Picon chairman John Brazier said the sale would secure the financial future of the association and enable it to focus on its core function of supporting and promoting manufacturers and suppliers of equipment to the printing and papermaking industries.

This years show has been hailed a success by IIR. "People are saying it's the best ever Ipex, and would have been happy with their sales as of Sunday, with two days to go," said exhibition director Trevor Crawford. International attendance was another highlight, with the organiser quoting 40% of visitors coming from overseas.

IIR Exhibitions has held the management contract for the past three Ipexes. Its managing director Nicky Mason (pictured) said the organiser, which also owns Digital Print World, Northprint, Flexo and Newstec, would look to expand the Ipex brand to other events and countries.

"The move demonstrates IIR Exhibitions' commitment to the print industry and underpins the other events in our portfolio," said Mason.

"It is our intention to carefully research the potential for Ipex-branded events, probably dedicated to specific sectors of print, throughout the world."

IIR's management contract for the once every four years show was originally due to come up for review in 2014 but, due to a change of ownership clause, this was brought forward following IIR's acquisition by Informa last year.

"We considered all the options available and felt it was the right thing to do to concentrate on our core competency without the need to have day to day involvement in Ipex," said Brazier.

Picon chairman Roy Caslon said IIR was the right home for the show. "IIR are clearly the best people to do it. They've overseen three successful shows, and this one has been highly successful," he said.