Fit for the future with KBA technology

In time for the 150 jubilee of Mayer & Söhne, a print and media house widely known well over its regional boundaries, a new Commander CT web press from Koenig & Bauer (KBA) has gone live in Aichach, Germany. At the end of September the cutting-edge press was fired up in front of numerous special guests that included the Bavarian media minister and head of the Bavarian state chancellery, Thomas Kreuzer. As a regional media group, Mayer & Söhne stands for high-quality journalism for the people "back home" said Mr Kreuzer. The company celebrated its birthday with an open day for the people of Aichach in mid-October.

Thomas Sixta, a partner of Mayer & Söhne as well as publisher and editor-in-chief of the Aichacher Zeitung, is delighted with the KBA Commander CT's successful production start and said: "We have invested about €8.5 million in technically upgrading our printing house to ensure long-term sustainability. The complex construction and commissioning of our new high-output press was carried out very professionally without interrupting running production. Alongside high print quality and flexibility, the Commander CT, equipped with automated plate changing for extremely fast job changes, paves the way for new production options, such as four colours throughout and creates leeway for further contract work."

A traditional company's multitude of activities
In 1862, Ignaz Mayer founded his print shop on Aichach's town square and the Aichacher Amtsblatt, predecessor to the Aichacher Zeitung, was first published three years later. Over the past 40 years this traditional family-run company now managed by the fifth generation, has grown significantly. Today the group employs 350 employees, 240 of which work at the company's base in Aichach, the others at the second printing plant in Lahr as well as at publishing houses in Augsburg, Weißenburg and Bamberg. Weekly newspapers and freesheets, such as the Stadtzeitung in Augsburg and the WOBLA in Bamberg, are published at these locations. Two publishing houses for monthly magazines, books and street maps and four travel agencies also belong to the group along with the print titles and web and sheetfed offset printing plants.

Largest Berliner-format print provider in Bavaria
500,000 in-house newspapers and freesheets, such as the Aichacher Zeitung, Aichacher Anzeiger, Stadtzeitung Augsburg, Stadtzeitung Weißenburg and WOBLA, are printed every week. Compared to other newspaper printing houses, Mayer & Söhne traditionally print more for contract customers than for their own publishing houses for which the Berliner-format is predestined. The Munich edition of the Bild City was printed for the Axel Springer publishing house. Every month eight million newspapers and newspaper-like products leave the printing plant in Aichach in addition to supplements that are printed for trade companies across the country.

High productivity and flexibility boost contract work
The new compact KBA Commander CT web press, with a maximum web width of 1,260mm (49.6in) and a cut-off length of 470mm (18.5in), can print up to 47,000 full colour, 32-page newspapers per hour. The press' equipment supports an array of product options and ad specials. Substrates with a higher grammage for magazine- and catalogues bodies as well as different semi-commercials can be applied. Along with half covers, with the skip slitter they can produce full and half-size newspaper sections in one print run thus inline tabloid supplements in broadsheets.