Leading on from its successes in the newspaper sector, press builder KBA says it is now building a stronger reputation and plans to dominate Malaysia's sheetfed offset printer market with its Rapida and Performa presses.
KBA Asia Pacific in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore sold an eight-colour
Rapida 105 eight-colour perfector to Art Printing Works, seven Rapida 105
universal presses to SSP Industries, as well as a five-colour plus coater
Rapida 105 Universal to Linocraft Printers in Johor Bahru and Tung Lim Press in
Shah Alam.
The company also says the new Performa 74 from KBA-Grafitec which now stands at Compugraphic Forms in Butterworth near Penang further underlines the increasing demand for modern press technology from KBA in all regions of the country
KBA also said that its recent sales indicated previous dominance of the Japanese manufacturers was being challenged, despite their significant exchange rate advantages.
Tung Lim Press began as a small commercial printing business in 1982. The management quickly recognised, however, that its future growth prospects in the market for books, brochures, labels and posters were limited, and turned increasing attention to packaging printing. The new five-colour Rapida 105 universal, with its inline coating facility, is expected to further accelerate this expansion.
Managing director Derek Wong says "With its flexibility to handle such a wide variety of substrates, this press offers many new possibilities for us to respond to special customer wishes in both commercial and packaging printing. Demand is growing strongly and we will probably be investing in another Rapida press very soon."
Compugraphic Forms in Penang is no less satisfied with its new B2 perfector
press, a KBA Performa 74. Founded in 1982, the company was before long the
market leader for business forms and
security documents, serving a multitude of
industrial clients, banks and insurers.
At times, its production ran simultaneously on eight continuous forms presses. When this market segment began to wane, however, direct mailing products were identified as a potential new foothold.
Company proprietor Steven Ling says "The KBA Performa 74 is the right press to support our entry into this new market. It combines economic efficiency and performance with automation and simple handling.
Our direct mailing division, which is in the meantime active throughout Malaysia and even beyond, will continue to grow. With the Performa 74, we believe we have good chances for further success."
