Germany: Koenig & Bauer celebrated its 200th anniversary in the Vogel Convention Center (VCC) earlier this month. Many of the participants took the opportunity to visit the parent plant in Würzburg. In addition to state-of-the-art production facilities and the new Demo Center for digital and flexo printing presses ‒ soon to be equipped with machines ‒ customers experienced historical and current printing presses in production from the broad portfolio of the oldest printing press manufacturer. A circular motion press from the year 1868 printed an engraving of the company’s birthplace, the monastery Oberzell, a Super Orloff Intaglio III press printed a specimen banknote, the Genius 52UV from KBA-NotaSys printed a security document, the digital web press RotaJET L printed, among other things, a 2.2m long poster of the Würzburg-born basketball star Dirk Nowitzki, who plays in Dallas, USA, since many years. And the world’s largest inkjet press, the HP T1100S, produced for HP by Koenig & Bauer, printed a 2.8 m wide topliner for corrugated board.
Speaking to the international press, CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann described several milestones in the last 200 years. He made particular mention of the acquisitions made over the last 25 years, which have turned the company into a leading player in package printing; previously, the company’s main focus had been on media-oriented markets such as newspaper, book, magazine and catalogue printing.
Today, the world’s second-largest printing press manufacturer offers solutions for almost all print markets. Bolza-Schünemann: “From morning to evening, we meet printed products that were produced on Koenig & Bauer presses: from the directly printed perfume bottle in the bathroom in the morning, the newspaper at the breakfast table, banknotes, credit cards and a wide range of packaging when going shopping, to books or magazines in the evening. The best thing about this is that most of these print products cannot be replaced by online media or computer screens, and the demand is continuing to rise. This makes us optimistic for our future.”
Chief Financial Officer Dr Mathias Dähn presented the corporate goals and strategies for the years to come. Dähn: “After a decade of declining sales, growth has become the central pillar of our corporate strategy. All business units should contribute to this and work profitably.” In view of the growth of the world economy, the world population, online commerce and the number of single-person households, he sees particular opportunities in the packaging sector. The company is already the market leader in the printing of cardboard, metal and glass bodies.
Koenig & Bauer wants to improve its market share further in flexible packaging printing, corrugated board printing, and the marking & coding sector. New products such as the VariJet 106 digital hybrid press featured at Drupa 2016 as well as digital, flexo and offset presses for corrugated board, metal sheets and beverage cans are intended to contribute to this. In the course of the official jubilee ceremony, Bolza-Schünemann announced the order of the first digital CorruJET sheetfed press for corrugated board from a German customer. A further example of the expansion strategy on the packaging market is the purchase of the Spanish die-cutter manufacturer Iberica in July 2016. Mathias Dähn described the cooperation with HP in digital inkjet printing for the corrugated board segment as successful and future-oriented.