Top-ranked newspaper publisher maintains quality and productivity for dependability and reliability

KBA North America announces that its knowledgeable web offset service department has completed a drive retrofit of two reelstands plus a retrofit of the motion control and drives in one of the four printing towers in the pressroom at Toronto’s Metroland newspaper, one of Canada's leading community media companies with operations in newspapers, digital properties, flyer distribution, printing, consumer shows, magazines, directories and online commerce. This unique web service retrofit/rebuild program, which is only offered by KBA, offers preventative change-over installation from drive components from AMK and BRC on an existing web offset press and replaces them with new enhanced technology.

“We print over 100 community newspapers with over 125 editions that span from London in southwest Ontario to Ottawa in the northeast, with concentration around Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area,” says Wayne Savage, maintenance supervisor at Metroland Media. “It’s imperative that we need reliable running equipment. We chose KBA to do the retrofit because we felt they could do the job with the least amount of downtime and because of the extensive knowledge of their factory-trained personnel. In fact, KBA’s retrofit process did not hinder our production at all; they came in, did their work without any interference to anybody, and got the job done on schedule.” 

The KBA team delivered the new AMK reelstands and BRC motion control and drives to the Metroland Toronto newspaper pre-assembled and ready to be mounted and re-wired. During the month-long installation, the KBA team worked hand-in-hand with the newspaper’s production team seamlessly.

“At KBA we are able to audit, analyze, and recommend programs to our customers and even non-customers to increase output and quality,” says Stefan Prohaska, director of customer service at KBA North America. “Asset condition and reliability is key to dependable production and delivering products on time. Our goal with the web offset retrofit service is to provide newspapers with reliable manufacturing and successful production on their web offset presses and to keep the technology running smoothly.”

Savage knew that the retrofit work was critical to the pressroom and its production. “The drives control all of the press’s components,” he says. “We knew we had to quickly make a decision to ensure that the press continued its production. When we realized that replacement drives were no longer available, we turned to KBA. The end result was extremely positive for our organization.”

Metroland Media is one of Canada's leading community media companies with operations in newspapers, digital properties, flyer distribution, printing, consumer shows, magazines, directories and online commerce. The firm publishes over 100 community newspapers with over 125 editions that span from London in southwest Ontario to Ottawa in the northeast, with concentration around Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.