German printing press company Koenig & Bauer Group (KBA) has agreed to distribute CI flexo web presses for flexible packaging in Australia and New Zealand.
KBA Australasia signed a sales and service agreement with Italy's KBA-Flexotecnica during this month's drupa event, and general manager Dave Lewis said the distribution deal would strengthen its position in flexible packaging “considerably”.
With a global annual growth rate of between four and five per cent, flexible packaging produced mostly with flexo and gravure is considered the highest-growing packaging segment.
“There have been huge advancements in the quality achieved with cutting-edge flexo presses through progress in prepress, printing forms such as blocks and sleeves, and colour management, in recent years,” Lewis said.
“The same is true of the increasingly popular topics of environmental friendliness and the use of low-migration and migration-free inks.
“Here, flexo has clear advantages over gravure through its lower usage of solvents and a new generation of water-based or radiation-curing inks for non-absorbent substrates.”
