KBA to remove Rapida 74 from Horton

News by

15 August 2002

KBA is removing the UK's first Rapida 74 from Bradford-based Horton Print Group after a dispute over its performance.

UK managing director Christian Knapp said that although KBA had "leant over backwards" and provided unlimited engineering support and "generous" financial incentives, Horton had been "unable to make the press work properly for them" since the installation in early 2001.

Horton managing director Michael Burrowes had praised the £500,000 five-colour Rapida four months after installation (Me & My Machine, PrintWeek, 1 June 2001), but this week claimed it had been dogged by problems. A five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 bought earlier this year was "doing the job we bought the KBA to do", he added.

"Nobody would get another press if it [the first press] was working," said Burrowes, who is considering legal action.

But Knapp said there had been "no abnormal technical difficulties". "There were some initial issues but nothing out of the ordinary."

Story by Gordon Carson