The Israeli digital press manufacturer is understood to be making more than 100 employees redundant according to local business daily Globes, which equates to over 20% of its overall workforce of some 500.
In a statement, LDP said that it was restructuring to align the company with the current business environment.
LDP emphasised that the company – which came out of last year’s Drupa expo with a record order book – was still growing, despite the economic travails.
“The company is experiencing growth and, over the past year, has seen an increase in new customers, with a 30% rise in the number of printing presses installed at customer sites, including many repeat orders from key customers,” LDP stated.
“Although the company’s potential is very clear, it now requires greater investment than initially anticipated, in light of the market environment, customer caution due to geopolitical and economical uncertainties, the ongoing war in Israel, and other commercial challenges.”
LDP’s founder and chairman is digital printing pioneer Benny Landa, who remains a key shareholder in the company.
The business is privately owned, and its major shareholders are Landa Group; German industrial investor SKion, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Susanne Klatten; German specialty chemicals company Altana, which is also owned by Klatten and with all the shares held by SKion; and Singapore-based Winder Investment, part of Freemont Capital.
Altana has a 29.1% stake in Landa Corporation. Skion has a minority stake in LDP.
Last autumn, LDP was upbeat about its prospects.
CEO Gil Oron said the firm had sold more than 70 presses at that point, including signing up its first commercial printing customer in China for a multi-press deal.
At the time Oron said the lead time for new presses was between three to seven months, depending on customer requirements.
“We can currently make up to 100 units a year and we can enlarge that,” he stated.
LDP’s Nanography technology is a unique form of inkjet that involves printing onto a heated transfer belt, rather than directly onto the substrate.
Until recently the firm has effectively had the B1 sheetfed inkjet market to itself with its S11 and S11P presses, after Heidelberg pulled the plug on its Primefire model in 2022.
Landa uses a Komori press chassis, and Komori’s Impremia NS40 is the Japanese manufacturer’s equivalent of the S11/P.
Agfa has recently come to the market with its SpeedSet Orca 11,000sph B1 inkjet device.
The Landa S11 prints at 6,500sph, or 11,200sph with the high-speed module.
In the UK Landa presses are installed at Bluetree Group, which has two, and at MM Packaging in Bradford. McGowans also has a Landa at its Dublin site.
Cimpress ordered multiple Landa presses at Drupa but the installation locations were not disclosed.
The Israel-Gaza war, and wider conflict in the region, has battered Israel’s economy. Tourism has plummeted, there are labour shortages due to work permits for Palestinians being halted, and thousands of Israelis have been conscripted or called up as reservists due to the conflict.
