Mark Francis joins KBA (UK)

Mark Francis spent 25 years with Heidelberg Graphic Equipment – initially as a printing instructor, then in sales where he went on to become a team leader – after gaining his City & Guilds at Stoke-on-Trent Print College and working for 10 years at Stafford Reprographics.

The appointment coincides with KBA UK’s best sales year since the current recession began and signals its anticipation of an even stronger performance in 2015.

Chris Scully, KBA (UK) sales director for sheet-fed presses, said: ‘Mark has the skills, experience and awareness that we require of our ASMs; every KBA Rapida press is built to order and the most important part of our sales process is understanding the client’s business, identifying their requirements and putting together the specification for the press that will out-perform their competition and deliver success.

‘Mark comes to us fully-formed and ready to hit the ground running. 2014 has been a breakthrough year for KBA (UK) and we have the right infrastructure, products and people to build on that next year.’

Francis added: ‘It’s an open secret that KBA now has the edge in technology and performance in most litho press formats. Whether that’s because of the group’s stronger financial position, its R&D resources or its understanding of emerging trends, the result is an offering that has to be considered by every print company as they upgrade their production capabilities.

‘For too long, we’ve seen in the recession, that buying new capital equipment has been approached in a negative frame of mind – almost as if it can’t be delayed any longer – but the incredible power-performance of the new RAPIDA presses turns that on its head. I’m really looking forward to opening a few people’s eyes to the positives of new investment that will change their businesses.’

KBA (UK) managing director Andrew Pang concluded: ‘This has been a good year for KBA (UK); we’ve broken our sales targets and our ongoing reorganization is beginning to bear fruit, especially in the quality of the people in our sales, service and customer support teams – Mark’s appointment is part of that process.

‘But the really encouraging factors for our future success are the superior systems that are coming on stream from our factories almost on a weekly basis, and the supplier alliances that Group is developing as a strategy to offer optimum business partnerships to our customers; the formula is right and that is being reflected in the quality and profile of the organisations that are buying into the KBA brand.’