中文IVE Group, Australia’s largest diversified marketing company, has installed sheetfed offset presses from Koenig & Bauer at its newly built 42,000-square-meter production and logistics hub in Kemps Creek, Sydney. The ASX-listed company, which employs more than 2,100 people across 22 sites, said the installation supports a strategy to build packaging capacity in New South Wales that mirrors its existing capacity in Victoria.
Matt Aitken, managing director of IVE Group, described the identical Koenig & Bauer press fleet as a core element of the investment strategy. “This enables us to serve national brands and drastically accelerate our time-to-market once again,” he said. Founded in 1921 by Oscar Selig as a local newspaper, IVE has grown over a century into its current diversified form, and the expansion is intended to strengthen its packaging printing segment with what Aitken called a genuine wow factor for customers.
The new Rapida presses are configured for high throughput and color fidelity. In live production, the 7-color Rapida 106 X hybrid press has stood out, configured with a double coater, a triple extended delivery, and the DriveTronic SPC system for simultaneous plate changing. It is paired with a second Rapida 106 X, a 10-color press with perfecting and a coater, suited to magazine-cover production. Both lines are described as the first sheetfed offset presses in Australia to reach production speeds of up to 20,000 sheets per hour.
To reduce makeready times, the presses include automation such as simultaneous plate changing with DriveTronic SPC, along with quality measuring and control systems that monitor production, speed up setups and maintain consistent print quality from the first sheet to the last. “Running the press at 20,000 sheets an hour is one thing, but maintaining our quality standards at the same time is another entirely,” Aitken said, capturing the real test of high-speed offset.
The installation followed a three-year planning phase during which Koenig & Bauer worked with IVE to identify the technology configuration supporting its packaging-market targets. “From day one, there was strong alignment between our teams,” Aitken noted, crediting Koenig & Bauer with understanding what IVE wanted to build in Australia.
Rayne Simpson, sales manager at Koenig & Bauer Australia, said the results place IVE among top global performers, with the presses producing at maximum output and reaching peak values across key performance indicators. Graham Harris, managing director of Koenig & Bauer Australia, credited the professionalism of the IVE management team during the installation at the new site.
For IVE, the mirrored fleet strategy is a logistics play as much as a capacity play. By replicating a proven Victoria configuration in NSW, the company can shift national-brand work between states with minimal process variation, improving resilience and speed to market. National brands get a single, consistent supplier across the country.
The investment also reflects confidence in print’s role within integrated marketing. Despite digital displacement in some segments, high-quality packaging and magazine cover production remain strategically important for brand impact, and IVE is betting that scale, automation and geographic balance will protect margins.
As the Kemps Creek hub ramps up, the identical-press approach should pay dividends in training, spare-parts commonality and service simplicity. For Koenig & Bauer, landing a flagship Australian installation reinforces its position in the high-end sheetfed offset market.
Source: The Packman (https://thepackman.in/ive-group-accelerates-commercial-and-packaging-printing-with-rapida-106-x/)
The mirrored-fleet strategy carries operational elegance. By replicating a proven Victoria configuration in New South Wales, IVE can shift national-brand work between states with minimal process variation, a powerful advantage for customers with uniform national specifications. It also simplifies training and spare-parts management across sites, lowering the total cost of ownership of the combined fleet.
For Koenig & Bauer, the installation is a showcase in a market where high-end sheetfed offset remains strategically vital despite digital disruption. The 20,000 sheets-per-hour capability, paired with DriveTronic SPC simultaneous plate changing, positions IVE at the productivity frontier and reinforces Koenig & Bauer’s premium credentials in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ultimately, IVE’s bet is on integrated marketing endurance. Packaging and magazine cover production still deliver brand impact that digital channels cannot fully replace, and scale plus automation are how a diversified printer protects margin while serving the country’s largest brands.
The three-year planning horizon behind the installation is itself instructive. Rather than rushing capacity online, IVE and Koenig & Bauer spent years aligning on configuration, a discipline that pays off in smoother ramp-ups and fewer costly mid-course corrections. For large capital projects, that patience is a competitive advantage often overlooked.
As the Kemps Creek hub matures, IVE’s ability to serve national brands from two mirrored centers should strengthen its negotiating position with major accounts. The combination of scale, automation and geographic balance is precisely what large marketers look for in a print and packaging partner.
As the Kemps Creek facility reaches full output, IVE’s mirrored-fleet model will be one to watch. It demonstrates how a diversified marketing company can turn geographic balance and automation into a national-scale advantage, serving Australia’s biggest brands from two coasts with consistent, high-speed, high-quality offset production.
