On September 29, Koenig & Bauer celebrated its 125th anniversary in Radebeul, a town near Dresden.
With a workforce of 1,800 employees, the plant is now considered to be the largest engineering company in Saxony. It is the modern successor of Dresdner Schnellpressenfabrik, a company founded in 1898 in Dresden by Joseph Hauss and Alfred Sparbert. After only two years, the factory moved to Brockwitz and finally settled in Radebeul-Naundorf in 1911, where it is still based today.
Since its inception, the company has attracted the attention of the global market with its innovation and unique solutions. One of these was the “accessory for moving the printing base of high-speed presses,” known as the planetary motor, which gave its name to many models and the entire company in 1938. In 1932, Planeta also introduced the world’s first four-color offset press. Another notable achievement was a unit-based offset press launched in 1965 in Radebeul. Since then, this design has been widely accepted and remains the industry standard to this day.
In 1965, Planeta revolutionized the industry with its unit-based design for sheetfed offset presses. This innovation has become the industry standard and is still widely used today.
The company Koenig & Bauer has been advancing in the field of sheetfed offset printing, setting high standards internationally. This is due in part to its automation solutions, such as the lag-free DriveTronic SIS feed and fully automated logistics for the plates. In addition, they have implemented several digitization options. Today, its Rapida sheetfed offset presses stand out for their outstanding performance in different format sizes and are considered world leaders in makeready.
The Rapida 106 X press has a production capacity of up to 20,000 sheets per hour, making it an efficient choice for sheetfed offset printing. Moreover, thanks to its complete automation solutions, this machine is leading the way to the future in this field. Throughout 125 years of production at this location, there were also difficult and dark moments that had to be faced. This included two world wars, periods of hyperinflation and currency reforms, the controlled economy during the GDR years and the subsequent transition to a market economy, as well as the devastating floods of the Elbe River in 2002. However, the employees have always supported their company with dedication, skill and a host of good ideas to advance the success of press engineering.
Today, the Koenig & Bauer plant in Radebeul plays an important role in the group, not only as a value center for the production of classic offset sheets, but also as responsible for all activities related to integrated packaging production. In its current portfolio, this factory offers offset press-based rotary die cutters, while flatbed die cutters are supplied by the Barcelona-based subsidiary Koenig & Bauer Ibérica. Also included in its offer are folder-gluers supplied by Koenig & Bauer Duran in Istanbul. In this way, Koenig & Bauer products cover all stages of the folding carton production process.
Radebeul’s design engineers worked together with Durst to create the VariJET 106, a digital printing press that combines the advantages of inkjet and offset processes. This new press enables improved packaging printing and the production of innovative and modern solutions. Recently, the first users put these presses into operation.
Today, Koenig & Bauer’s largest headquarters is located in Radebeul, where three business units are located: Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed, which is responsible for offset and post-press equipment (development, production, sales and service); Koenig & Bauer Industrial, an internal and external provider of production services; and Koenig & Bauer Deutschland, a company responsible for sales and service for the German, Austrian and Swiss markets.
The three business units are key elements of the Koenig & Bauer Group as a whole. At the same time, together with our numerous suppliers and business partners, they form a solid basis for the local and regional labor market in the Upper Elbe Valley. With an export rate of almost 90 percent, Koenig & Bauer can also point to an international trade performance well ahead of the Saxon and German national averages.
In honor of the 125th anniversary of Radebeul’s location, various celebrations are being held. On August 23, Saxon Minister-President Michael Kretschmer paid a visit to the factory and took part in an informal “barbecue talk”, where he answered questions from the employees.
In addition, a special day of festivities was organized for employees on September 29. Current and former members of the supervisory and executive boards were also in attendance. The festivities gave employees the opportunity to experience their company in a different light, with a party tent and activity booths, cultural and musical aspects, and refreshments for all tastes. Michael Kretschmer also passed on his congratulations in the form of a video message in which he emphasized:
“For me, it is magnificent to see how you have guided a factory location with such great traditions into the future.”
Also, during the month of October, several other events are planned that will include customers, shareholders, business partners and employees from other locations belonging to the group. In addition, an illustrated book commemorating the company and showing interesting details about the printing press manufacturing process will be launched. Fascinating stories about some of the 1,800 employees who work at the company will also be presented.
