The ‘father of digital printing’ was presented with a special gift by Drupa director Sabine Geldermann and Erhard Wienkamp, the managing director of Messe Düsseldorf, as he celebrated his birthday yesterday (2 June) with Landa CEO Gil Oron also on hand for the celebrations.
Landa held a huge party to celebrate his 70th birthday at the last in-person Drupa, in 2016.
Up until now he has always quipped that he will never retire, and expected that one day he would simply be found dead in his beloved lab.
However, despite still putting in a personal and energetic appearance – to rapturous applause – at five ‘Nano: A Love Story’ shows held daily on the Landa booth in Hall 9, Landa admitted he had started to feel his age.
He told Printweek: “I know I have always told you that I have no intention of ever retiring and plan to work until I die. Well, lately I’ve really been feeling my age, so I have decided in fact to announce my retirement.
“So, yes, I have set a date-certain for retirement, and have already started planning my retirement party: Drupa 2036, on my ninetieth birthday!”
Landa founded Indigo and launched the Indigo E-Print 1000 digital press back at Ipex ’93.
He has been described as the printing industry’s equivalent to Apple’s Steve Jobs, and “a modern-day Gutenberg” and “the most significant figure in the modern printing industry”.
At Drupa Landa noted that while attendance appeared to be lower “our stand is full” with the theatre shows completely booked out.
“For us, it’s a fabulous show, even better than expectations,” he stated.
It’s the first Drupa for Landa where the company can reference a sizeable installed base of around 60 presses, with customers from its key markets in Europe, North America and China providing glowing testimonials about their experiences with the technology.
Web-to-print giant Cimpress also announced it would invest in multiple Landa presses at the show.
Oron said that uptime on the Landa presses was now “very high – at the level of offset” and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) was “much higher”.
Landa also spoke about the harmonious combination of Landa digital presses with offset devices, and the ability to shift short run jobs onto the B1 format Landa S11 and S11P, which can now run at 11,200sph.
“Landa makes offset more profitable,” he stated.
Part of the booth features a comparison of the amount of waste typically generated by 1,000 offset jobs, compared to a much lower amount from the same amount of jobs on a Landa press.
The Landa booth also includes a showcase for the W11 web-fed flexible packaging press, with a beta installation slated for next year and supermarket shelf tests ongoing.
Landa is exhibiting in Hall 9 at the show.
