From left, during a tour of the Allied Printing Services plant: John Sommers Jr., president of Allied Printing Services; Claus Bolza-Schünemann, president and CEO of KBA; and Jonathan Kaufman, vice president of technical development at Allied Printing Services.

KBA North America today announced that Allied Printing Services (Manchester, CT), a full-service commercial and financial printing firm, has purchased a new KBA Rapida 106 eight-color press. Allied Printing Services will take delivery of the new 41” press in November, according to KBA

Among the reasons cited by John Sommers Jr., president of Allied Printing Services, for the purchase of the press are its ability to print on substrates ranging from 40-lb. text to 48-pt. board; its inline automated systems, including color control, automatic register, and auto plate changing; and its anticipated pro-environmental impact.

“Having the ability to run a wide spectrum of substrates was critical for us,” says Sommers. “On a typical day at Allied, we can be printing financial work on lightweight offset and then need to quickly changeover to point-of-purchase and packaging work on thick board. Our new Rapida 106 will allow us to do so with ease.”

Established in 1949, Allied Printing Services operates out of a 285,000-sq.-ft. facility in Manchester. It serves a diverse national customer base including pharmaceutical, financial, retail, point-of-purchase, manufacturing, CD, agency, and direct mailing accounts.

A third-generation, family-owned business Allied ranks among the top 75 printers in the U.S. and is the largest family-owned commercial printer in New England. Sommers says that Allied is finding new ways to mesh variable data with traditional commercial work and is linking print with online media through QR codes, PURLs, and web-driven POD campaigns. Packaging and dimensional print are additional growth areas for Allied, Sommers says.