At the end of September, a delegation from Fararang Aria Printing in Teheran visited the KBA sheetfed offset facility in Radebeul to discuss the purchasing of new presses. Meanwhile, at home in Iran, a six-colour Rapida 105 with coater, UV accessories and raised pile heights was being taken into production in the company's print centre. A further medium-format Rapida, an eight-colour Rapida 106 with a perfecting unit for 4-over-4 production and an additional coater tower, is currently being installed. Fararang Aria Printing is thus today the proud owner of five sheetfed offset presses from KBA – two half-format and three medium-format models – making it the biggest KBA user in Iran. But why stop at that? Negotiations are already progressing on the purchases of a first large-format press and a further medium-format Rapida.
 
Fararang Aria Printing was founded just four years ago and has since grown dynamically with its KBA presses. The first installation was a five-colour Rapida 74 with inline coating. Two years ago, it was joined by a medium-format Rapida, and a six-colour Performa 74 perfector was added to the line-up at the beginning of 2009. The company now counts 116 employees and operates a continuous three-shift system. Fararang is active in both the commercial and packaging sectors. While the new eight-colour Rapida 106 has been earmarked for the printing of brochures, magazines and books, its high-pile counterpart will be handling mainly packaging for tea, cigarettes and washing powders. This outstanding flexibility is typical throughout the company: Commercial products, for example, can be finished on a 24-station gatherer-stitcher, whereas packaging production is directed to an automatic die-cutter and folding-box line.

The extent to which the Fararang management is convinced by the KBA presses can already be recognised from the design of the print centre building. With its curved lines and colour scheme, it is closely resembles a Rapida 106 press. There is even a "control console" in the form of an adjacent building. Mohammad Balali and his team appreciate in particular the high quality and reliability of the Rapida presses, as well as the professional, friendly and sincere support of the KBA staff. Who knows, perhaps the first jumbo-size Rapida will soon be taking its place in the futuristic halls in Teheran?