Yishai Amir joined Landa Corporation today from HP, where he was vice-president and general manager of its graphics solutions business in the Americas.
It marks a homecoming for the executive, who originally worked for Benny Landa in the early days of his first digital printing venture, Indigo.
“I hired him 21 years ago at Indigo. He was my protégé and he’s a fantastic guy,” Landa said.
“We are getting ready for commercialisation and we need all the expertise we can muster. Yishai is a really experienced, top-notch executive and he’s grown businesses. This is a really good rounding off of our key executives.”
Amir (pictured below) said it felt like “returning home”, and described his new role as “an incredible opportunity”.
“I look forward to helping to grow the business and building one of the industry’s great companies,” he said.
Last month Landa appointed Nachum Korman as vice-president and general manager of its North American business, while Marc Schillemans joined at the end of last year as vice-president of sales for EMEA.
Landa emphasised that he was not reducing his own involvement with the business he launched at Drupa 2012, and which is yet to ship its first press.
“I plan to continue to be a very active chairman. I’m not stepping back,” he stated. “Our entire focus is on customers and Drupa. We are focusing on top-tier, leading customers so when they speak they will be heard.”
Landa had some 430 potential customers in the pipeline for its Nanography inkjet presses after Drupa 2012. The S10 B1-format simplex press, targeted at customers in the packaging space, was the most popular.
There is no B1 sheetfed inkjet press on the market yet, although Heidelberg has confirmed that it is readying just such a model for Drupa.
While Landa has not shipped a beta press yet, PrintWeek understands it is close to doing so, with site preparation underway at the unnamed customer and a seven-colour S10 press with coater in final testing at Landa’s development and manufacturing facility in Rehovot, Israel.
After the major redesign of the original Landa Nanographic presses in 2013, the anticipated roll-out was substantially delayed. The revised beta schedule then became the second half of 2015, although Landa has declined to comment on specific dates.
“We expect to have shipped presses and to have great customer testimonials at Drupa,” he added. “People will be able to see production jobs and machines printing. That’s what’s important for customers, and what we’re focusing on. Drupa is everything. It’s going to be fantastic.”
Landa has more than doubled its space for Drupa 2016 and is taking a 3,000sqm stand at the show, which takes place from 31 May to 10 June.
