KBA and Tensor pick countries for sales agreement

KBA will promote both TPH and Tensor single-width presses following a new German-American alliance.

German press giant KBA – which is focused on double and triple-wide newspaper and heatset equipment – has announced it will share distribution of single-width newspaper web presses with AH Tensor International WHICH IS based in Woodridge, Illinois.

An “appropriate frame” agreement has been signed by KBA executive vice-president Christoph Müller and Mattias Andersson, who is chief executive of Tensor International and of its parent DCOS Sweden. KBA will distribute single-width presses from Tensor in selected countries on a commission basis along with its own high-end presses via its global sales network.The agreement replicates that signed between Tensor and KBA North America for the USA and Canada and announced at GraphExpo.

The parties say further countries are expected to follow soon.

In a joint announcement, KBA and Tensor say the deal takes into account the smaller global market volume for newspaper printing technology. “In the current industry environment such alliances between manufacturers whose products address various segments within the newspaper market make sense with respect to costs,” it says.

“KBA accommodates high and very high demands in terms of productivity, automation and ease of operation with its double and triple-width presses. In contrast the presses from Tensor are engineered in terms of their equipment and output predominantly for heavily budget-oriented smaller newspaper houses.”

The current agreement with Tensor International does not terminate the previous strategic alliance agreed in September 2009 between KBA and The Printers House (TPH) in India to promote single-width one-around Orient web presses in other markets.

Pictured (from left) Christoph Müller, Mattias Anderson and Alexander Huttenlocher (KBA sales director for web-offset presses)