In a week in which it emerged that Komori and Xerox would no longer be exhibiting and that Landa’s provisional booking had also been withdrawn, Informa said it was still confident of keeping to its original estimate of 55,000 unique visitors.

"London is a big drawcard for Ipex 2014 and I do believe that many more visitors will be attracted because the show is in London," said Ipex 2014 event director Trevor Crawford, adding that the integration of Cross Media with Ipex in 2014 would attract a new crowd to the show.

However, Crawford admitted that Xerox’s decision not to attend was "a blow, a setback and a surprise" as he confirmed that Komori had also pulled out in November.

"No exhibition likes losing exhibitors, whether they’re taking 1,600sqm or 16sqm, but we have to put this into perspective, the show is still 15 months away and we’re still ahead of where we were in the last cycle."

Crawford pointed out that Informa had suffered similar problems in the build up to Ipex 2010, only to see the situation reverse at the last minute as the recession ended and business confidence returned.

"If you look back to what happened in the build-up to the last Ipex, we lost the best part of 7,000sqm in 2008/09, but bookings accelerated massively [from] the back end of 2009 and I think we will see something similar happen in this cycle."

Currently, the show will be without stands from Agfa, KBA, Komori, Heidelberg, digital giants HP and Xerox, and Nanographic innovator Landa Corporation.

Excluding KBA and HP, which were never on the floorplan, this amounts to a loss of 8,064sqm, although this includes a 1,638sqm provisional booking from Landa that was never confirmed and 857sqm held for Komori and Xerox in addition to their confirmed bookings.

Excluding these amounts, Ipex is down some 5,569sqm and while Crawford hopes to regain some lost ground as in 2010, he admitted 2014 would be a smaller show.

He added that while HP and Xerox would not currently be taking their own stands, he still expected equipment from the pair to be on show on their partners’ stands.

Meanwhile, Landa Corporation chairman Benny Landa, who will still be speaking at the Global Print Summit that runs alongside Ipex 2014, has ruled out exhibiting at any major industry shows currently on the calendar, with the exception of Drupa.

Chairman Benny Landa told PrintWeek that the business was prioritising its activities on getting its presses ready for customer shipment:  "You have to really target what you want to achieve and for us, there’s only one objective, which is meeting our customers’ expectations on delivery of this product, so that’s what we’re focusing on."

Landa is in a unique situation, with more than 400 orders in hand for the Nanographic printing presses it unveiled at Drupa. "The last thing we need to do right now is to increase our order book. We need to deliver product," Landa added.

"We don’t want people to wait for years for these machines. It doesn’t make sense to increase the backlog at this time."

Ipex 2014 withdrawals

Agfa 1,071sqm
Komori 1,026sqm (756sqm confirmed)
Heidelberg 2,142sqm
Landa 1,638sqm (provisionally held)
Xerox 2,187sqm (1,600sqm confirmed)

Total 8,064sqm (5,569sqm confimed)

*HP and KBA will also not attend