König & Bauer AG - Market leader fires up KBA Compacta 618

Sao Paulo-based Editora Abril, part of Grupo Abril, one of the biggest media groups not just in Brazil but also in Latin America, has fired up a 48pp KBA Compacta 618 commercial web press ordered at Drupa 2008.

The company celebrated the inauguration a few weeks ago with an open house attended by staff, customers and representatives from fellow Brazilian printers Oceano, Plural and Santa Marta.
In their commemorative addresses, Grupo Abril CEO Giancarlo Civita and chairman Roberto Civita both emphasised the huge capacity boost delivered by the Compacta, while KBA sales director Kai Trapp wished the company every success with the new technology. The press then printed a corporate publication, Fique Sabendo, the quality which was rated as excellent by the audience. The highly automated Compacta 618, which features KBA’s unique automated RollerTronic roller locks, has a fifth printing unit for handling special colours.

Since being launched in 1950 Grupo Abril has grown into one of the biggest communications enterprises in Latin America, with over 7,000 employees. Of these 1,100 work at Editora Abril’s 55,000m² production plant near Sao Paulo city centre. Abril is the only printing company in Latin America to operate publication gravure presses. It has an annual consumption of over 100,000 tonnes (110,000 US tons) of paper for printed products totalling more than 350 million copies comprising some 50 different titles.

The Koenig & Bauer Group is one of the largest press manufacturers worldwide and has the broadest press range in the industry. The parent company is Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) with facilities in Würzburg, Radebeul, Frankenthal and Trennfeld (all in Germany).

The other core members of the Group are Maschinenfabrik KBA-Mödling AG in Mödling, near Vienna (Austria), KBA-Grafitec s.r.o. in Dobruška (Czech Republic), KBA-Metronic AG in Veitshöchheim, near Würzburg (Germany), KBA-MetalPrint GmbH in Stuttgart (also Germany) and KBA-GIORI S.A. in Lausanne (Switzerland). KBA North America Inc. in Dallas, Texas (USA), is our sales and service subsidiary for the US and Canada. In addition we have sales and service outlets in the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, Russia, Poland, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore, plus a global network of dealers. The core companies in the Group employ some 7,500 people.