- Setting an amazing record: for the past five years, Canada’s sheetfed printers have invested in the complete Koenig & Bauer sheetfed offset portfolio from half, medium to large format
- Local knowledgeable service team quickly responds to customer needs
- Multiple markets are being served: commercial, folding carton, corrugated, label, and pharmaceutical
As Koenig & Bauer continues to introduce new innovative products and solutions, one of its fastest growing markets is Canada. Multiple markets throughout all of the provinces are being served by elite Canadian printers and packaging firms operating high production Koenig & Bauer Rapida sheetfed presses and post-press equipment.
“Our customers have seen amazing growth,” says Aleks Lajtman, regional sales manager for the Canadian market. “For the past five years, Canada’s sheetfed printers have invested in the complete Koenig & Bauer sheetfed offset portfolio from half, medium to large format. They’ve embraced our unique technology that allows them to differentiate themselves from their competition, increase their productivity and efficiency, and better serve their customers. Plus our Canadian customers have put their trust in our knowledgeable local service team who deliver quick responses to customer concerns and questions due to having technicians living in major cities throughout Canada. These technicians, who are trained mechanical, electrical, and print specialists, are under the direction of Wolfgang Guenther, senior director of service.”
What drew the management team at Emballages Mega Packaging to choose Koenig & Bauer over other press manufacturers? The family-owned mid-size folding carton manufacturer was seeking a new offset press to take its production capabilities to the next level with advanced automation and cutting-edge technology. The Montreal, Quebec firm found this technology in a new generation fully-loaded Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 six-color press hybrid UV with coater, which was delivered in the fall of 2023.
“After evaluating other press manufacturers, we determined that Koenig & Bauer was best for us. They offer an extremely high degree of automation, which will allow us to be extremely flexible and efficient. We were also impressed with its strong Canadian service and more importantly for us a support network with technical staff based in Montreal,” says Marco Macri, Emballages Mega Packaging’s president and CEO.
Litho Quebec, located at a state-of-the-art facility in a suburb of Montreal, was drawn to a new generation Koenig & Bauer Rapida 105 41-inch six color press due to the high quality it delivers to its customers. “We have equipped the press with quality control features that are only offered by Koenig & Bauer and can only be found in our pressroom,” says Bruce Zacard, co-owner at Litho Quebec. “We have differentiated ourselves from any of our competitors.”
With business skyrocketing, Albany Packaging, one of the few packaging manufacturers that provides large-format production in Canada, increased its capacity with the installation of a new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 145 seven-color press along with two Koenig & Bauer AllPro 110 and 145 folder gluers. As soon as it went live, the new press provided a 60% increase in press productivity, and saved the company set-up time, while reducing waste and job turnaround time. Since then, overall plant productivity has increased by double digits.
Four million impressions per month? That’s the remarkableoutput froma new, custom-built Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 eight-color press being netted at the London, Ontario facility of Jones Healthcare Group, a market leader in advanced packaging and medication dispensing solutions. The press has increased the company’s production capacity and driven speed to market with unmatched quality and waste reduction for its health and wellness folding carton clients.
When Dana Industries experienced a tremendous explosion of growth, its management team turned to Koenig & Bauer and its Rapida 75 PRO with LED-UV drying to produce its custom shelf talkers, retail store fixtures and displays, and product packaging at its 35,000 sq ft facility outside of Toronto. The new press gave them a 2.5 bigger sheet size, says John Ricci, Dana’s president, and the ability to print 80% of its work in-house.
The post-press market has been equally as busy as the press market. Ingersoll Paper Box has sought out Koenig & Bauer for both new press and post press equipment. The southwestern Ontario firm, which produces folding cartons from standard designs to custom solutions, from computer-aided design (CAD) to printing, die cutting, embossing, and folding/gluing, is utilizing its Koenig & Bauer Optima 106K die cutter and its Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 seven-color 41-inch fully-automated printing press in tandem. “It gives us added capabilities, faster production speeds, and broadened our customer base,” says IPB president Sarah Skinner.
Battlefield Press is one of North America's most experienced and technologically advanced full-service offset printers. Headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, the firm’s most recent investment that is contributing to boosting its postpress production is an Ipress 106 K PRO, its second Koenig & Bauer die cutter, which compliments its existing Optima 106 die cutter and AllPro 70 folder gluer. “Our jobs go right from the press to the finishing room for die-cutting and gluing, ensuring quality, speed and compliance,” says Jerry Theoret, its president and CEO, “Ever since we bought our first Koenig & Bauer die cutter, our volume has doubled.”
In addition to the sheetfed and post-press installations, the Canadian sales team has also installed two MetalPrint MetalStar printing presses and multiple Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica flexible packaging presses.
For more information, please contact: Aleks Lajtman, regional sales manager, cell +1 647 719-3069, aleks.lajtman@koenig-bauer.com