One of the best years for KBA in India

KBA is witnessing one of the best years in India as far as this year is concerned, according to Aditya Surana, managing director, Indo Polygraph Machinery.

11 May 2015 | By Anand Srinivasan

While speaking to PrintWeek India, on the sidelines of Parksons Packaging announcing the installation of the new KBA Rapida 106 printing press with inline cold foiling, Surana stated, "Totally six machines have been shipped up to May 2015. Each of these machines are seven or above colours, fully loaded and highly configured." Surana added, "At least five more machines are expected to come in 2015."
 
KBA is scoring in the 28x40inch format which caters to the packaging sector, and is priced at 1.9 million Euro (extra for automation).
 
Meanwhile, as per a company press release, the German press manufacturer said initial positive impacts from its group realignment, which began at the start of 2014, are now visible.
 
Compared with the previous year, when restructuring expenses of over €155.2m strained its operating result and delivered an operating loss of €130.7m, in 2014 both KBA’s sheetfed offset segment and the web and special press division posted an operating profit.
 
Dietmar Heyduck, senior vice president sales at KBA, who was in Mumbai for the Parksons event said, "The sheetfed offset segment generated profit." He attributed the rising sales of sheetfed offset presses to business in the packaging segment and book printing. He was eyeing metal-decorating systems. Plus he saw KBA-Kammann and KBA-Flexotecnica which has consolidated.
 
He said, “This is why the positive performance of the KBA in India in 2015 has been particularly pleasing as order intake here profited from KBA’s strong position in folding carton and metal decorating, and lifted slightly, bucking the industry trend.”
 
KBA's group’s management board has identified growth opportunities in digital and packaging printing, and aims to focus more on applications with challenging materials and large substrate widths.
 
The R&D spend in 2014 was equivalent to 5.3% of total sales (as compared to 2013 when it was 5.8%). KBA said it would continue to invest in R&D in the digital area for its RotaJet family and its partnership with HP for the development of the T1100 Simplex Color inkjet web press for the digital corrugated printing sector.