Offset Printing
KBA announces a successful year on the Polish market
Thursday 24. January 2008 - On 29 November, the representatives of KBA-Grafitec and KBA-Poland held a press conference at the Hotel Westin in Warsaw where they presented a brief overview of KBA activity on the Polish market. In addition to other information, they presented the sales results and information regarding this years marketing strategy as well as plans for next year which include KBA exhibiting at the Drupa 2008 trade fair.
The KBA has been represented on the Polish market by two companies: By KBA-Grafitec (from January 2005) and by KBA-Polska (founded in November 2006). Both companies are in very close cooperation regarding the areas of sales, service and marketing and therefore, logically, the press conference was organized by both companies. KBA-Grafitec was represented by: Jan Korenc, Vice-President for Sales and Service; Lud?k Buchta, Marketing Manager and Adam ?la?y?ski, Regional Sales Manager. KBA-Polska was represented by: Oliver Becker, CEO and Jacek Nieszczerzewicz, Regional Sales Manager.
As apparent from the data published at the press conference, the year was very successful in terms of KBA activity on the Polish market. In terms of sales volumes, the company was the second largest supplier of printing presses on the market. The 2007 year was yet another successful year for KBA-Grafitec who managed to hold the leading position on the market with half-format presses. This years sales closed with 92 printing units, which is a 20% increase in comparison with the 2006 year. The KBA-Grafitec share of this years sales of the half-format presses is estimated by company representatives at 35% and the company has managed to hold the leading position in the SRA2 and SRB2 formats on the Polish market for three consecutive years.
The KBA-Polska company, founded in November 2006 has been developing successfully, and currently employs 17 people who focus on the market sale of full-format as well as large format presses. KBA-Polska supplied 35 printing units in 2007 (one more than last year) whereas in addition to others, they installed the 15-unit printing full-format press in the Graf-poz printshop which is the longest press ever installed in the history of KBA.
During the press conference, particular attention was paid to the network of KBA-Grafitec and KBA-Polsko authorized services which operate throughout the whole territory. In the case of the first company, this concerns eight service centres and a factory service in Dobruka (16 km from the Polish border), while KBA-Polska cooperates with three service centres; cooperation with the fourth will commence in 2008. In the case of the Krakow service company Lubicz, a service contract was signed with both of the companies reflecting the common steps and mutual cooperation in service matters.
Both of the companies were very active in the marketing areas in 2007. The most significant appears to be the March Poligrafia 2007 trade fair in Poznan where KBA-Grafitec and KBA-Polska exhibited together for the first time. The exhibition turned out to be a great success – KBA-Grafitec concluded contracts for six new printing presses.
Both companies have commenced many marketing activities. KBA-Grafitec organized several seminars for their clients from Western, Northern and central Poland. The company also supplied a KBA Performa printing press to the Association of Graphic Art Schools in Katowice, where it is now being used for education and training. KBA-Polska sponsored many specialised activities, for example the first year of the Poligrafia Golf Cup 2007 held in Krakow as well as celebrations for the Printing Day organized in Gdansk by the “Stowarzyszenie Poligrafów Pomorskich” association.
It needs to be added that similar information about companies, their offers and news can be found on the internet pages of KBA-Grafitec and KBA-Polska (in the Polish language). In the case of KBA-Polska, their internet pages were officially launched at the press conference, representing another natural step forward in the companys development.
During the press conference, the representatives of both companies, KBA-Grafitec and KBA-Polska stressed their harmonic cooperation on the Polish market in all areas. As previously mentioned, the symbol of cooperation is the first mutual client for whom KBA-Grafitec have supplied and installed the Performa printing press while KBA-Polska have entered into a contract for the supply of the full-format Rapid press. The following years should bring more such mutual contracts; both companies are relying very heavily upon the 2008 year when the Drupa trade fair is held. Details were not discussed but it is already known, that the KBA stand will present a line of premiere solutions in the area of sheet-fed and offset disc printing.