Nov 2, 2006 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that BL Litho, a leading Montreal, Quebec printer, has purchased a Rapida 105 41-inch eight-color sheetfed perfector press with UV option. The new press is due to be delivered in December 2006 with a planned start-up date of February 2007. The Rapida 105 was sold in cooperation with KBR Graphics Ltd., the eastern Canadian distributor for KBA North America. KBA technology and partnership "We had been keeping our eye on KBA for a long time," says Martin Marchand, BL Litho's director. "But this time all of the stars aligned for both of us! We were ready to invest in new equipment and, after visiting KBA's offices both in Germany and Vermont, we were impressed with KBA's state-of-the-art technology and the partnership that KBA and KBR offered to us. The advantage of KBA's technology will put us into new markets and certainly differentiate us from our competition. Plus, KBA's strong partnership with our company was another important factor. Having local presence through KBR gave us an additional sense of comfort to purchase the Rapida 105." The new Rapida 105 eight-color perfector will be BL Litho's first KBA press. The firm will be replacing a straight five-color 40-inch sheetfed press from a different manufacturer with the new KBA perfector. "We felt that the KBA Rapida 105 eight-color four-over-four perfector would double our output as opposed to a straight sheetfed press," says Marchand. "We still have the same amount of hours in a day but we'll be able to print high quality work on both sides simultaneously. Plus, we'll be able to print on board stock up to 34 pt. and we want to further develop that market as well as have the UV capability on hand when we move into that area." Confidence-booster "We looked at other press manufacturers," says Marchand. "But KBA and KBR gave us the confidence that the others did not. KBA and KBR are partners each step of the way as we transition from a straight sheetfed press to a new perfector press with more color units and the ability to print packaging board stock." Presently, BL Litho is equipped with two five-color sheetfed presses-a 40-inch, which it will replace with the new KBA; and a 28-inch; two Xerox DocuColor iGen3, a complete computer-to-plate prepress department, and a full bindery. The 70-employee firm is located in a 29,000 sq ft facility outside of Montreal serving over 1,000 customers who require general commercial work, from simple business cards to multi-color annual reports, magazines, posters, and gift boxes.