Offset Printing
Addition to KBA Comet at Nation Media Group in Kenya
Tuesday 01. June 2010 - Capacity boost for fast-growing print business
Nairobi-based Nation Media Group Ltd in Kenya is celebrating its 50th jubilee this year by adding a further four-high tower onto the KBA Comet press it commissioned in early 1997 and subsequently extended several times. The extended press line will be ready for action at East Africas leading multi-media enterprise at the end of the year.
In recent years Nation Media Group, which went public in the 1970s, has expanded from its core business of print into television, radio, the internet and logistics. Africa Review, a successful digital news platform, was the first of its kind in the country. Nation Media Group also holds majority stakes in Monitor Publications, Uganda, whose newspaper titles include Daily Monitor and Sunday Monitor, and Mwananchi Communications, Tanzania (Mwananchi, Mwana Spoti and The Citizen).
Broad product spectrum
Alongside the Daily Nation, which is by far the biggest selling newspaper in Kenya with a daily circulation of 200,000 copies, the Comet prints the Sunday edition, the Sunday Nation; a weekly newspaper, The East African, which is distributed in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ruanda; a business title, The Business Daily; and two Swahili titles: Taifa Leo (a daily) and Taifa Jumapili (weekly). A raft of supplements, plus contract work for Kenya and the rest of East Africa, ensure that this internationally popular single-width press is kept busy.
Higher full-colour capacity and pagination
The Comet in Nairobi has a maximum web width of 840mm (33in) and a 578mm (22.75in) cut-off. Following the extension the press line will comprise twelve reelstands, 56 printing couples (six four-high and two two-high towers) and two jaw folders. It is controlled from KBA ErgoTronic consoles with a remote diagnostics link. It can pump out up to 96 broadsheet or 192 tabloid pages, of which 48 and 96 pages respectively can be in full colour.