Leading quality printer Westdale Press has signed an order valued at over £3 million ($4.8m) for the first KBA Rapida 106 10-colour perfector press at the Drupa exhibition (hall 16, stand C47).

The very high quality commercial colour printer that produces fine art catalogues, brochures and magazines for a range of blue chip companies and household names such as Sothebys, Harrods, John Lewis, French Connection, Open University, Kohler and Hearst Group in the UK and Europe, will commission the first KBA Rapida 106 ten-colour perfecting press with RapidCut reel sheeter in September 2012.

The highly specified machine includes many Drupa enhancements, among them the high speed package that takes production up to 18,000sph when perfecting, DriveTronic SPC simultaneous plate change and register system with Plate Ident, the QualiTronic colour control and sheet inspection system, the new high-speed AirTronic delivery and an all-new ErgoTronic console with user-oriented wall screen.

Westdale Press has negotiated the option to take a second machine at Ipex 2014 and together the new Rapida additions will bring new capacity to the business.

The investment reflects a company seeing strong growth in an otherwise difficult market and Westdale Press managing director Alan Padbury comments: “We have been looking at KBA for some time. We have been very impressed with the company as an innovator and manufacturer and especially with the technology that has been coming on stream in recent years. For us, as a supplier of world-class print, quality is always the imperative and the control systems developed and applied by KBA offer 100% security and colour/content fidelity. The high production speed and incredibly fast job-to-job changeovers are the icing on the cake for us.”

KBA (UK) managing director Christian Knapp comments: “KBA is committed to innovation and it is very rewarding to see how Westdale Press has responded to our continuous press innovations by awarding us this prestigious order. As the third-largest exhibitor at Drupa visitors can see for themselves the fruits of that commitment in every machine on live demonstration with unique innovations and world leading technologies available and ready for market now. We look forward to the opportunity of working with Westdale Press in this important new phase of their business.”