Perth-based Picton Press has continued its investment campaign with an order for a 10-colour KBA Rapida 106 with a raft of high-spec features.

According to managing director Dennis Hague, the five-over-five perfector will replace three ageing Komori presses – a six-colour 40-inch, a five-colour 28-inch and a four-over-four 44-inch dedicated perfector.

The new KBA Rapida 106 will be fully optioned with the latest technology, including side layless infeed and DriveTronic direct drive technology, and will be retrofitted ready for H-UV inks.

[Dennis Hague is on the ProPrint Power 50 shortlist. Vote now]

Operations manager Murray Scott told ProPrint that the company would benefit from "cost reductions, better efficiencies on the press, quicker turnaround of jobs, waste and power reductions and quicker makereadies".

"We went with KBA because their technology is very good. They're much quicker. A new 40-inch Komori could do 13,000 an hour, but the KBA will print 18,000 an hour, so there's a 35 per cent difference in efficiency right there."

Picton Press began its investment journey in April with the installation of a Kodak Nexpress SX2700 and a Nexpress SX3900 with long-sheet feeder. That purchase cost about $1 million, said general manager Graham Jamieson at the time. Picton also invested about $200,000 in a new MIS, EFI Pace, which went live on 1 July.

Managing director Dennis Hague said that in the next six months Picton Press will have assembled the best printing operation in Australia, "enabling us to bring additional benefits to our customers… with ISO colour management, ease of operation, transparent reporting, and supported by the best people, all in one affordable easy-to-use set of platforms.

"We are investing heavily in everyone's future. The new press will also allow us entry into markets we have been unable to service in the past."

Dave Lewis, KBA Australasia's general manager for sheetfed presses, told ProPrint: "It's a nice sale from our point of view because we have been typecast in packaging. We know that's not true and now we have a commercial order for a long perfector, which gets us back into the commercial market.

"KBA is very strong in the commercial market around the world and this sale will reinforce it in Australia, which is brilliant."

The software side

Data services manager Brad Hall told ProPrint that Picton Press had been working with numerous companies over the past 18 months on workflow management, data integration and the latest press technology, and has visited leading operations and solution providers around the world.

"We purchased a new EFI Pace MIS, the first in Australia," he said. "We're all about a full JDF workflow from front to back and gaining efficiencies from that, as well as gaining data. Data is a big way we can manage our business more effectively. With front to back data reporting, we can know what work we want and which is most profitable.

"KBA has worked with EFI Pace systems worldwide, so we'll have flexibility and better information coming back," said Hall.

"The way forward in this industry is to become more efficient, and have more data on how the business is running. It's about having as much data about our business as we can at any one time, and make more informed decisions based on that data. All our investment decisions are made on being able to integrate with our existing systems, including Pace."

"We look forward to leading the pack in the coming months," said Dennis Hague.

[Related: Top Aussie printers visit UK makeready guru]

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