Koenig & Bauer is back! At 200, the world’s oldest printing press manufacturer is transitioning from its decades old moniker, KBA, reacquainting its customer base with its 1817 namesake. The move, announced by Chairman and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann, comes at the dawn of the firm’s third century in business. New branding appears on everything from the factory to the machines it manufactures. By design, it speaks to a bright future and bold identity.
The new logo and its abridged form emphasizing the ampersand were unveiled at the Koenig & Bauer 200th anniversary event: a Sept. 20 global press conference and a Sept. 21 gala, staged in the company’s hometown of Würzburg, Germany. The gathering, attracting roughly 650 invited attendees, served as the focal point of a multi-day celebration of the firm’s history that included plant tours, addresses by local and national dignitaries as well as long-time customers, plus festivals open first to employees, and later to some 13,000 members of the public at large.
Back to the Future
“Reviewing 200 years of experience in building printing presses, our portfolio of sophisticated machinery, advanced electronics and software, the time is right to unite all group activities from traditional to digital printing, prepress, finishing and first-rate service under one roof,” Claus explained in opening the press conference.
With 33 subsidiaries—12 producing their own products—the relaunch is intended to strengthen the 5,400 employees’ pride in the company. Furthermore, it is believed the move will allow old and new customers to feel the strength of this traditional brand. The objective: harmonious symbiosis of corporate and product design.
Koenig & Bauer’s new identity statement includes the claim, “We’re on it!” Claus maintained, “Our mission is to bring together what moves our customers forward.” He revealed the ampersand between the surnames of the company’s founders was chosen as the short form of the brand name Koenig & Bauer. “It symbolizes the company’s core values: tradition and innovation, requirements and technologies, and approachability and professionalism.” A 3-m. tall cast ampersand was positioned at the entrance to the new demo center on Sept. 19.
Koenig & Bauer executives insisted, “The new product design is intended to make quality, performance and user orientation of the presses and systems supplied by the companies in the Group even more visible. Forms of the machine design are based on basic geometric structures that demonstrate clarity and self-confidence. The corporate color—blue—harmonizes perfectly with dark and light shades of gray. The new design is being implemented immediately on all new products, and successively up until drupa 2020 for all other products.”
Focus, Forecast, Factory
Claus told the news media, “From morning to evening, we meet printed products that were produced on Koenig & Bauer presses: from the directly printed perfume bottle to the newspaper at the breakfast table; and from banknotes and credit cards to a wide range of packaging, books and magazines… Most of these print products cannot be replaced by online media or computer screens. Demand is continuing to rise. This makes us optimistic for our future.”
Klaus Schmidt, director marketing and communications, added, “The history of Koenig & Bauer is one of outstanding people.” It dates back to 1814—the very same year the bicycle was invented—when The Times of London first printed an edition on a cylinder press designed by Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer. Those two men founded the world’s first printing press factory in 1817 and, by 1876, delivered the first web-fed press. In 1901, the current headquarters plant came online. By 1923, its Collective press brought the firm into the banknote business, where it has remained a force ever since. Today, Koenig & Bauer controls better than 80 percent of world market share. It pegs its large format and package printing market share at 63 percent; metal decorating and glass at 80 percent; and commercial printing and newspaper at 30 percent.
CFO Dr. Mathias Dähn reported, “We’ve been focused on profitable growth. In 2016, with all segments profitable, we had the best profit margin of the past 199 years. Our strategic focus is on packaging and industrial printing.” He assigned packaging a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 percent worldwide and pointed to sophisticated packaging, online retailing, smaller sizes and legal regulations as business drivers. Expectations target the most significant growth in flexible packaging, corrugated board and carton. Food, beverages and health care are prominent market share holders.
He put Koenig & Bauer’s global market share in the cardboard packaging arena at 45 percent and said the combination of inkjet printing and inline finishing is important. Similarly, he noted that analog printing presses dominate the direct corrugated printing market with a share of 95 percent. Significantly, Mathias indicated a new line of flexo presses for the direct corrugated market—the CorruCut/CorruFlex line—is now available, and the first installation is underway.
On the flexible packaging front, Mathias is confident that, following entry into the market with the acquisition of Flexotecnica, the firm’s global market share is up to 6 percent and plans are underway to speed growth. Between now and 2021, Mathias forecasted packaging equipment growth at 4 percent and says with 70 percent of revenues in that area, corporate wide-base growth will approximate 3 percent.
With spoken nods to the past, present and future complete, invited guests toured Koenig & Bauer’s state-of-the-art production facilities and the new demo center, soon to be equipped with running machinery. Audiences (both press and public) experienced historical and current printing presses in production:
- A circular motion press from 1868 printed an engraving of the company birthplace, the monastery Oberzell
- A Super Olof Intaglio III press printed a specimen banknote
- The Genius 52 UV printed a security document
- The Rotajet L printed posters
- The world’s largest inkjet press, the HP T1100s, produced by Koenig & Bauer, printed a 2.8-m. wide topliner for corrugated board
Customer & World Reaction
The next day, the Koenig & Bauer 200th Anniversary celebration at the nearby Vogel Convention Center introduced guests to former Federal President of Germany and former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Horst Köhler as keynote speaker and three CEOs of renowned printing companies:
- Axel Hentrei, CEO of the Bertelsmann Printing Group in Gütersloh, spoke to the World of Media and pointed to automation of production processes, the finishing of printed products and the division of work between print—analog and digital—and online as evolving
- Hans Schur, owner and CEO of the Danish packaging group Schur International, addressed the World of Packaging, and emphasized the often-overlooked role of packaging as a silent salesman
- Ralf Wintergerst, CEO of Giesecke+Devrient in Munich, took the topic World of Security. He highlighted growing risks of cybercrime for electronic and online payment systems, as well as efforts to make physical banknotes as forgery-proof as possible
Horst observed, “In the future, every country must forge its own destiny. But to be successful, we must all keep an eye on much more than just our own anvil. In the 21st century, we need nations that realize they are all sitting in the same boat. We need political answers that merge into a new paradigm of global partnership. We need a global economy that allows all people on Earth to live in dignity, without destroying our planet.”
He described Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer, those founders of Koenig & Bauer, as examples of the wealth of ideas, creative drive and entrepreneurial spirit needed to solve challenges like those ahead.
Claus closed by reminding all that “Print has been keeping our company and its employees moving for 200 years now. Even in a digitalized world, it is always an exciting task finding new technologies, solutions and applications for print with which our customers can continue to be successful.”