KBA has moved to "roundly refute" suggestions that it may tie up with MAN Ferrostaal, now that its sales alliance with manroland in Asia, Australia, South Africa, parts of Latin America and eastern Europe is being terminated. According to management the group has complete confidence in its existing subsidiaries in the region – KBA Asia-Pacific (Singapore), KBA-Australasia (Sydney, Melbourne) and KBA RUS (Moscow) – whose sheetfed and web press activities are supported by a network of independent dealers with longstanding market experience. "Having established close ties with customers, KBA has no plans to challenge their loyalty by scaling back its sales and service organisation, and may even hire more staff if necessary. "Alongside our acknowledged innovative energy and outstanding products, one of our prime strengths is our direct line to customers via a lean and flexible market organisation with highly motivated personnel," says a spokesman. "While the global meltdown has forced other manufacturers to initiate major staff cuts in their international sales networks, some of which have grown unwieldy in recent years, this is not the case with KBA."