Rapida press helps maintain carton print growth

Rose City Printing and Packaging, a folding carton printer Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, has bought a KBA Rapida 105 41in six-colour sheetfed press with coater.

The KBA Rapida 105 41in press that will be installed at Rose City Printing and Packaging features a claimed speed of 18,000 sheets per hour, board package up to 48 point, direct drive technology, fully-automatic non-stop delivery, de-clutching for all units, universal grippers requiring no adjustments between any substrate thickness, fully-automatic coater plate changing, an eco-friendly rating of being emission-tested.

The press also has a computer-controlled air setting with memory and it will provide Rose City with a larger sheet size and image area than the company's older 40in press from a different manufacturer, which is being replaced.

The firm began installation of the press at its new Gresham, Oregon facility in January and expects the press to start production in March 2010.

Steve Lobis, Rose City's co-owner, vice president, and general manager, said: 'The KBA press is a key ingredient to maintaining our substantial growth and leadership in the market.

It will be the centrepiece of our newly-opened Gresham facility where we will be producing a mix of speciality packaging for the 40in market for food and beverage customers.

Lobis admitted that the company assessed other press manufacturers before buying from KBA.

Lobis explained: 'We felt that KBA made the best fit for our packaging production and had the highest reputation in the packaging sector.

Its press really stood out above and beyond the rest.

In addition, Lobis said the Rapida's ability to print thicker substrates than other presses, its reputation for durability, its ability to go from paper to board with no manual changes, and the local service and an increasing 40in installation base in the Portland region, provided further reasons for opting for KBA.

For most of the past decade, Rose City Printing and Packaging has maintained a steady double-digit sales trajectory and Lobis added: 'For the last eight years we've posted a 15 per cent - 20 per cent sales growth each year.

But this year will be our most successful year.

We will post a 30 per cent - 35 per cent sales growth in 2010.

He commented: 'We outshine our competitors in responsiveness, turn-around times, and customer service.

Our employees have a 30-minute mandate to respond to our customers.

That's what differentiates us from our competition.

We provide our employees with training and industry knowledge to allow them to become a resource for our customers.

If a customer has a question about their graphics, a typical print firm will get back to them in a few hours or a few days.

Our philosophy is to provide a smooth, fast response.

For example, a customer might send out design requests to 10 different printers for a job and the deadline is one to two weeks but we get the design back to them the next day and we'll have won the job and have it being produced before the other printers even send back their proposals.

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