KBA looks to continue packaging push in economic upturn

KBA UK managing director Christian Knapp reiterated the firm’s view that the market would not return to the levels seen before the economic downturn and the firm was looking reorganise accordingly.

The German company has said it sees potential for growth in large-format printing for packaging and the firm has already made big inroads. “We’ve gone more into B1 packaging houses looking to do difficult runs and areas like point-of-sale printing,” said Knapp.

He also said that KBA’s German head office continued to look at options outside of simply providing printing equipment in pharmaceutical, healthcare and food packaging, although said nothing had been decided as yet.

“We could be interested in buying a company or entering into a partnership if the right opportunity arose, and we have the engineers and capabilities to make such a move,” said Knapp.

At the press event, KBA also revealed its Flying Job Change (FJC) system had been well received by the packaging sector.

FJC increases the amount of jobs that can be run by a press in a given time by reducing makeready times. “Effectively, we are making two presses out of one, because the press doesn’t have to stop when you are changing plates,” said executive sales director for sheetfed presses Mark Nixon.

Knapp also confirmed the firm’s forecast of a 25% reduction in group sales for the current financial year of EUR 1.1bn (£1bn). “We think we’ll more or less break even for the year or maybe record a slight loss,” he said.

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