KBA has sold another of the ‘classic’ Commander CL newspaper presses it launched at IfraExpo in 2011.
This time German media business Heilbronner Stimme is buying a four-tower press for installation next year, bringing the total sold of the “flexibly automatable” design to seven lines – with a total of 25 printing towers – for installation in Germany, China and the USA.
The order confirms a relation ship which extends to 1946 when the new company used a letterpress KBA Courier press, and has continued with a Commander satellite web installed in 1995.
The new compact line will take over production from mid-2014. Its H-type printing units have a cylinder circumference of 1020 mm and maximum web width of 1400 mm.
Heilbronner Stimme called in Martin Blume of management consultants mb³, opting for the intelligent modular design after an extensive selection process.
“The latest KBA development not just offers great value for money, but also practice-orientated automation, which can also be customised flexibly at a later date to suit changing demands,” says managing director Bernd Herzberger. “It has many features found in the internationally successful Commander CT, such as the same high-quality inking unit with three forme rollers. I believe that we have made a choice fit for the future by choosing this cutting-edge press.”
The Heilbronn publisher is a longstanding member of WAN-Ifra’s International Newspaper Color Quality Club and now a member of its Star club after participating five times.
With nine local titles and a daily circulation of around 90,000 copies and 266,000 readers, the Heilbronner Stimme together with the titles Hohenloher Zeitung and Kraichgau Stimme, are the leading daily newspapers for the economic region Heilbronn-Franken, Hohenlohe and Kraichgau. The echo, a boulevard weekly with editions on Wednesdays and Sundays, has a circulation of 240,000 copies. The company also publishes newspaper supplements and other weekly and monthly titles, owns a share in a local radio station, and is an online publisher.