Last month, when Howitt sold its Offshore arm to a management team (PrintWeek, 14 August), it said it would make an important formal announcement regarding the Equator project on Monday 15 September.
Chief executive James Elliot was in meetings when PrintWeek contacted the firm this week.
One web printer joked: Ive spoken to Peter and Wendy. They are relocating the plant to Neverland.
The major financier of the Equator project is still on board, however.
Babcock and Brown, the global merchant and investment bank revealed as the financier earlier this year by PrintWeek (PrintWeek, 2 May 2003), is still very much involved with Howitt, according to the firms Simon Gray.
This week he told PrintWeek that the project hasnt moved as fast as everyone would have liked, but wouldnt comment further.
Howitt was also granted conditional consent in late July by Ashfield District Council for its planning application for the Equator site.
Sources have told PrintWeek that Howitt had been claiming that it had won a deal with Next. But Mohndruck in Germany is believed to have at least another year left on its Next catalogue contract.
Its almost a year since Howitt revealed that it was the firm behind the proposed UK gravure superplant (PrintWeek, 11 October 2002).
Since then Polestar has also revealed major new investment in gravure capacity, culminating in last weeks announcement of a 3.88m-wide press, probably destined for Varnicoat after consultation with key client News International.
Story by Gordon Carson
