Offset Printing
The economic crisis demands a corporate response
Wednesday 14. October 2009 - KBA Report no. 35 out now
“Here at KBA we are doing our level best to master the challenges posed by a shrinking market.” In his editorial for issue 35 of KBAs corporate magazine, KBA Report, group president and CEO Helge Hansen appealed to politicians not to distort competition by extending state aid to the biggest industry players, thus endangering jobs at smaller enterprises that husbanded their resources prudently when the going was good and built up reserves for leaner times instead of spending capital on excessively high dividends and costly share buybacks.
KBA is just one of the many small, medium and large enterprises worldwide that are having to rely on their own wits, investments and business models to survive in the current challenging market environment. Some case studies are given in KBA Report.
The magazines diverse features include the 1,000th large-format Rapida press to leave the production line (a 162a for Berlin-Mitte), a world premiere in sheetfed offset (flying job changes on a high-tech Rapida 106 medium-format press in Germany), 4/4 magazine production on a 6B Rapida in France, and high-volume book printing on a Compacta web press in Italy. For newspaper printers there is news from Europe on the latest advances in waterless technology with the KBA Cortina, a report on the first genuine Berliner format newspaper press in the United States and an interview with Fatih Altayli, co-founder and editor in chief of a highly successful new Turkish daily title, Haberturk, which is printed in a magazine-type format and quality on Commander 4/1 hybrid press at four locations. Fans of smaller presses will find user reports on the Rapida 75 and Genius 52UV.