Puts firm focus on outreach, demonstrating its new technology, and its corporate support

KBA is continuing to accentuate its key support to all segments of the graphic arts industry in which this leading printing press manufacturer is maintaining a climate of directly interacting with its customers at industry trade shows and events, having direct dialogues to anticipate their needs, especially in this ever-evolving industry, and providing one-to-one discussions on how these printers can differentiate themselves from their competitors.

“KBA is making a point to attend a variety of trade shows and industry events that allows us to spearhead our message and introduce new press technology to a variety of current and potential customers,” says Mark Hischar, president and CEO of KBA North America. “We’ve greeted commercial printing and packaging attendees at Graph Expo in late September at its new venue in Orlando, FL and connected with our flexography customers at the Flexographic Technical Association in Louisville for its fall conference; moving forward, we’ll be in attendance at PPC for our packaging customers, at the Digital Packaging Summit for the fast-growing digital packaging market, and heading north to visit with our Canadian base.”

In its new southeast venue, Graph Expo 2016 exceeded KBA’s expectations with printers who were interested in what new technology KBA launched at the international trade fair Drupa 2016 in Germany this past May and how that technology can solve specific challenges in their pressrooms. KBA Group President and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann was in attendance from Germany to meet with current and prospective KBA customers. KBA used the venue to hold one of Graph Expo’s most anticipated press conferences---a joint presentation from KBA and Xerox to highlight its co-development of the new KBA VariJET 106 Powered by Xerox, a seven-color industrial digital hybrid inkjet/offset press for the folding carton market. This follows a recent announcement to partner with HP to develop the first HP PageWide Web Press T1100S, a 110” wide press for high-volume, digital pre-print applications in the corrugated packaging market.  

In early October, three KBA executives attended the one-day conference for the Flexible Packaging Association’s Fall Executive Conference in Chicago where they had the opportunity to meet customers and network with senior management from other flexible packaging firms as well as gain insights into the flexible packaging industry’s current trends and issues.

In mid-October, KBA senior vice president of marketing and product management, Eric Frank, chaired the fall conference of the Flexographic Technical Association in Louisville, KY. Nearly 350 flexographic printers attended the event under the banner Improving Today…Envisioning Tomorrow. Under its KBA-Flexotecnica division, the firm was able to re-introduce its new Neo XD LR hybrid press that was on display at the international trade fair Drupa 2016 in Germany this past May. Eric Frank led an important discussion on substrates for the flexo market in which his colleague Matteo Lanata from KBA-Flexotecnica took part. 

In late October, KBA will be supporting the Paperboard Packaging Council’s fall meeting and leadership conference as a platinum sponsor. PPC has grown to become the leading trade association serving suppliers and converters of all forms of paperboard packaging. Set in San Antonio, the meeting will also be the site for the announcement of the 2016 North American Paperboard Packaging Competition Awards. 

KBA is pleased to be attending the Digital Packaging Summit 2016 in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL from October 31 to November 2, 2016. This invitation-only, hosted summit designed for senior managers and business executives who want to understand how current and future digital production printing technology, software and solutions will impact their business and investment decisions is the perfect venue for KBA to discuss its new industrial digital sheetfed packaging solution—the KBA VariJET 106 Powered by Xerox, a seven-color hybrid inkjet/offset press for the folding carton market. 

For its Canadian customers, KBA will be in attendance at the 11th annual Canadian Printing Awards in which it will have two key personnel at its booth to provide information on new technology that KBA has recently unveiled. KBA is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of the Canadian Printing Awards program, which is designed to recognize printing innovation in the country through three distinct awards sections, grouped in Printing, Environmental and Technology categories. KBA will be in attendance at the Awards Gala to support and congratulate the 2016 Best of Show Award determined from more than 200 entries.