KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that Minors Printing, a full-service general commercial printing firm located in Boone, N.C., has installed a KBA 74 Karat digital offset waterless press, the first of its kind in the three-state region of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The new press with Gravuflow inking system and coater was installed in the fall of 2004. “By installing the Karat, we will increase our business,” says Phil Minor, co-owner of Minors Printing. “We will be able to branch out into short-run packaging work with predictable color for the larger packaging firms that are moving into our area. Our sales reps in Raleigh and Asheville will be able to pull a lot of work to the Karat. We fully expect to get more agency work due to the Karat’s high quality. We will be able to produce much higher quality because the press is waterless. And we’ll be able to turn our jobs around faster.” “When KBA told me that the Karat’s quality was so high that I could sell the fifth sheet printed from a job, my production manager and I took our hardest file with us to test the press at KBA’s headquarters in Vermont, “ says Phil Minor, president of Minors Printing. “The Karat printed our hardest file beautifully. I was floored! It was at that point that I knew I had to figure out a way to buy the press. Once I brought my sister to see what the Karat could produce, she was sold immediately.” “We are extremely pleased that Minors Printing chose to install our 74 Karat digital offset press,” says Ralf Sammeck, KBA North America’s president and CEO. “Our 74 Karat’s high-quality and fast turnaround, as well as the possibility, to produce very short runs in a very cost efficient way, will allow Minors Printing to grow and expand into new markets.” Minors Printing was established by Joe Minor in 1972 as a small quick printing operation running a duplicator press. Today the 22-employee general commercial printing firm is co-owned by Phil Minor and Jan Moretz, Joe’s son and daughter. The firm offers full-color printing on a 20 x 26” four-color press and a two-color machine. The shop operates a full bindery equipped with a six-pocket saddle stitcher, a perfect binder, plus cutters, folders, and inline gluing. Eight years ago the firm added mailing equipment.