At its 125,000 sq ft facility in Sinking Spring, PA, Grafika Print is led by its third generation leader, Bernie Elzer III, president and CEO, who considers each equipment purchase with an eye toward effectively competing at the highest level within the volume industrialized print market. To that end, this award-winning provider of innovative consumer paperboard packaging printer recently added a new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 X.
Left to right: Nathan Elzer and Bernard J. Elzer III.
“My vision is to optimize our facility using automation, robotics, and digitalization,” says Elzer. “My aim is to grow our packaging volume exponentially by correctly choosing the right equipment without increasing our current employee count of 125. The addition of the new Rapida press is a cornerstone of that vision.”
His decision-making process took shape as an in-depth conversation with Koenig & Bauer of just not putting an asset on the pressroom floor but partnering with them to achieve all of the intended technologies built into its equipment to provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace and to Elzer’s customers. “My relationship with Koenig & Bauer is extremely analytical,” he says. “They intensely listen and structure an equipment purchase on the individual needs of their customers. I enjoyed working with their engineers and developers to exploit the true capabilities of the press. In the end, I have a uniquely fashioned press with software, such as PDF Check that inspects each sheet as it is being printed for defects and identifies those defects. My customers demand a zero-defect product. This is a tool that we didn’t have before and now it helps us serve our customer’s request.”
He continues, “As a volume industrialized printer for the food market, you have to consider a large format press as part of your future. Everyone knows that Koenig & Bauer is the worldwide market leader of large format presses. It makes perfect sense to buy a mid-size press from them as we look toward purchasing a large format from the same manufacturer.”
Elzer reports that the support he and his company have received from Koenig & Bauer has been good. “Measurement is crucial to understanding performance and evaluating an investment,” he says. “Both of our companies see major opportunities that we can explore with this press. Currently, we’ve received concrete data from Koenig & Bauer measuring our production levels. It is off the charts. We are producing at levels that we’ve never produced before. Both of our firms share the same passion and vision for excellence.”
