New role for sales, service, and support for growing division

KBA North America has promoted Sam Pernice to the newly-created position of director of sales and service for KBA-MetalPrint products effective January 1, 2017. For the past four years, Pernice has held dual roles as a sales and service representative in the web offset division and working to build customers within the KBA-MetalPrint division. 

“This promotion comes in conjunction with the announcement that KBA North America will become the agent for KBA-MetalPrint presses starting in January 2017,” says Mark Hischar, president and CEO of KBA North America. “Until now, our only responsibility has been for parts and service, including equipment upgrades. We believe that Sam is the ideal candidate to broaden our market and continue this growth. It is a very exciting time for KBA MetalPrint and for KBA North America as well.”

“I’m deeply honored to be heading this new division for KBA North America,” says Pernice. “The name KBA-MetalPrint stands for quality, innovation and continuous development. We offer complete solutions which are tailored specifically to the customer's individual requirements – from coated to printed and stacked metal sheets, which our customers then convert into decorative containers, food cans, mini kegs for beer, paint tins, metal lids and crown caps. These are but a few of the many products that are created using KBA-MetalPrint technology.”

In his new role, Pernice will have total profit and loss responsibility for both equipment sales and after sales service and parts support. He will also have the added responsibility of growing the division’s market share through new press sales and the introduction of new technologies to the market.  

Over the past several years, Pernice has had responsibility for selling upgrades to metal decorating customers and has greatly increased the revenue for KBA as a result. He has also been instrumental in improving the reputation of KBA in this important niche industry. Prior to joining KBA in 2013, Pernice spent more than a quarter century involved in the domestic and international sale, customer support and service of high quality newspaper printing equipment and services. His experience includes a role as the director of global sales for a web offset newspaper sales and service organization as well as the position of sales manager for a different web offset press manufacturer in which he oversaw sales in seven states and garnered extensive travel throughout Europe and Asia while posting overall sales in excess of $50 million. Prior to these positions, Pernice served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany. 

KBA-MetalPrint, a member of the Koenig & Bauer Group, is the market and technology leader in the field of metal decorating. As a system supplier to the metal packaging industry, KBA-MetalPrint offers complete production lines for the printing, coating and drying of tinplate and aluminum sheets. The product range comprises multicolor printing presses and coating machines in combination with thermal drying ovens or UV curing systems. Additional specialties are material handling systems and state-of-the-art energy-efficient installations for exhaust air purification. KBA-MetalPrint also supplies pin- and belt-type drying ovens for two-piece cans.