April 19, 2004 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston,Vt., has installed a Rapida 162 64-inch six-color sheetfed press equipped with UV and hybrid ink capabilities at Ed Garvey & Company in its Niles, Ill.facility in March 2004. “This has been an interesting startup for us because of the way the press has attracted interest,” says Joe Kulis, chief operating officer of Ed Garvey & Company. “Salespeople and potential customers have been calling us to discuss doing business with us or joining our firm. This is unusual given the general conditions in the print market over the past 3-4 years.” This is Ed Garvey & Company’s first KBA press. The firm was seeking a large format press and was looking at two press manufacturers. “After a thorough investigation and listening to other printers who are using KBA Rapida presses, we felt that the KBA large-format Rapida was the best press on the market,” says Kulis. Ed Garvey & Company is a commercial printer that produces corporate, direct mail, and business forms on both sheetfed and web presses. The firm wanted to move beyond its 40-inch,eight-page work into large format point-of-purchase, point-of-sale, signage for retail stores, and packaging. The company wanted to tap into its current clientele and sell them more printing while aggressively attacking new clients and new markets with the press. “The primary reason for our investment in the large format equipment was the desire to get into a market that appeared to be underserved,” says Kulis. “There are lots of 40-inch presses in the Chicago area, but few 64-inch presses.  In addition, the capabilities of the KBA press allow us to sell convincingly beyond our traditional geographic areas. We also feel that the UV and hybrid ink capabilities of the press allow us to help our customers differentiate themselves from their competition by printing eye-catching, dramatic, creative pieces on a variety of substrates including foils and plastics.” “We are happy to hear that our KBA Rapida 162 large-format press has had such a positive impact in such a short amount of time at Ed Garvey & Company,” says Ralf Sammeck, president and CEO of KBA North America. “Transitioning from the largely populated forty inch market into large format will certainly allow Ed Garvey to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.” The Garvey Group is a network of seven companies providing integrated services for the design, manufacture, and distribution of printed materials. The companies are located in Wisconsin and Illinois and employ 225.  The Garvey Group has three printing facilities producing a wide range of products, including sheet fed and web commercial printing, business forms, digital printing, direct mail printing and now large format products. The company also has two distribution centers for supplying logistical support. The Niles facility of Ed Garvey & Company is north of Chicago with 88 employees. 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. Please find a downloadable version of PR including photo at: www.kba-print.com/vt/headlines/sheetfed/2004-04-16-00/