Product Guide - ClikCreative

RAPIDA 75 MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Quality and Productivity Sharpen Competitive Edge
A ‘company-saving investment’ is how Clódórí Lurgan Teo
(CL Print Ltd) has described the addition of a 6-colour B2
KBA RAPIDA 75 to its pressroom firepower.
“We would not still be in business if it wasn’t for the
KBA,” said Owner Micheál Ó Conghaile who was the first
printer in the UK and Ireland to install the new RAPIDA 75
following its World Launch at Drupa 2008.
He identified the fully-specified B2 KBA as ‘the perfect
replacement’ for a Heidelberg as CL’s frontline press and
says, “The results speak for themselves – being able to
offer high-quality short-run colour print competitively has been essential to
our survival in the current economic climate, we would have gone under
without the RAPIDA 75.
“Now we are completing 50% more colour book work. Customers want
shorter runs completed faster and we never would have been able to do that
before in such a price sensitive way. Also with the quicker makereadies we
are able to change jobs over faster allowing us to get more small runs out of
the door to meet the tighter turnaround times.
“Some former customers who had moved away because we weren’t
competitive enough have started coming back. Without that we would
have been closed by now.”
The new press investment was part of the Connemara printer’s strategy
to drive up quality, improve efficiency and increase capacity in order to
boost competitiveness for new business as well as existing accounts –
these include
Aer Arann’s prestigious in-flight magazine ‘express-it’ and the annual
order of 120,000 CAO handbooks for the Department of Education.
CL Print also has a strong traditional customer base within the
region and beyond, a mix of independent publishers, authors and
government bodies as well as key commercial clients.
As its dual name suggests, the west coast printer works in both the
English and Irish languages. Its language advantage in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking)
regions has created a sound base historically, although as more than 40% of output is now in English
the ability to compete as a commercial print house at every level is essential.
Before investing in the RAPIDA 75 all the major manufacturers were considered with print quality and
productivity key concerns. Then it came down to operational benefits and value for money. “KBA has incorporated
a lot of the features from its larger presses into this machine, like the automated sidelays, the self-adjusting grippers
and the cocking system,” said Mr Ó Conghaile. “It also has a strong construction but a small footprint and most
important for us, it is very energy efficient. That has given us a key operational advantage and reduced our carbon
footprint. This is an increasingly important factor when tendering for government and blue-chip contracts.”
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