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With four large-format Compacta web presses in one go from Koenig & Bauer (KBA), the Blitz-Inform publishing house is expanding its printing company Blitz-Print in the Ukrainian capital Kiev this year, thereby consolidating its leading market position in the Ukraine.
If you have ever been to the Ukraine, you will almost certainly have held a printed product from Blitz in your hands, whether it was a glossy magazine or a bar of chocolate wrapped in the appropriate packaging. The Blitz-Inform publishing house founded in 1992 is part of the eponymous holding. The Blitz-Print printshop followed in 1994 and after that came the packaging printshops Blitz-Pack and Blitz-Flex in 1996 and 1998 respectively. The holding employs more than 4,000 people in its four companies in Kiev and the 28 offices throughout the Ukraine and generates sales in excess of EUR 100 million. Blitz-Print alone has nearly 1,000 employees. The main areas accounting for the printed products are newspapers, advertising brochures, packaging and labels.
The main market is the Ukraine, but Russia, Belarus, Moldavia and Kazakhstan are also served from Kiev. The best known printed products are the women's magazine "NATALY" with more than 280 pages and a circulation of 700,000 copies and the most widely-read business publication "BUSINESS" with some 100,000 copies. Compared to other central European countries, Blitz still sees considerable potential for expansion in its markets. A particular focus is on the rapidly booming Russian printing market, which the company has been serving since 2003, but Blitz also has western European customers among its clientele.
Variable production to suit the customers
The modern press fleet at Blitz has nothing to fear from a comparison with the renowned large printing works in Europe. A dedicated laboratory is responsible for examining and selecting the printing materials and consumables. A total of nine medium-format sheetfed presses, four of which are KBA Rapida 105, are in production at Blitz-Print alone. The company did not venture into the web press segment until 2003 and since then has recorded rapid growth. Two 16-page web presses from a different manufacturer set the ball rolling, followed by four KBA Compacta 215 presses. By the end of 2008, a total of eleven web presses, eight of them KBA presses, will be producing high-quality commercial work at the two web press sites of the Ukrainian market leader in Kiev.
Two 48-page Compacta 618 presses (1,240 mm or 1,156 mm cylinder circumference) will start up at Blitz during the coming summer months. These will be followed by the end of the year by two further Compacta 818 presses (1,240 mm or 1,197 mm cylinder circumference) with a capacity of 72 A4 pages each. All four Compacta web presses will be fitted with the V5 variable-format gripper folder. This will allow either two or three sections on the cylinder circumference as required. As three different cylinder circumferences will be used on the four new presses, Blitz will be able to produce a total of six different cut-off lengths. This will therefore enable the company to offer all standard product formats extremely economically and meet a wide range of different market requirements in the best possible way.
Convincing service concept
Together with the Ukrainian agency UPG, KBA has built up a large stock of spare parts in Kiev over the past few months that will be expanded even further as part of new investments. This guarantees the supply of spare parts at extremely short notice, reduces the customer's stock requirement and minimises any possible idle times of the high-quality production plants. UPG service specialists also take care of the both the sheetfed and web presses on site.
Sergey I. Melnitschuk, President of the Blitz-Inform Holding, knows the value of this service: "Our experiences of the UPG service have been extremely good. This gives us security and was one of the reasons for embarking on the next round of investments with KBA. However, the strong performance of the double-circumference web presses from KBA and the overall good price-performance ratio also convinced us."
Christoph Müller, KBA vice-president for web press sales, marketing and service, is undoubtedly proud of the good partnership: "With these repeated investments, Blitz has moved forward to become one of our largest commercial printing customers of the last few years. I am proud of the fact that we were once again able to win the confidence of Blitz and look forward to the continuation of our successful partnership."
If you have ever been to the Ukraine, you will almost certainly have held a printed product from Blitz in your hands, whether it was a glossy magazine or a bar of chocolate wrapped in the appropriate packaging. The Blitz-Inform publishing house founded in 1992 is part of the eponymous holding. The Blitz-Print printshop followed in 1994 and after that came the packaging printshops Blitz-Pack and Blitz-Flex in 1996 and 1998 respectively. The holding employs more than 4,000 people in its four companies in Kiev and the 28 offices throughout the Ukraine and generates sales in excess of EUR 100 million. Blitz-Print alone has nearly 1,000 employees. The main areas accounting for the printed products are newspapers, advertising brochures, packaging and labels.
The main market is the Ukraine, but Russia, Belarus, Moldavia and Kazakhstan are also served from Kiev. The best known printed products are the women's magazine "NATALY" with more than 280 pages and a circulation of 700,000 copies and the most widely-read business publication "BUSINESS" with some 100,000 copies. Compared to other central European countries, Blitz still sees considerable potential for expansion in its markets. A particular focus is on the rapidly booming Russian printing market, which the company has been serving since 2003, but Blitz also has western European customers among its clientele.
Variable production to suit the customers
The modern press fleet at Blitz has nothing to fear from a comparison with the renowned large printing works in Europe. A dedicated laboratory is responsible for examining and selecting the printing materials and consumables. A total of nine medium-format sheetfed presses, four of which are KBA Rapida 105, are in production at Blitz-Print alone. The company did not venture into the web press segment until 2003 and since then has recorded rapid growth. Two 16-page web presses from a different manufacturer set the ball rolling, followed by four KBA Compacta 215 presses. By the end of 2008, a total of eleven web presses, eight of them KBA presses, will be producing high-quality commercial work at the two web press sites of the Ukrainian market leader in Kiev.
Two 48-page Compacta 618 presses (1,240 mm or 1,156 mm cylinder circumference) will start up at Blitz during the coming summer months. These will be followed by the end of the year by two further Compacta 818 presses (1,240 mm or 1,197 mm cylinder circumference) with a capacity of 72 A4 pages each. All four Compacta web presses will be fitted with the V5 variable-format gripper folder. This will allow either two or three sections on the cylinder circumference as required. As three different cylinder circumferences will be used on the four new presses, Blitz will be able to produce a total of six different cut-off lengths. This will therefore enable the company to offer all standard product formats extremely economically and meet a wide range of different market requirements in the best possible way.
Convincing service concept
Together with the Ukrainian agency UPG, KBA has built up a large stock of spare parts in Kiev over the past few months that will be expanded even further as part of new investments. This guarantees the supply of spare parts at extremely short notice, reduces the customer's stock requirement and minimises any possible idle times of the high-quality production plants. UPG service specialists also take care of the both the sheetfed and web presses on site.
Sergey I. Melnitschuk, President of the Blitz-Inform Holding, knows the value of this service: "Our experiences of the UPG service have been extremely good. This gives us security and was one of the reasons for embarking on the next round of investments with KBA. However, the strong performance of the double-circumference web presses from KBA and the overall good price-performance ratio also convinced us."
Christoph Müller, KBA vice-president for web press sales, marketing and service, is undoubtedly proud of the good partnership: "With these repeated investments, Blitz has moved forward to become one of our largest commercial printing customers of the last few years. I am proud of the fact that we were once again able to win the confidence of Blitz and look forward to the continuation of our successful partnership."
