When Christian Knapp arrived in the UK in January 2001 as the newly appointed managing director of KBA UK, he came as a big press man at heart having spent the previous 12 years with MAN Roland selling newspaper and commercial web presses in the USA, South Africa and Europe.

His travels and cosmopolitan background – born in Vienna, a student and graduate in Canada then masters degree in London, wedded to a Canadian, daughter at the International School, plus spells living in these countries – provide an outlook that is not bound by UK conventions.

Arriving in this country, he inherited at KBA a company with a slender foothold in the market and one principally devoted to sheetfed presses. Knapp quickly adjusted his sights and began to establish himself and his company in the competitive UK sheetfed scene. He continued to “think big” and strove to exploit KBA’s reputation for excellent large format presses, big KBAs already becoming the successors to the book printing workhorses – the Crabtree Size 7 Sovereigns all getting long in the tooth and ready to be phased out from many shop floors. Equally, many carton printers had used the old Planeta sheetfed presses and were ready to upgrade. Today KBA UK is a force to be reckoned with in this country and a clear market leader in large and super large format as well as having a substantial presence in newspaper presses. There are even web offset presses, that from Quebecor in Corby now heading for Polestar.

But it is large-sized sheetfed that KBA has made its own. The KBA Rapida 130-162a presses have become “must have” machines for book printers such as TJ International, MPG Books, Cromwell Press, Ashford Colour Press, Cromwell Press and Colourprint. The giant Rapida 205s, still the biggest sheetfed press in the world, are equally dominant in the POS sector for such printers as Capital, Augustus Martin, St Ives SP, Odessa Offset, NSL, B&P and Showcard Print.

Having had the large format market largely to itself for the past seven years KBA is now facing some stiff competition as MAN Roland (now Manroland) and Heidelberg gear up. But Knapp remains pretty confident. He says: “All the indications are that large format production is the way to go in these competitive times and I believe the new competition can only enlarge the overall market.”

Why large format? The simple answer Christian Knapp asserts is the business answer – economics. He asks: “Why buy two presses when one does exactly the same for a lower investment?” He points at the obvious advantages – one make ready instead of two, two operators instead of four, lower energy costs and less factory floor space required. And the most important plus of all – a higher return on capital employed, per employee, per sheet produced, per man hour – however you choose to calculate it.

Additionally large format presses provide environmental benefits in reduced waste and the more economic purchase and utilisation of raw materials. KBA UK has adroitly exploited this environmentally responsible stance in its advertising and literature and in its sponsorship of leading awards programmes. Recently it partnered Polar Print Group, Leicester, in the installation of a Rapida 105 and what is claimed to be the first carbon neutral sheetfed printing press, achieved through offsetting the carbon used to manufacture the machine.

Christian Knapp sums up: “Historically UK printers have been production-led and besotted by their pressroom technology pointing to the quality of the engineering and the quality of their print. Today it is more important to tailor a press for an individual printer making a business case for what that new press can provide for the company’s performance. We have to justify a £1-3 million investment over five to seven years. Large format strengthens that argument and large format perfecting with one pass through the machine is even better. Big can indeed be beautiful!”