Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 15 April 2005
KBA Integrates Grafitec - Re-Launch For
Presses
Four weeks after agreeing to purchase Grafitec, the manufacturer of Polly multicolour SRA2 and B2 presses, KBA has virtually completed the company's integration in to its sheetfed operations.
Four weeks after agreeing to purchase Grafitec, a Czech specialist manufacturer of Polly multicolour SRA2 and B2 presses, KBA has virtually completed the company's integration in to its sheetfed operations Now known as KBA-Grafitec s.r.o, the 400-employee subsidiary is now being embedded in the KBA group's global organisation
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 9 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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KBA-Grafitec will make its first appearance as a KBA enterprise at the Poligrafia exhibition from April 19-22 in Poznan (Poland), followed by a bigger showing, on its home terrain, at Embax Print in Brno from May 17 - 20.
Alongside a Performa 74 press and a Performa 66 (formerly known as Polly machines) press, demonstrations on the KBA-Grafitec stand at Embax will include a KBA Genius 52 and a 46 Karat presses.
KBA-Grafitec will be headed by chief executive officer Jens Junker, who is the ex-managing director of Karat Digital Press and, more recently, he was sales director at KBA Radebeul.
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Grafitec production manager Lubos Moravec has been appointed chief operating officer and Jan Korenc remains as vice president for sales and service.
Grafitec's Polly presses have been renamed and their appearance aligned with that of KBA's existing range of SRA3 to VLF presses.
The SRA2 model, which is a popular choice in eastern Europe, Turkey and the Americas, and that is also selling well in western Europe (particularly in Germany and Spain), has been renamed the KBA Performa 66 and is available in two-colour to five-colour versions.
They have a control console for the remote adjustment of basic functions (with provision for a CIP4 link) and the option of a perfector, or dampener coater plus dryer in the delivery.
Targeted at small printshops, its 485mm x 660mm (19" x 26") sheet size fills the slot between KBA's own small-format presses - the SRA3 46 Karat and B3 Genius 52 - and its half-format presses, said the company.
The 520mm x 740mm (20.5" x 29") Polly Prestige 74, launched at Drupa 2004, is now called the KBA Performa 74.
It addresses the B2 commercial market and is a budget-priced alternative to KBA's high-end Rapida 74, Rapida 74 G (Gravuflow) and DI offset 74 Karat.
The Performa 74 has a maximum rated output of 13,000 sheets per hour (sph), can be configured with up to six printing units plus optional anilox coater (including overhead delivery extension with IR dryer package) and features semi-automatic plate changing supported by a console with provision for JDF workflow integration said KBA.
A claimed major benefit of the Performa 74 compared to other B2 presses is that the sheets are guided via double-size impression and transfer cylinders.
KBA said it sees a lot of potential for boosting sales of Performa 74 in high-growth developing markets and among small-scale to medium-scale commercial printers.
Although KBA's existing range of Rapida presses for small, medium, large and superlarge formats is popular among commercial, book and packaging printers, the decision to expand downmarket was driven by a perceived need to cater to printers with a limited budget, a defined product spectrum and shorter or diminishing run lengths.
KBA believes that those printers are looking for a cheap but effective press with fewer extras in preference to a sophisticated, highly automated multi-unit press running at 15,000sph or 18,000sph.
Prior to the takeover of Grafitec, KBA said it surveyed existing users of Grafitec presses and ran exhaustive print tests using various substrates.
KBA's verdict was that the presses are much more robust than some others in that price and format class.
They are user-friendly, reliable and deliver a Fogra-quality print on multicolour commercial work and packaging said the company, which added that it has no immediate plans to modify the mechanics of the presses, focusing instead on optimising quality management and process technology.
KBA said that the basic framework for realigning and expanding the sales and service organisation for the business was defined at an agents convention last month.
Key medium-term objectives are to ramp up Performa sales in existing markets, expand in to new markets and grow KBA's share of the small-format sector, added the company.
KBA-Grafitec will continue to run sales and service activities for Performa presses in the Czech Republic and Poland, and existing Grafitec dealers will be retained in other key markets.
In countries where Grafitec has little or no market presence, sales and service will be handled by KBA's global network.
Grafitec dealers will be integrated in the new organisation wherever possible and where it is logical.
KBA said it will release further details when negotiations have been concluded. Request free introductory details about products from KBA ...
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