Oct. 7, 2003 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, VT, has just concluded one of its most successful Graph Expo trade shows ever. The trade show ran from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 at McCormick Place in Chicago. “This has been one of our most successful Graph Expos ever,” says Ralf Sammeck, KBA North America’s CEO and President. “We sold several of our Rapida 105s and 74 Karat digital offset presses. During our live presentations at the booth, we not only had every chair filled but we had attendees standing nearly three-deep to hear about KBA technology and our latest product innovations. KBA printed over 12 highly critical jobs that included live work for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Rossignol Skis and Burton Snowboards.  Many of these jobs were printed using hybrid ink effects for very dramatic results.  We were also happy to have in attendance KBA Germany's CEO and President Albrecht Bolza-Schunemann. Plus, we had the longest 41-inch press running at the show.  The press had perfecting, coating, 12 ft delivery extension and hybrid ink technology." The second day of the show proved to be a banner day for the company. In the morning, the company signed a $13.8 million press contract with Malnove, Inc., the largest non-integrated folding carton manufacturer in North America, for three Rapida 142 56” sheetfed presses. Later that morning, KBA signed a licensing agreement with Air Motion Systems, Inc.for the worldwide rights for the production, further development, distribution,and servicing of dryer systems on KBA’s Rapida sheetfed presses. In the afternoon, KBA dedicated the show press to its new owners, Merrill Communications LLC, a leading diversified communications and document service company based in St.Paul, Minnesota. “Many North American printers are looking for new and innovative ways to differentiate themselves in today’s competitive marketplace and flexibility is the key,” says Sammeck. “At Graph Expo we had jobs that demonstrated KBA’s flexibility to print on the industry’s widest range of stocks, which included paper, folding carton, board, corrugated and even plastic.”