economic crisis. “This is a press for the tough times ahead,” explained Mr Kaczmarek.

Poligrafia 2009 will be opening its doors to visitors in Poznań, Poland from 21st to 24th April. The Koenig & Bauer group (KBA) will be attending this biennial gathering of the printing trade in the accustomed manner with a joint stand (Hall 5, Stand 27) of its Polish and Czech subsidiaries KBA-Polska Sp. z o.o. from Warsaw and KBA-Grafitec s.r.o. from Dobruška.

Italy, along with Germany, the UK and France, is one of the four biggest print markets in Europe and has a reputation for quality books and catalogues that extends far beyond its frontiers. Until just a few years ago it was KBA’s biggest market for offset litho presses, ahead of Germany and the USA. KBA’s Compacta presses have also made it a prominent player in the Italian commercial web press market. These have recently been joined by some big press lines for leading newspaper publishers.

German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) has issued preliminary figures for 2008 following the supervisory board’s annual audit meeting. The move is an interim measure prompted by the postponement of the financial statements two weeks ago from 27 March to 30 April in the wake of the global economic crisis, which has impacted on the export-focused press engineering industry with unprecedented and increasing severity, necessitating a renewed realignment of group activities.

Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann (57), president and CEO of German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) since 2003, has resigned with immediate effect from all offices within the group. Mr Bolza-Schünemann announced his decision at the March meeting of the company’s supervisory board, citing the substantial losses incurred by the sheetfed division in Radebeul near Dresden last year. His brother Claus (53) is now the sole remaining representative of the founding family on the KBA board.

In the past, three departments at the KBA sheetfed offset facility in Radebeul were focussed on the process technology aspects of printing: the customer centre, the training centre and the test printing plant. This organisation meant keeping available considerable parallel press capacities, as just one of a number of negatives. The numerous interfaces and the lack of a consistent standardisation concept impeded many decision processes.

The first Rapida 75 in Germany came on stream in Berlin last September at Druckerei Elsholz, a family-run business with just five employees and 300m² (3,230ft²) of production floor space. The company’s customer base includes a high proportion of longstanding regulars, among them advertising agencies, banks, craftsmen and tradesmen. With the Rapida 75 Elsholz has expanded from two-colour to four-colour B2.

Undeterred by the current economic crisis, which has also placed great challenges on the doorsteps of export-oriented printing press manufac-turers, Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) and its local subsidiary KBA-Italia are planning a generous presence at this year's Grafitalia fair in Milan from 24th to 28th March – as an unambiguous expression of their continued strong commitment to the important Italian market and their particularly numerous customers in “Bella Italia”. Visitors to KBA's 600 m² exhibition stand in Hall 9 (Stand B30 D31) are to be tempted with two latest-generation sheetfed offset presses and a presentation of integrated workflow solutions.

New B2 KBA Replaces Heidelberg at Connemara Commercial House

Defying the financial meltdown, early last December Peter Knappertsbusch, a native of Cologne, joined forces with Ibrahim Tastan and Martin Ronneberger to launch Printion – the fifth print provider in Radebeul (near Dresden) – with a brand-new Rapida 75 from KBA. Keying the name Printion into a search engine will turn up virtually nothing but the address: it takes a lot more clicks to find the corporate website (www.karnevalsdruckerei.de) with details of its portfolio.

KBA-Grafitec held a press conference in the Courtyard of the Marriott Prague Flora Hotel on 6th February where the company presented their results for 2008 and their forecast for 2009.

Model Holding, one of the leading manufacturers of packaging in Europe, employs Rapida technology at its Czech production plants. The most recent addition, the third Rapida 105 (formerly Rapida 105 universal) in succession, came on stream last October in Hostinné.

With the approval of the supervisory board, on 6 February 2009 Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann (56), president and CEO of German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), will hand his financial remit to Helge Hansen (61), a respected banker and business economist. Hansen, who was appointed managing director of Metronic AG (now KBA-Metronic) in July 2003, successfully restructured the company following its acquisition by KBA in 2004.

For sheetfed printers keen to raise their market profile with sophisti-cated, value added inline and offline coating effects, KBA has brought out a handy guide to the production processes involved in creating and reliably reproducing such effects. The guide, “Coating Sample Book – Technology by KBA”, contains a stunning assortment of coat-ing effects complete with detailed instructions on how to achieve them, the press configurations required and the materials used. Weighing in at over one kilogram (2¼lbs), this is a unique and invalu-able aid.

Camis Ambalaj Sanayii is one of the biggest packaging printers in Turkey, with an annual output of 25,000 tonnes of processed board. Following the installation of two five-colour large-format coater presses from another German manufacturer, last year Camis placed an order for a Rapida 142 six-colour coater press with double extended delivery plus board and UV printing capabilities. Since the press mainly prints 230gsm (115lb Bristol) board and microflute it is mounted on a 630mm (24.75in) plinth.

Tradition and innovation – these are the twin planks in the corporate philosophy of Austrian printer Gutenberg Werbering in Linz. The company first came into contact with KBA twenty years ago and has since become a staunch Rapida user. The latest in a string of KBA press lines at this dynamic print enterprise is a Rapida 105 five-colour coater press.

With effect from 1 January 2009, Russian sales of all the small-format and half-size presses built by KBA-Grafitec in Dobruska will be handled by KBA RUS, which will thus be responsible for KBA’s entire range of sheetfed and web presses. Customers in Russia will benefit from having a single contact for all KBA products and services, and from KBA RUS’s direct collaboration with KBA’s German and Czech production plants. The contract with St Petersburg-based Ipris, the current dealer for Performa presses, has been terminated by mutual agreement.