Bobst Group North America

CLAYTON, N.C.—Folding carton manufacturer Colonial Carton recently purchased a new Bobst Alpina II 75-A2 folder/gluer. This is the third Alpina folder/gluer Colonial has added to its full-service folding carton facility in the past two years. In addition to many other productivity enhancing features, including a Cartonpack GT, Colonial’s newest Alpina II will be the first in the US configured with the Bobst AccuBraille rotary Braille embossing system. “We are continually looking for ways to improve our efficiencies, control costs for our customers and provide quality products and services that not only meet, but exceed expectations,” says Joe Elphick, owner of Colonial Carton. “Our latest

NILES, Ill.—Graphic Technologies, a leading finisher to the graphic arts industry, and second largest in the US, recently installed a second Bobst SPanthera 106-LER Autoplaten diecutter (with in-line blanking) to their metropolitan Chicago operation. This installation comes just three months after the installation of their first. This is the newest addition to their growing equipment list which now includes over 15 diecutters and foil stamping and embossing presses. In addition, Graphic Technologies offers a full compliment of finishing capabilities including folding, folding–gluing, laminating, kitting, in-house tool production and a full structural design lab. The new installation further enhances the company’s ability to efficiently convert

CLAYTON, N.C.—Folding carton manufacturer Colonial Carton recently purchased a new Bobst Alpina II 75-A2 Folder-Gluer. This is the third Alpina foldergluer Colonial has added to their full service folding carton facility in the past two years. In addition to many other productivity enhancing features, including a Cartonpack GT, Colonial’s newest Alpina II will be the first in the US configured with the Bobst AccuBraille rotary Braille embossing system. “We are continually looking for ways to improve our efficiencies, control costs for our customers and provide quality products and services that not only meet, but exceed expectations,” says Joe Elphick, owner of Colonial Carton. “Our

ROSELAND, N.J.—Alex Gigon, director of customer service and support operations for Bobst Group North America has announced that InTouch, the company’s online system for parts has now exceeded $25 million in sales. Begun as a small-scale test project in mid 2005, utilization of InTouch has mushroomed to the point where nearly a third of Bobst customers in North America use it routinely. Alex Gigon explains, “Once a customer has signed up for InTouch, and has 24/7/365 access to our parts inventory, there’s little reason for them to ever want to go back to the old way.” The InTouch system allows registered users to check

ROSELAND, N.J.—Bobst Group North America has announced that InTouch will be available to Bobst customers in Canada. Launched in 2005 in the United States, InTouch provides customers a means to check parts availability, receive instant pricing, order parts, and track parts orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Canadian version of InTouch automatically performs currency conversion and is bi-lingual, offering full French text in addition to English. “The response of customers in the U.S. has been phenomenal,” says Alex Gigon, director of customer service and support operations for Bobst Group NA. “Practically everyone that has been introduced to it has taken

BIELEFELD, Germany—The Grautoff family—majority shareholder of Fischer & Krecke GmbH & Co. KG—has signed an agreement concerning the sale of its shares to Bobst Group S.A. in Lausanne (Switzerland). The agreement affects the shares in Fischer Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a majority shareholder of Fischer & Krecke GmbH & Co. KG, as well as Maschinenbau Wilhelm Kochsiek GmbH. As a result of the acquisition, Bobst plans to amend and extend its existing portfolio for printing machines. Dietrich Bernhard Grautoff, majority shareholder and chairman of the advisory board of Fischer & Krecke said, “My family sells off the company very reluctantly. After thorough consideration in the family

What do you do when you have established tried-and-true converting methods and along comes a new innovation? You react and adapt. Some suppliers of folding and gluing equipment have already done so with their product offerings. In light of new European standards requiring Braille application on every pharmaceutical carton, companies like Bobst Group North America and American International Machinery (A.I.M.) have incorporated this technology in their product offerings. “A.I.M. is expecting this European trend to move here to the U.S. very soon, and has uncovered a low-cost, high-speed process that will apply Braille to the product as it is being produced on the folder-gluer,”

BIELEFELD, Germany—The Grautoff family—majority shareholder of Fischer & Krecke GmbH & Co. KG—has signed an agreement concerning the sale of its shares to Bobst Group S.A. in Lausanne (Switzerland). The agreement affects the shares in Fischer Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, which is majority shareholder of Fischer & Krecke GmbH & Co. KG as well as Maschinenbau Wilhelm Kochsiek GmbH. As a result of the acquisition, Bobst plans to amend and extend its existing portfolio for printing machines. Dietrich Bernhard Grautoff, majority shareholder and chairman of the advisory board of Fischer & Krecke said, “My family sells off the company very reluctantly. After thorough consideration in the

With its gross domestic product expanding at a rate of 7.9 percent a year, India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The figures of between 12 and 14 percent for the printing industry are second only to China’s. India has around 150,000 print enterprises, and while most of them are in the north (Delhi) and the west (Mumbai), where there is a long tradition of printing, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata are also experiencing dynamic growth. Demand is expected to take off in the next five years, with advertising, packaging, labels and textbooks considered to be the sectors with the greatest potential.

CARLSTADT, N.J.—Compu-pak, Inc. a full-service finisher in the New York Metro area, recently expanded and enhanced its production capabilities with the addition of a new Bobst SPeria 106-E Autoplaten diecutter. “Due to the increase in demands for larger capacity runs and exacting capabilities from our present customer base in addition to requests from a new source of proposed customers, who also demand larger orders and quicker turnaround, we found it necessary to expand our capabilities,” said Compu-pak President, Rick Esposito. With its average order sizes growing from 15,000 to 25,000 sheets to 40,000 to 50,000 sheets, additional capacity was necessary to meet the growing