Transcontinental orders four KBA Commander CT webs

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Only a few months ago, KBA had received its biggest newspaper and semi-commercial order of the past few years, from Montreal-based Transcontinental, the third largest printing corporation in Canada and fifth largest in North America. The company ordered four triple-wide versions of the ultra-compact KBA Commander CT for its plants in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. The four presses will have a total of sixteen towers, four single and two double folders and six heatset dryers. Installation of all four presses will start in the first quarter of 2010. For Transcontinental, the purpose of the investment is to accommodate long-term printing contracts and enhance efficiency. The investment has been made possible by a package deal including a six-year loan from Germany’s second largest bank Hypo Vereinsbank, supplemented by credit facilities provided by local Canadian banks.

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• KBA Commander CT webs

Founded in 1976, Transcontinental is Canada’s largest independent newspaper printer, and has driven growth in recent years with contract work for other large North American newspapers like The Globe & Mail, La Presse and the San Francisco Chronicle. It is also the leading publisher of consumer magazines and French-language educational resources in the country, and the second-largest community newspaper publisher, while its digital platform delivers content through more than 120 web sites. Its Marketing Communications Sector provides advertising services and marketing products using new communications platforms supported by database analytics, premedia, eMail marketing and custom communications. Transcontinental has 13,500 employees in Canada, the United States and Mexico, and had a sales turnover of close to Canadian $ 2.5 billion (US$ 2.2 billion) in 2008. Commander CT’s winning points the decision in favor of the high-automation, high-output KBA Commander CT was influenced by a potentially higher return on investment (ROI) when factoring in the cost of infrastructure and buildings: the press takes up less space, consumes less energy and requires fewer personnel than other presses. Brian Reid, President Print Sector of Transcontinental, says: “Although the Daily News in New York can lay claim to the first triple-wide Commander CT installation in North America, we’ll be the first print operation worldwide with multiple press lines printing hybrid coldset/heatset products or coldset newspapers alongside heatset commercials. And with these innovative compact presses, we’ll be doing it more cost effectively than was previously considered possible. In addition to the Commander CT’s raft of winning features for reducing operational and maintenance input, what impressed us most was the enormous flexibility displayed in customizing the press for our specific needs.”

The presses for Transcontinental will be controlled by KBA ErgoTronic consoles and incorporate heatset dryers with auxiliaries, KF 5 single or double jaw folders and KBA Pastomat reelstands, embedded in Patras A automated reel-logistics systems. Each press line will have a maximum hourly output of 90,000 full-color newspapers, inserts or magazines with up to 48 broadsheet or 96 tabloid pages.

Commenting the Transcontinental order, Claus Bolza-Schünemann, Deputy President of KBA, said: “Over the past decade we have expended a lot of money and effort developing this new compact platform comprising the waterless Cortina and the conventional Commander CT. This contract from an internationally respected market player like Transcontinental is a major vote of confidence in KBA and confirms the wisdom of our strategy.”

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