The separate decisions by Duplo and Impika to not participate represent another blow for Ipex organiser Informa, which last week issued an open letter to media and exhibitors to help "set out its position" that the show will be for both litho and digital printers.

With a 630sqm stand, Duplo is the largest of the latest two withdrawals, although Duplo group commercial director Tony Lock hinted that its decision to withdraw could be reversed in the future.

"We’ve taken the decision at this stage not to commit, that’s not to say that the door is firmly closed, we’ll review that decision in November or December," said Lock.

He added that the prime reason for not committing was that he was concerned that following the number of high profile withdrawals in the past 10 months and the decision to shorten it to a six-day show meant that it was difficult to guarantee the level ROI required.

Duplo is understood to have made the decision at this time because the next swathe of exhibitor payments, 30%, in addition to the initial 10%, is now due.

"For us, right now the ROI looks tricky. There’s a lot of goodwill from our side and I have a lot of respect for Trevor and his team and we had a great Ipex 2010, it made my career and I can’t believe that after just three years its come to this.

"But for us, right now, Ipex 2014 looks a little risky as it’s now a completely new show compared to the one we signed up to - although the door is definitely not firmly closed, we will review it," added Lock.

"We want to let things settle down and monitor the situation and then in a few months we’ll talk to our customers and if a lot of them are going then we may look at coming back in."

The reasons behind Impika’s decision to withdraw are not clear at this stage, although it’s likely the fact that it was bought by Xerox last month, which itself withdrew from the show just before Christmas, is likely to have been a factor.

Impika had been contracted to 462 sqm.