KBA’s Frankenthal Press Plant Celebrating Its 150th Jubilee

1995: merger as Koenig & Bauer-Albert AG
In 1995 veteran KBA president and tireless architect of the KBA group, Dr Hans-Bernhard Bolza-Schünemann, retired and was succeeded by Reinhart Siewert. That same year Koenig & Bauer and Albert-Frankenthal merged to become Koenig & Bauer-Albert AG (retaining the abbreviation KBA). Four years earlier Koenig & Bauer had acquired a majority interest in a sheetfed offset press manufacturer, Planeta-Druckmaschinenwerke in Radebeul, near Dresden. Subsequently renamed KBA-Planeta AG, it became one of the top two vendors in this sector, behind Heidelberg. In 1998 this subsidiary was merged with the parent to form Koenig & Bauer AG, and the “A” vanished from the KBA logo. By that time the group had 6,376 employees and posted sales of DM1,607m.