
The increase, which will take effect from 15 April, is in response to rising materials, energy and other input costs. It is also intended to help return the group’s sheetfed division to consistent profit, something it has failed to achieve in consecutive years since 2007.
KBA Australia’s general manager of sheetfed, Dave Lewis, told ProPrint: “Someone has to try to stop the downward spiral of pricing in our industry.”
KBA’s international sheetfed division has returned an operating loss in all but one of the past five years. The division was running at a €21.4 million ($28 million) loss for the first nine months of 2012.
The executive vice-president for sheetfed sales, Ralf Sammeck, said “competition in this market is too price-driven”.
[Related: KBA revamps Rapida 145]
“Needing to utilise excessive capacities, some manufacturers in the industry have for a long time concentrated blindly on securing market shares, regardless of any losses and to the detriment of their external investors,” he said.
“That hardly makes sense. The moderate price increase for our sheetfed presses is justified by their technical features and will contribute to sustainable improvement of our profitability.”
Sammeck said KBA had given printers “the most modern and efficient sheetfed offset presses… for the medium and large formats” with its Rapida 106 and Rapida 145 presses.
“The innovative technology of our highly automated presses, and their many unique features in terms of automation, fast makeready and inline processes, bring economic benefits for the user and enhance the long-term value of an investment, but they naturally also cost money.
“The market, however, has recognised this added value. We were able to record a significant increase in both orders received and turnover in the sheetfed offset segment in 2012, and have further reinforced our position as the second-largest manufacturer in the world.”
[LinkedIn: How do you get clients to stop talking about price?]
This article originally appeared at printweek.com
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