Finishing & Screen Printing

A New Location with a Perfect Binder Bolero Boosts the Bookbinding Trade in Austria

Thursday 17. March 2011 - Koller & Kunesch, Lamprechtshausen/Wattens

Koller & Kunesch, which has its head office in Lamprechtshausen (Salzburg), can now serve its customers in the western regions of Austria and in neighboring countries more quickly, thanks to its new site in Wattens, near Innsbruck. A Bolero perfect binder from Muller Martini delivers excellent quality for softcover products.
“With our investment,” says Managing Director Josef Koller, “we are not only plugging a gap in western Austria, but also expanding our technical capabilities and efficiency to ensure that we can rise to the challenge of the ever more demanding requirements.”
Previously, Koller & Kunesch – a company that focuses exclusively on processing – served its customers in Tyrol from its site in Lamprechtshausen, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. However, this long distance led to deadline pressure, particularly when it came to urgent orders. “Now,” says Günter Kunesch, who, like Josef Koller, is a Managing Director, “we can offer our clients substantially more flexible production time slots.”
At the same time, the organization, which elevates its flexibility still further with its own fleet of trucks, is aiming to tap into new target areas (Vorarlberg, South Tyrol, southern Germany and Switzerland) by virtue of its central location.
Acoro Now with Frontero and Splitting Saw
Koller & Kunesch opted for the Bolero line, in the company color, red, with an 18-station gathering machine, criss-cross system, Orbit three-knife trimmer and CB 16 counter stacker, as a result of its positive experiences with the Acoro in Lamprechtshausen. The perfect binding line in operation there was commissioned three years ago. Recently, it was supplemented with a splitting saw for two-up production and a Frontero face trimmer for full-flap books.
“Using two-up production,” says Günter Kunesch, “we have both elevated our flexibility and secured a competitive advantage for our customers.” In addition, the Frontero allows Koller & Kunesch to produce full-flap books using a single procedure. “The demand for brochures with flush or overhanging cover flaps is rising sharply.”
Ideal for Large-Volume Orders
On the topic of new capabilities: The Bolero line in Wattens, which is intended for PUR production, features a crash station that not only allows Koller & Kunesch to use the Swiss Brochure method, but also enables the bindery to advance into new dimensions. “By expanding our capacity,” says Günter Kunesch, “we are strengthening our position as a partner for quality printing houses with large-volume orders and, at the same time, we have a back-up, in case we should ever be impacted by mechanical problems.”
Alongside text books for Austria, Germany and Italy, with print runs of between 60,000 and 100,000 copies, Koller & Kunesch also produces periodicals and special interest magazines (particularly in the field of medicine) with print runs of between 3,000 and 30,000 copies.
Since rigorous quality checks are a must for pharmaceutical jobs in particular, but also for other market leaders, the gathering machines in the two Muller Martini perfect binders at Koller & Kunesch feature ASIR 3 signature control. This system ensures that the order of the signatures is correct and that the products are complete.
Excellent Consulting Skills
A host of company brochures for well-known Austrian organizations are also produced alongside books and magazines. Koller & Kunesch, which has 50 employees in Lamprechtshausen and 25 in Wattens, recently produced the annual catalog of a reputable Austrian motorbike manufacturer, comprising several hundred thousand copies in various languages and formats.
Koller & Kunesch defines itself as a full-service provider of processing services. It all starts with cellophaning machines, and alongside the two perfect binders, there are eight folding machines, two stitching machines and one mailing line in use at the two sites.
“We are increasingly becoming involved in the earlier stages of projects,” says Günter Kunesch, “before our partners’ printing presses are running. Since we also have a background in printing, we have excellent consulting skills in this area. Companies that order printed products benefit from this as much as the printing houses.”