LANDA SEEKS OUTSIDE INVESTMENT

Landa Digital Printing is seeking new investors, saying it needs a greater investment than initially anticipated, as it restructures and lays off a large number of staff.

The company says customer caution, the ongoing war in Gaza, and “other commercial challenges” have caused it to seek additional investment. It has also, according to the local Israeli business press, laid off 20 per cent of its staff, around 100 people.

Landa says it has experienced a 30 per cent post-drupa growth in customers for its nanographic printing technology, and an increased number of existing customers putting in second press.

The Landa nanographic press technology was launched at drupa 2012, a decade after founder Benny Landa sold his Indigo business to HP for US$830m (A$1.25bn). Such was the showstopping power of Benny Landa's presentation that 400 printers from around the world lined up at the show to give him $10,000 deposit cheques for a place in the queue. Since then the Landa stand has been one of the focal points of drupa.

Big names from the local print industry including IVE, trade printers CMYKhub and Hero Print, and Vistaprint all signed orders during the 2012 or 2106 drupas, but they are still waiting for their presses. The first beta press was installed at an Israeli printer in 2017.

In June 2018 Landa secured an additional $300m in funding from German billionaire Susanne Klatten, owner of the Altana Group, to which Landa sold its digital metallography business 18 months previously. Benny Landa now owns 54 per cent of  Landa Digital Printing, with Klatten owning the remaining 46 per cent, through Altana and her private investment fund Skion. The company did consider a float on the Nasdaq in 2021, but ultimately decided to remain private.

The nature of the new technology, which pushed the known boundaries of physics and chemistry in the commercial world, meant the gestation period for the presses took much longer than anticipated, and it is only in the last four years that the presses have been installed, although they remain unavailable in Australia or New Zealand. So far between 50 and 60 Landa nanographic presses have been put into printshops.

Landa uses a new assembly method, which is essentially in situ; printers ordering a Landa nano press get a chassis and paper transport system from Komori, to which is added the Landa imaging system, the press built on site.

The company currently manufactures two presses, the S11P for commercial printing and the S11 for folding carton printing.