June 22, 2005 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that Printing Depot, a turnkey solution provider for fulfillment of design, printing and distribution of marketing materials, product literature, manuals, CD-ROMs, and videos located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, has added a KBA 74 Karat press with coater. The press was installed in March 2005. “In our business, we never know what type of jobs to expect from our customers and we needed a print on demand - high quality solution,” says Ken Khan, Printing Depot’s president. “We print a mixed bag of jobs, from business cards to special projects to packaging. It’s a real variety and always very challenging. We pride ourselves on being able to design a customer’s project, print it, perform all bindery operations, and even address and mail it. Our complete service saves our customers precious time and money when compared to using multiple vendors for one project.” 74 Karat is flexible, efficient; produces high-quality output It was the Karat’s ability to handle many different types of jobs and substrates that attracted Khan to the press. “Most of our jobs are short-run under 5,000 pieces,” he says. “The KBA 74 Karat gives us good flexibility to produce a variety of work in a short, more efficient, and timely manner. Our customers are also very quality conscious and we are quite pleased with the print quality produced on the Karat. After seeing a demonstration of the 74 Karat at a Chicago printer, we were impressed with its ease-of-use and it confirmed the press would increase my productivity and overall profitability.” Printing Depot claims a very high-quality, affluent clientele who stay loyal to the company even after they move to different parts of the country. For this reason, Printing Depot has customers outside of Toronto all over North America. Markets being served include the travel industry, food service, automotive, pharmaceutical, petro chemical, financial, government, restaurants, and wholesale florists. Keeping jobs inhouse, printing more economically and efficiently Since the Karat’s installation in the spring of 2005, the press has become a critical component to the success of Printing Depot. “By installing the KBA Karat, we now produce 99% of our jobs inhouse,” says Khan. “Ninety to ninety-five percent of the jobs are produced on the Karat. Our customers give us a lot of short-run jobs under 50 sheets to produce and we used to have to send them out because it was too expensive to produce on our own offset presses. Now with the Karat, we’re able to keep those jobs inhouse and produce them very economically.” The Karat’s size was another mitigating factor in choosing the press. Its 29-inch size fit nicely in Printing Depot’s limited space of under 10,000 sq ft where its compact size fit nicely in the firm’s pressroom. Another important feature on the Karat is its coating capability. Khan cites key attributes such as faster turnaround and job protection as the coater’s main difference. “We’re able to print jobs on the Karat, coat them inline, and then immediately send them on to our own bindery for die-cutting or saddlestitching,” he says. “We also have certain customers who demand coating for their jobs because they like the look of the shine.” Open workflow system of 74 Karat fits customer’s needs Since 90% of Printing Depot’s customers are corporations using PCs, the printer has chosen to go the unique route of using an all PC workflow, not Macintosh, to better serve its customers and interact with them. Khan plans to have an open house in late summer/early fall to show his customers and potential customers the capabilities of the Karat. The Printing Depot was established in 1976 with 2 employees as a copy shop. Within a year, the company purchased a printing firm and began to quickly grow. As the graphic arts market evolved with new equipment, so too did Printing Depot. The firm moved from typesetting equipment to PCs and imagesetting to today’s high-speed color printing equipment. Today the firm is a turnkey solution for fulfillment of design, printing, and distribution of marketing materials, product literature, manuals, CD-ROMs, videos, and other collateral. The firm’s mission is to provide quality products, on-time delivery, personalized customer service, and competitive pricing to its customers. KBA North America is a leading supplier of sheetfed offset and digital presses located in Williston, VT. It is a member of the KBA Group, a leader in the manufacture of sheetfed offset, digital offset, web offset, rotogravure directory, security, and newspaper presses.