Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) and its Russian subsidiary KBA RUS were represented with a 200 m² stand at the recent Polygraphinter fair in Moscow, where the exhibition centrepiece was a five-colour Rapida 75 press in a coater configuration for inline finishing. KBA was thus one of the few companies to cast away the worries of the economic recession and offer the local trade public live demonstrations of modern press technology.

The exhibition press was sold directly from the stand to the Moscow-based Abada Group. It is the first printing press at Abada. In the past, the company had entrusted its printing needs – above all flyers for furniture stores and supermarkets – to external providers.

The attendance at the fair was considerably better than had been feared, given the currently difficult economic situation in Russia. Alongside the expected visitors from the Greater Moscow area, there were even printers and industry professionals from far-off Vladivostok, the Caucasus region, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan among those who found their way to the new ultramodern exhibition centre before the gates of Moscow – and there specifically to the KBA stand. Polygraphinter 2009 was also a commercial success for KBA. In addition to the exhibition press for Abada, for example, a Rapida 105 with five printing units and coater was sold to another Moscow print company. In March 2010, the State Printing House in Kursk will be taking delivery of a four-colour small-format Performa 66. Further projects are in the pipeline for the coming year.

Discussions at the fair indicate that the market situation in Russia should be brightening up quite soon in 2010. Many print companies, especially those involved in packaging printing, are reporting higher capacity utilisation than last year. The announced cancellation of import taxes on coated papers also enables Russia's commercial printers to look ahead to the future with renewed optimism.