Leading printer continues extraordinary growth by focusing on customer needs 

KBA North America announces that Imagine! Print Solutions, North America's prominent independent commercial and packaging printing company, has installed a new KBA Rapida 105 41-inch six-color press with UV. This is the seventh KBA press installed at Imagine! Print Solutions. The installation took place in January 2013.

"We are continually taking the pulse of our customers and asking them how we are doing. Our customers look to us to provide solutions and creative thinking to help sell their products. Ultimately that is what we do as a company. When we began to receive many new UV projects in packaging, we decided to invest in a new press," states Bob Lothenbach, founder and president of Imagine! Print Solutions, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “We wanted to add capacity for several customer requirements. Our print buyer customers, like everyone else, are looking for higher quality and faster throughput. We can offer these things in combination, not one or the other, with the new KBA press. We have long been a KBA partner with the purchase of the first six-color Rapida 205 81” press in North America. Since then we have added several additional KBA presses to maintain the quality level and provide us with the best possible performance from our litho department. KBA has been our press partner for several years. Their commitment to our market and sheet size requirements is what sets KBA apart from its competition.”

Lothenbach believes that the new KBA press fits perfectly into the overall expectations of Imagine!’s print buying customers that require the firm to provide quality products with a high degree of complexity. “It is hard to point out one feature or benefit that sets us apart. It is the complete Imagine! experience,” he adds. The newly-installed KBA Rapida 105 41-inch six-color press at Imagine! Print Solutions joins six more KBA Rapida presses: a giant Rapida 205 six-color 81-inch, a Rapida 162 four-color 64-inch, a Rapida Rapida 162 seven-color 64-inch, two six-color Rapida 105 41-inch UV presses, and one five-color Rapida 105 41-inch press.

"We congratulate Imagine! Print Solutions on its latest KBA press investment and are appreciative of its strong partnership that we’ve forged together over so many years,” says Steve Korn, KBA Director of National and Key Accounts. “We applaud Imagine's extraordinary growth and its customer-centric approach; it’s a part of its DNA. We are confident that their new KBA press will increase Imagine's capacity and help continue Imagine's quality production and on-time leadership position with its existing and future clients for many years to come."

The continual growing success at Imagine! Print Solutions can be attributed to its services, its equipment, and its personnel. Management continues to invest in new technology to provide its employees with the best possible working environment. In the last 12 months, the company has made several equipment upgrades and expanded operations significantly. These include new litho KBA printing presses, large format digital devices, 10-ft multicolor silkscreen equipment, digital roll label equipment, cutting equipment, wrapping and material handling equipment, enhancements to its store profiling, campaign management and storefront solutions. In addition the company expanded its facility by over 300,000 sq. ft. to a total of 700,000 under one roof. This expansion to its kitting and warehouse area allows for better workflow and expanded storage facilities.

“Imagine! truly has a customer-first focus,” says Lothenbach. “We want to be the single source provider for our prospective customers as well as our current ones. We take this concept farther than anyone else in providing these services in scale under one roof and controlling the process from start to finish. We envision staying current with our customers’ needs and providing them with products and expertise that will make them successful.”

Lothenbach’s own formula for success is certainly paying off. In 2012, the company spent over $10 million on equipment capitalization, not including its building expansion. Lothenbach expects to do the same in 2013. “We will continue to invest based on what we are hearing from our customers,” he says. “They will ultimately drive what the company looks like in the next time period. We have been very successful hiring qualified sales representatives and we will continue to recruit to grow the business exponentially. Our customers see our company’s success based on our growth in a relatively short time frame. What sets us apart from our competition is pretty much everything. We have the most equipment, the greatest number of service offerings and the best people.”

Imagine! Print Solutions is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is North America's prominent independent large format and commercial printing company. Imagine! has more than 850 employees and celebrated its 25th anniversary in April, 2013. Imagine! has grown to be a $191 million company serving seven national print segments: point-of-purchase, packaging, UV print, commercial, flexography, digital and screen print. Imagine! sets the pace in its core markets for service, capacity, flexibility and on-time delivery. The company's capabilities and services include: temporary and permanent display design; folding carton design; electronic pre-press; 1-7 color sheetfed and UV printing; 1-10 color flexography; complete finishing and carton converting; kitting and fulfillment and fully integrated eCommerce services - including online product ordering, inventory reporting and job tracking tools.