HP exits Ipex 2014

After exhibiting more than 50 digital presses at drupa 2012, HP has confirmed it will not be exhibiting at Ipex 2014 in London, citing a shift in sales focus to concentrate on ‘local and application-specific’ events.

In a statement, the company said:

“HP has decided not to participate in Ipex 2014, as we are shifting our marketing and sales focus to more local and application-specific events, as well as to customer business-development programs such as Dscoop-sponsored events that help our customers profitably grow their businesses.”

This will come as a blow to the Ipex show’s organisers, as the technology company was the single largest exhibitor at Ipex 2008, taking up almost 3,000 square metres. HP’s drupa presence this year came in at around 5,000 square metres, wit the company easily one of the largest exhibitors at the German trade show.

However, the company’s decision to miss Ipex 2014 comes only weeks after it announced plans to cut its global workforce by 27,000 (or eight per cent), following a 10 per cent decline of its Imaging and Printing Group revenue.

2014 will be a big year for Ipex as it will be the first year the trade show will be held at its new location at London’s Excel Exhibition and Conference Centre (pictured) in the city’s Docklands area after decades at the Birmingham NEC.

HP’s decision reflects a general cost rationalisation and tightening of the purse strings within the industry, as other big players choose to remain absent from large trade fairs, such as Heidelberg, which has decided to miss next year’s PacPrint13 in Melbourne.

It is understood that the event’s organisers report that 70 per cent of the show’s 100,000 square metre floor space has been sold with vendors such as Canon, EFI, Heidelberg and Landa already committed.