The U-turn follows the Leeds-based company and Hans Gronhi meeting with Ipex at China Print last month, where they discussed the changes to the show and what Printers Superstore joint managing director Graham Moorby described as the "mixed message" whitepaper.

"At the end of the day we wanted to go, we just needed some sort of reassurance, we now feel sure it’s going to be a great show," said Moorby.

In its February open letter, the company said that Informa was alienating litho exhibitors and printers by focussing on digital and cross-media, which it felt implied litho visitors were "irrelevant".

However, this was strongly denied by Informa, which said in April, partly in response to Printers Superstore open letter, that its focus on digital was not a slight on commercial printers, who represent 80% of its audience, just a reflection of an industry that views litho and digital as complementary.

Moorby said: "We were one of the first to commit to Ipex and that never waivered. It was just the refocusing of the show and the specifically the white paper, which we felt was a white paper of reasons why we shouldn’t be going.

"Fundamentally though we’ve always supported Ipex, we’ve all grown up with show’s like Ipex and we sold our first Hans Gronhi at Ipex 2006 and at 2010 we sold everything off the stand and lots more besides."

However, he did confirm that the company had substantially reduced its footprint at the show from 609sqm to 200sqm. Moorby added that the company had retained an option to increase the stand size.

The company is planning to take three or four presses to the show, a mixture of B1/SRA1, B2/A2 and B3 presses.

While Moorby acknowledged that visitor numbers next year might be down on Ipex 2010, he said he was confident that the key decision makers would attend. He added that he was relishing the opportunity of exhibiting at Ipex and demonstrating the latest Hans Gronhi technology, especially in light of the manufacturer’s purchase of Japanese press manufacturer Shinohara last year.

Printers Superstore's commitment is a welcome boost to embattled Informa and comes just a few weeks after Konica Minolta also confirmed its commitment to Ipex. Moorby urged exhibitors that had withdrawn or decided to not participate to reconsider their decisions.

"We’re really looking forward to Ipex and we’d love it if others did the same. There  used to be a bit of bravado between the bigger companies about who had the biggest stand, the world’s changed, why don’t they just take a view and think about what their customers want. It will be a missed opportunity if they don’t go."