Business News
KBA Celebrates 25 Years in Canadian Print Market with New Appointments
Tuesday 08. July 2008 - New vice president of sales and service named for market with a new larger location
KBA North America, a global press manufacturer based in Williston, Vermont, is expanding its emphasis on the Canadian market as it celebrates its 25th year of press sales in the region. To oversee this growth, KBA has promoted Lawrence Robinson from Canadian district sales manager to vice president of sales in Canada. In addition, the firm has named Wolfgang Günther as the new vice president of service and operations for the Canadian market. In January 2009, the firm will have moved its offices to a new larger location near the Toronto airport.
“KBA is proud of its 25 years of success serving the Canadian market,” says John Raithel, KBA president of KBA Canada. “Lawrence and Wolfgang have the unique expertise of consulting with our valued customers on how to move into new expanding markets and how to gain greater efficiencies to help build profitability.”
To oversee this mandate, KBA has promoted Lawrence Robinson to the newly-created post of vice president of sales in Canada. “KBAs business model is the ideal operation to continue our growth in Canada,” says Robinson. “While other press manufacturers send representatives from the U.S. to help their Canadian customers or depend on outside operations, KBA has a dedicated knowledgeable staff in Canada to work individually with each of our customers. We form a partnership and work as consultants to help our printer customers decide which of the wide variety of KBA printing presses will be right for their business. Its exciting for us to see one of our customers install a KBA press and make an immediate impact on their market.”
Robinson joined KBA one year ago as the new district sales manager overseeing Canadas central and eastern regions. Prior to that position, Robinson spent seven years with another press manufacturer as its director of customer service, where he launched a national technical support program. Robinson also spent time with Thorn Press in Toronto as the manager of plant engineering. After graduating college with degrees in both engineering and computer science, Robinson joined KBA for seven years as an electrical field engineer in Canada and as a technical service manager in Los Angeles.
Wolfgang Günther has been named the new KBA vice president of service and operations for the Canadian market. Günther joined KBA one year ago as its Canadian service manager after spending more than ten years with another press manufacturer as their director of service for Canada. Günther was born in Germany and graduated with a masters degree in automotive technology. He worked as a master technician for Ferrari in Canada and as a service technician for a BMW dealership.
“My goal as the new vice president of service and operations is to take a pro-active approach,” says Günther. “I will be working extensively with our customers and plan to expand our Canadian service and training efforts to further demonstrate the added value of partnering with KBA.”
The province of Quebec will continue to be overseen by press distributor KBR for KBA.