Koenig & Bauer rejects research as erroneous

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According to PrintWeek, Koenig & Bauer has rejected the findings of a Smithers Pira report into the productivity of used sheetfed presses.

The white paper—sponsored by Heidelberg—looked at used presses from 5 manufacturers, finding that Heidelbergs produced higher annual print volumes than competitor’s machines. The report concluded: “the profit opportunity for Heidelberg machines is significantly higher than for competitive models.”

However, Klaus Schmidt, Koenig & Bauer director of marketing & corporate communications, rejected the findings. Schmidt told PrintWeek: “It seems that the Smithers Pira study has been ordered as a white paper with the target to reach the published result.” According to Schmidt, Smithers Pira had not contacted Koenig & Bauer for a statement before publishing the white paper.

KBA argues that the number of prints per year, alone, is not a clear indicator of press productivity. Productivity depends on many factors:

• press configuration,
• number of colours,
• inline finishing equipment,
• straight or perfecting,
• structure of the print jobs:
  • long or short runs,
  • standard or sensitive substrates,
  • good enough or high-end quality,
  • qualification & motivation of the press crew, and
  • print shop business model—one, two or three shifts.

Heidelberg head of global marketing Andy Rae confirmed to PrintWeek that they had paid for the study because it wanted third-party validation of data that it had been gathering itself.