Komori America

RESTON, VA—10/17/08—The three factors that reportedly most influence the purchase decision of an offset press are speed, price and quality—which isn’t altogether surprising, considering that printers become subject to those same considerations when it comes to trying to win print jobs. “The only way a printer can survive today is to have control over the cost of the printed product,” says Don Bence, vice president of Sakurai USA Inc., “Unfortunately, commercial printing is being treated as a commodity today, with extreme price pressures in the market.” Bence suggests one way to lower costs is to take advantage of press automation features, thereby reducing labor

Allstate Print Communications Center, the largest corporate in-plant in the country, has just installed its first used press, a six-color, 40? Komori with a coater. “It definitely was a change in philosophy,” remarks Jerry Grouzard, print communication manager at the Wheeling, Ill.-based in-plant. “For years it was ‘new or nothing.’” But due to the state of the economy, he says, it was more like “used or nothing” this time around. The $184 million operation would have had a tough time justifying the cost of a new six-color press this year, he says, and likely would have had to wait a year or more to

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—June 4, 2008—Komori Corp. announced today the investment of Yen 10 billion (>$95 million) in the latest phase of expansion of its flagship Tsukuba factory in Tsukuba City, Japan. Construction will start in September 2008 and, when complete in December 2009, the Tsukuba Plant will have effectively doubled in size to become the world’s largest press manufacturing facility. “We are experiencing continued strong growth in market share worldwide, particularly outside Japan, which is driving our investment to meet increase in demand for our sheetfed and web offset presses in the future,” said Yoshiharu Komori, president and chief executive officer of Komori Corporation.

WHEN YOUR in-plant has 153 years of history behind it, promoting it as a cutting-edge marvel with a “customers first” mentality can be a tough job. Jean-Luc Devis thinks he’s found a way. Just 15 months into the job, the new director of the State of Washington Department of Printing has made it his mission to rebrand his 130-employee in-plant in the minds of customers. His message: “We’re not the state printer you used to know.” Instead of using the state mandate to force agencies to use the in-plant—the strategy just a few decades ago—the Department of Printing (PRT for short) now strives to

The Washington State Department of Printing recently welcomed Governor Chris Gregoire at its main printing plant in Tumwater. The Governor scheduled her visit specifically to personally thank agency staff for their outstanding support during the preparation of the governor’s budget documents this past December. As that budget was going to press, a violent storm knocked out power to a significant portion of the state, including the Department of Printing’s main plant and copy center. Word reached the Governor of the significant challenges the agency staff overcame to ensure the timely delivery of the more than 1.3 million printed and bound pages that made

Komori America demonstrated the capabilities of its S40 Super Perfector offset press in web-to-print applications during a recent event at its Rolling Meadows, Ill., headquarters. About 100 printers attended and listened as speakers from Komori, Graphics Arts Technical Foundation and key vendors shared the business opportunity inherent in web-to-print solutions. Hands-on demonstrations were a key part of the event. Julie Schaffer, director of GATF’s Center for Imaging Excellence, provided an in-depth overview of the variety of avenues available in this relatively new market, and the opportunities it offers printers seeking to expand their expertise and print product offerings. Don Newberry, manager of Komori America’s

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL—March 21, 2007— Komori America Corporation announced today that effective March 31, 2007, they will assume the sales and service responsibilities for the territory previously covered by Atlantic Graphic Systems, Inc, Columbia, MD. This includes the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia; a portion of eastern Pennsylvania and the Washington, DC area. The entire United States will now be serviced directly by Komori America. “Over the past several years, our strategy has been to bring those areas of the US that were handled by our dealer network under the Komori America umbrella. This allows us to provide the full complement of Komori services

SOMETIMES IT seems I’m chained to this desk, “observing” the industry through e-mails and Web sites. So I like to break away now and then to see for myself what’s happening in the world’s in-plants. Recently I caught a train up to New York to do just that. On a frigid winter day I walked through a sea of scarves and hats to the United Nations’ headquarters to visit one of the largest in-plants out there. Paul Kazarov, chief of the Publishing Section, took me for a walk through the U.N.’s vast underground in-plant, filled with just about every type of printing and binding

OFFSET PRESSES continue to pull their weight amidst the flashy digital printers that have been popping up in offices nationwide. These digital newcomers might be great for short-run work, but for big projects they still must step aside and let ye olde offset workhorses do their thing. Don’t think being called “old” is an insult, though. The longevity of these machines is impressive and can easily add up to decades. Jim VanderWal, production manager at CRC Product Services in Grand Rapids, Mich., says that his shop’s four-color Heidelberg SM102 was purchased in 1989 and the two-color Heidelberg SM72 dates back to 1975. Over

EVEN THOUGH his in-plant won an impressive 10 awards in this year’s In-Print contest, Rodney Brown was not prepared to hear his shop’s name called out as the Best of Show winner during the recent awards ceremony. “I was totally surprised,” says Brown, manager of the Graphic Communications Center at the University of Delaware. “It just gets harder every year because of the quality that all the rest of the in-plants are putting out.” The piece that caught the judges’ attention was a case-bound 160-page cookbook featuring recipes from Vita Nova, the University of Delaware’s student-run restaurant, and illustrated with color photos of