HP’s decision not to exhibit at Ipex has left a fair few people in a state of stunned disbelief. To go from being the largest exhibitor to not exhibiting at all in one show cycle is unusual to say the least. Unprecedented, even. Looking at the current Ipex floorplan it’s easy to see the gap where HP would have been, but it’s also easy to see that the available space has indeed been squeezed as other exhibitors confirmed – and Landa taking a massive near-1,650sqm spot in the digital hall must have exacerbated the squeeze. Heidelberg, Xerox and Fuji are all on the plan with more than 2,000sqm. One could argue that there is no longer a HP-appropriate space left. Not without some serious reshuffling. Could HP’s nose be out of joint about the Landa factor? Possibly, but that would hardly be a rational basis for a business decision of this magnitude. And despite the noises from Ipex owner Informa about it still being possible for HP to change its mind betwix now and 2014, that seems about as likely as, well, England winning a penalty shoot-out. It could be that HP’s graphic arts business has received a memo from HQ saying that budgets need to be cut by X% as part of the global restructure that will see some 27,000 positions, or 8% of the workforce, go. Not exhibiting at Ipex is a pretty straightforward way to save a huge chunk of money in one move. As it happens, the HP restructure also coincides with the period between now and Ipex. For HP’s graphic arts business success will be measured in the generation of more pages produced using its print tech, and thus more clicks and more ink sold. Where is that page volume coming from? Given litho’s fightback in the short-run space, and the general decline of print volumes in a variety of markets, one might imagine that some of the projections made by digital press suppliers have turned out to be somewhat awry. In this respect a focus on vertical markets and on high-value customer interactions – such as trips to Barcelona or Israel for key prospects – makes a lot of sense. When visiting the London International Book Fair earlier this year I found HP there, exhibiting as a way of promoting what’s possible with digital book printing and effectively drumming up business for its customers. And perhaps even generating some publisher pressure on printers to buy HP’s digital kit. It will be mighty interesting to see whether or not the company continues to exhibit at some of the other big/high-profile print shows on the calendar other than Drupa, such as Igas, Print, and China Print. The one positive from Ipex’s point-of-view is that HP has made this announcement when 70% of the space is already sold. If it had been the inverse of that it could well have resulted in a seriously damaging knock-on effect with exhibitors taking flight. With football in mind, one could liken Ipex 2014 without HP as being like a World Cup featuring Germany but not Brazil. The question is, will it affect viewing figures?