Surpassing its sales targets at drupa, German press manufacturer KBA also revealed a partnership with digital giant Xerox to develop an industrial digital sheetfed press for the folding carton market, the VariJET 106. Claus Bolza Schunemann, chief executive at KBA, says, “Print in all its diversity made a strong comeback at drupa 2016 following structural shifts over the past eight years. You could feel it in the halls that most companies had done their homework and adapted to new market realities.†The company’s total order figure for sheetfed offset reached the triple-digit million euro range. Ralf Sammeck, chief executive of KBA sheetfed solutions, says the company’s expansion into packaging printing with the VariJET 106 proved to be a successful strategy. He says, “We clearly surpassed the sales target we set ourselves and received many orders in all format classes from over 40 countries on all six continents.
Claus Bolza Schunemann, chief executive KBA, talks to printers at drupa 2016
“The expansion of our offerings to post-press with an own rotary die-cutter and the planned takeover of Spanish die-cutter manufacturer Iberica AG S.A were extremely well-received by our customers. “The same is true of the conceptual presentation of the KBA VariJET powered by Xerox digital sheetfed press, whose development will be completed in a few months’ time, and of our new services towards Industry 4.0.†Bolza-Schünemann predicts KBA’s performance to carry on post-drupa, leading him to declare the 2016 show, ‘the best drupa since 2000.’
