The introduction of the video interview Morten from Inkish.tv had with me, contains some quotes and promises from Benny Landa. These are only a few quotes. In preparation of that interview with Morten, I dug up many articles from the past. Below are the links to the original articles, the most interesting quotes and, if relevant, more about the topics of the interviews. Some quotes are rather revealing… I do encourage you to take the time to read the complete articles, not just my selection of quotes. Oh, by the way, I have made digital copies of those articles, just in case they suddenly disappear from the websites!
CONTENTS: One year from today | Further chronological list | Articles on (HP) Indigo | Why is this important? | Updates
Originally published: 12/06/2022 – Last update: 03/10/2025
Most of the articles I will link are from Globes, an Israelian business newspaper. I’m not a regular Globes reader, but when researching my ‘drupa‘ article two years ago, I accidentally came across this business newspaper. The first article I found was the one from 2014, where Benny Landa claimed the machines would be ready “One year from today”.
Below are multiple articles, interviews with Benny Landa. I’m listing most of them chronologically, starting with the prelude for drupa 2012. At the end, I’ll also mention a few older articles, on Indigo and the sale to HP. Emphasis in bold is always mine.
But let’s first start with the one I already shared in the drupa article.
08/07/2014: Benny Landa resurrects big ambitions with nano-printing
Introduction: “True, in 2012 he already reported orders totaling billions of dollars for the nano-graphic printer that he is developing, but actually, he has been looking for financing for the past 18 months.”
Globes: “You obtained $1 billion in orders, but how binding are they on the people who made the orders?”
Landa: “When you can make a product only after two or three years, it’s never an order set in stone. We explained to the customers that anyone who wants to keep his place in line has to make an order with a deposit in the tens of thousands of euros, so that we don’t waste time on non-serious customers.”
Globes: “When will the machines actually be ready?”
Landa: “One year from today.”
The journalist asks more questions about why he is late with the machine launch, which was supposed to be in 2013. According to Landa, it’s mainly due to a redesign of the machines, after the feedback they got from potential customers during drupa 2012 (which is plausible). When asked if customers are waiting, Landa replies: “They’re waiting. A few months here or there don’t matter to them. The fact is that today, even though they have the option of canceling, we have the same number of orders we had then – over 4,000.” I assume that 4.000 is a typo or a lapsus, in other articles, the number mentioned is 400. Landa also says that the big advantage is the simplicity, I’m not sure about that… It’s inkjet with an extra variable: the heated belt. Adding variables usually means more complexity, not more simplicity. The added belt might even be the cause of the registration issue I’ve noticed in all the samples I’ve seen. Added 05/07/2022: that belt/blanket of the Landa Nano S10 seems to be 11 meters long, that’s really long, especially if you need to avoid even the slightest deformation or stretching (which would lead to registration issues). I also got a question via PM from someone, asking if there stays residue on the blanket. I had no idea, but a quick search led me to the official Landa Nano S10 Operator Manual (from 2018), which they needed to submit to the FCC for certification and which is now available in the FCC database. That manual shows a ‘blanket cleaning unit’.
Also interesting is this quote: “I wanted to be HP, not to be sold to it.”
And there are also reasons why he had to sell Indigo to HP, it’s an interesting read! Check the original article! This is towards the end of it…
Further chronological list
02/04/2012: Benny Landa to unveil nanography digitalprinting
From that article: “Landa Corp. was founded by Benny Landa in 2002, after HP acquired digital printing company Indigo, which he founded 25 years earlier. (…) The Landa Nanographic Printing process is the result of ten years of nanotechnology research. It is a true breakthrough that enables our presses to achieve amazing results. (…)”
It also mentions a “remarkable abrasion and scratch resistance”. Which confuses me: the first sample I got, got a nasty scratch, probably from the edge of the sheet when it was rolled up, as you can see in this article.
29/04/2012: Landa’s nanographic co teams with Komori
06/05/2012: The Israeli print technology industry rides again
An article about Israeli presence at drupa 2012, from the introduction: “The local representatives included two especially interesting companies. One is Benny Landa’s Landa, which announced a month ago that it would lead a new digital revolution in the printing world.”
15/10/2012: Landa mulls raising up to $200m for nanometric ink co
From the article: “Benny Landa is considering raising $100-200 million for his nanographic printing company, Landa Digital Printing, six months after unveiling the technology. (…) Landa will reportedly hold the financing round at a company value of $1 billion for the company, a unit of Landa Corporation. (…) He claims that the company obtained orders for hundreds of printers, and that down payments were paid for some of them, even though no deliveries will be made before late 2013.”
This article includes some info about the IPO from Indigo (which I had already forgot about). From the article: “Shortly afterwards, Indigo held an IPO on Nasdaq at $1 billion, the value that Landa is seeking for his new venture. Indigo’s market cap rose quickly, until problems emerged, causing its value to plummet, upsetting investors, (…)”
28/10/2012: Landa: Nano promises printing revolution
Benny Landa: “We launched the product in Germany a few months ago, and demonstrated many products – seven prototypes. We expected interest, but we didn’t expect to have sales. We received more than $1 billion in orders at one exhibition.”
From those seven prototypes, only the S10 and it’s perfecting brother S10P have been installed at customer sites. Can you consider a ‘Letter of Intent’ as an order?
25/06/2014: Altana invests $135m in Landa Digital Printing
Benny Landa: “The proceeds will be used for completing the development of Nanography, Landa’s water-based digital printing process, including engineering and production ramp-up of Landa Nanographic Printing Presses and building of manufacturing plants for Landa Nano ink colorants. (…) That’s a very big investment. Up until now, I’ve been financing the company alone, and this is too big for a private person.”
14/06/2016: Landa Digital Printing takes orders worth €450m
These orders, I wonder, is that on top of the orders Landa claimed to have received at the previous drupa? Or is it a part of that 1 billion mentioned previously, now turning their ‘Letter of Intents’ to real orders?
From the article: “Landa Digital Printing converted major interest into orders worth €450 million at the drupa international printing trade fair in Germany. (…) Landa reported numerous multiple-press deals, demonstrating market confidence in Landa and its Nanographic Printing presses.”
Interesting: numerous multiple-press deals… How many customers have more than one Landa press installed at this moment, 6 years later? Not one. There is one company that recently announced the purchase of a second one, but it’s not installed yet.
“Customers are telling us that no one comes even close to matching our quality, speed, substrate independence and print cost, which combine to create a tremendous value proposition.”
Please check my other articles on quality (first article and second) and speed.
29/09/2016: Benny Landa: “Globes” entrepreneur of the decade
From the article: “The rapidly approaching year 2017 will be the year of Landa Digital Printing’s commercial breakthrough. (…) Following last May’s quadrennial Drupa Exhibition, the world’s leading printing solutions exhibition, the company received orders worth over €450 million for the machines it developed, the first of which it will begin supplying next year.”
Indeed, the first press was installed in 2017, but it was only 1 press, in 2018 it was also just one press. (you can find the complete list of installments in the already mentioned drupa article)
Globes: “How does it feel to see another of your companies succeed? Do you get up in the morning, pat yourself on the back, and say, ‘I did it again’?”
Landa: “No, not yet, because Landa Digital Printing is only getting started. We achieved technology and commercial milestones, but we’re not supplying the machines yet, and we haven’t posted revenue from them yet.”
And here is the most amazing quote from Benny Landa of all of the articles, a quote on the transition from analogue to digital printing: “For almost 40 years, I was the only one pushing for it.”
Really??? And what about Lucien De Schamphelaere, founder of Xeikon, plus the complete Xeikon team. Or all the people at Xerox? Or the people from CAP Ventures (which became InfoTrends and now Keypoint Intelligence), who also organized the ‘On Demand’ conference? And let’s not forget prof. em. Frank Romano, who has been promoting digital print for a very long time. And I could add many more to this list…
This article is rather long, but a good read! It also provides a lot of history.
28/05/2017: Dr. Giora Yaron: Startups need carrots not sticks
Dr. Giora Yaron served as the president of Indigo nv. In the article he talks about his days at Indigo.
27/06/2018: Landa Digital Printing raises $300m
Benny Landa: “This financing will create swift growth now that we have begun to provide our Nanography printing machines to customers worldwide.”
Interestingly, the new investor, SKion GmbH, is owned by the same person as the other investor: Altana Group.
15/08/2021: Benny Landa on Highcon: Tech revolutions take time
From the article: “(…) and Landa says business is going well, “thanks to very strong demand and the market need for digital printing.” ”
25/08/2021: Landa Digital Printing heading for Nasdaq SPAC merger at $2 billion valuation
This is not from Globes, but from another source. And to be honest, I don’t know how to interpret this…
But something is interesting in this article: “Landa Digital Printing (LDP) has hired Bank of America to lead the move. Landa is targeting a $2 billion valuation, 20 times the company’s annual revenue of around $50 million.”
So, Landa Digital Printing is supposed to have an annual revenu of around 50 million US$. How does it get to that number? In August 2021, only 16 presses had been installed, only one new installment in 2021. So, let’s say this 50 million US$ turnover is from 2020, 7 presses were installed. Let’s take the sales figure of 7 presses, plus consumables for the 16 in total, does this add up to 50 million US$ turnover? Especially if the technology is supposed to be the most price competitive on the market? Or does Landa Digital Printing also has other revenue sources, like patents?
Added 24/06/2022: to put that turnover and especially the targeted valuation in perspective, I checked the numbers of some other (digital) press vendors:
Heidelberg, annual revenue: 1,9 billion euro; market capitalization (23/06/2022): 465,85 million euro
Koenig & Bauer, annual revenue: 1,115 billion euro, market capitalization: 229,03 million euro
Xerox: annual revenue: 7,04 billion US$, market capitalization: 2,43 billion US$
HP (the complete company, not just HP Indigo): annual revenue: 63,49 billion US$, market capitalization: 32,82 billion US$
In Belgium companies must publish their balance sheets annually, within 6 months if I recall correctly, via the National Bank. This is publicly available information. I tried to find out if there is something similar in Israel, but I didn’t find it.
Articles on (HP) Indigo
Globes has a couple more articles on Benny Landa, from the Indigo days and after HP acquired Indigo. Here are a few, again in chronological order.
14/08/1997: Indigo: The Share Went Crazy
I had forgotten entirely about this: the IPO, the rize and the downfall.
From the article: “It ballooned up to an imaginary company value of $3.3 billion, and a share that jumped hundreds of points.”
Benny Landa: “There were a lot of problems. Clients were losing money, the machines weren’t reliable, and there was no market at all. Today, two years later, it’s all the other way around. The customer base is wonderful, the machine works beautifully, the market is up, the company’s foundations are strong, but for anyone on the outside looking in, Indigo looks awful.”
“The Indigo printers suffered from reliability problems. The company had to bring in one engineer for every two machines sold, clients seldom used their new machines, and potential clients shied away”
In those days, I heard a rumor that if you bought one Indigo machine, you got a second one for free, for spare parts, and engineer on site. So at least part of that seems to have been true…
09/09/2001: Landa: No cutbacks or layoffs at Indigo
It’s a short article, with some claims on market share, plus the deal with HP.
03/06/2003: The Landa way
This is the final one, and a nice one to conclude this overview. And it’s worth reading, e.g. the reasons Benny Landa mentions why small businesses wouldn’t invest in digital printers…
Globes: “Why didn’t it happen?”
Landa: “There was a combination of reasons. A key factor was that we were an Israeli company, and you have to understand your customer’s mentality.” For the rest of that reasoning, you have to check the article at the Globes website…
Landa: “We were the technology leader, and were the first on the market with digital printers.”
It’s a bit more complicated than that. Two companies can claim to be first on the market of full color digital presses: Xeikon showed their DCP-1 at the same Ipex exhibition in 1993. The Indigo press release about their press, was sent out a few days before the press conference from Xeikon (that press conference had been announced earlier, but without full details of what was going to be announced). You can read all about this in this excellent article by Dutch journalist Ed Boogaard (please note that there are a few paragraphs in Dutch at the top, below is everything in English, look for the subtitle ‘Single pass duplex’, there the story starts). From the article, on the fact that Indigo published his press release a few days before their press conference: “De Schamphelaere didn’t think his premiere had been overshadowed by it: “We will be first to go to market and to demonstrate it.” ”
Back to the Globes article.
Landa: “The product wasn’t ready, it wasn’t sufficiently reliable, and it therefore needed a lot of support. But that wasn’t the problem.”
And here is a last quote from that article, to conclude…
Globes: “What does the Indigo lab do now?”
Landa: “We’re working on a number of projects: two in printing; one in nanoparticle manufacturing; (…)”
Interesting… Indigo lab, part of HP, was working on nanoparticle manufacturing…
Why is this important?
It’s good to know the history of things. To reflect on what happened in the past and how that might relate to today, and maybe the future. But people tend to have a short memory, especially regarding promises of a future that will be entirely different.
When digging deeper into this, I had to think a lot about the X-files, and especially the title of the movie: “I want to believe” (the amazing promises), and the tagline of the series: “The truth is out there”.
PS: in case you haven’t seen the interview, here it is.
PS2: here is something you might also find interesting, it’s part of the white paper Landa Digital Printing published in the past.
PS3: here’s the list of all the Landa Nano presses I found.
UPDATE 17/07/2022: when looking for some info, I noticed that the Landa Digital Printing website recently got an update. A lot of information is not available anymore. Including information about the W10. This is the original link to the W10, which now gives an error message: “Sorry, we could not find the page you were looking for”. And here is a ‘snapshot’ from the internet archive from two months ago, when the W10 was still mentioned… Now this is particularly strange since only a week ago there was this article in the British magazine Print Business, stating that the first W10 would be delivered within weeks…
And when digging a bit deeper into the web based version, here are two more interesting articles, about the first customer for the web based presses… In 2012 Packaging News reported that British Reflex Labels became the world’s first customer to buy a Landa press, a W5 that was. The article also mentions that the press “most likely” will be installed in the second half of 2013. Which didn’t happen, the W5 never made it to the market. But Reflex didn’t loose their faith in Landa: in 2016 they placed an order for the W10, as reported by Printweek. But I couldn’t find any information that the press has been delivered yet… BTW: the article also states Reflex will filter rain water from the roof for the ink. Interesting…
UPDATE 03/02/2023: someone sent me the link to a video interview with Benny Landa, from 2013. Some quotes:
“We expect to ship our first machines into our beta customers at the very end of this year.” (End of 2013) Reality: the first beta installment was at Graphica Bezalel (Israel), in August 2017, the second in October 2018 (US).
“2014 will be a year of rising volumes and then full scale.” (I might have missed a word at the end of that sentence)
“We have quite a number of customers in beta sites. At drupa we took about 430 orders, these were LOIs with requirement for deposits, so that’s serious customers.” AFAIK, based on Landa Nano announcements over the years, there have been 43 installments (updated 19/06/2024), one has also been removed, apparently. So, about 400 orders still need to be fulfilled…
They are also talking about the 7 ‘models’ (I would prefer to call them ‘concepts’) that were shown at drupa 2012, at this moment only the S10 and S10P are mentioned at the Landa Nano website.
UPDATE 28/05/2024: drupa has started and – of course – on the first day there is a big announcement by Landa: Cimpress has signed a deal for multiple presses. Which is the result of the ‘intent’ they signed in 2016, for “up to 20 presses” (at a speed of 13.000 sph, not the 11.200 sph the S11/S11P offer today). The brief report from Jo Francis (Printweek) on LinkedIn contains an interesting phrase by Landa: “At Drupa 2016 we expected to ship the first of many presses [to Cimpress] in two or three years but we, Landa, weren’t ready. (…)”. So, that claim to deliver the presses in two or three years (so: 2018 or 2019) is quite revealing: it is absolutely not consistent with the public claims that the presses were ready, or would be ready, first in 2013, then “one year from today” in 2014 (so: 2015). I wonder whether this (new) deal with Cimpress will materialize within the promised time frame (2024).
UPDATE 02/06/2024: you might also want to check this LinkedIn post by Hayco van Gaal from Canon, about their year long cooperation with CIMPRESS, And do look at the comments, especially the one from Michel Hunkeler…
UPDATE 08/06/2024: I took home over a dozen samples from Landa Nano from drupa 2024. Here’s my review (and it doesn’t look that good): Landa Nano, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
UPDATE 19/06/2024: earlier this week Landa sent out a press release about drupa 2024, with “unprecedented Landa orders taken at the show”. A press release that was published by many trade publications. But what does that mean, ‘unprecedented Landa orders’? So, to provide context, I checked the quotes in the artcile above. There is the claim of having had 430 orders during drupa 2012, worth over 1 billion US $. And drupa 2016, that was 450 million euro. So, unprecented could mean over 430 orders, but I find it very hard to believe. We only saw Cimpress at the press conference (who already signed an agreement in 2016 to purchase ‘up to 20’ presses, after succesful testing, now that is ‘multiple presses’), plus the cooperation with Gelato. But no more big announcements… One would guess that if they succeeded to pass that 430 orders from 2012, or the 450 million from 2016, there would have been more press releases and announcements. But I didn’t see them. Which leaves me only with one interpretation: that ‘unprecedented’ is a very low number, that would be really unprecedented. And unless Landa Digital Printing starts to be more open about this kind of very vague statements, I will keep pointing to it. Remember, from all those orders in the past, there are only 55 installments (their number from the pre drupa press event), I could only track 43…
UPDATE 07/09/2024: the post drupa press release stated Landa Nano had ‘unprecedented orders taken‘. I always wondered what that could mean, ‘unprecedented’. Especially since the bold statements about previous drupa sales. And with a recent blog post by Printweek MENA, we can have an educated guess: around a dozen. At the start of drupa, it was mentioned that they have an installed base of around 60 presses. This new blog post says they sold ‘over 70’ (in general, not specifically at drupa 2024), so that’s around a dozen more between right before drupa and now, 3 months past drupa. And that dozen is unprecedented. Remember, in 2012 over 400 companies signed a LOI and put down money to be on that list. It was over 1 billion $ in orders. In 2016 Landa Nano took 450 million euro in orders. So, a dozen presses, that’s indeed unprecedented… Or, these old numbers were fake. You decide.
UPDATE 18/04/2025: I just saw a LinkedIn post by ALTANA bragging that their latest Corporate Report (2024) was printed on a Landa press. So I had to check that report and search for mentions of Landa Digital Printing (since they are a shareholder). And this is what the report says: “For the group of innovation risks, both potential losses and the probability of occurence 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 compared to the previous year. This rise is 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 to higher risks associated with the 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝘁𝗱.” See page 86 in the PDF (82 in the printed report).
UPDATE 27/05-/2025: it seems that Landa Digital Printing is looking into an IPO or other external financing. This public ‘pitch’ was shared by an anonymous source via the contact form on my blog: FTE® Winter 2024 Dr Andreas Jerschensky Landa Group. And it was confirmed by another source, after I published in on LinkedIn. And it seems that also the family behind TETRA Pack has invested in Landa Digital Printing, via a shell company: Winder Pte Ltd (more about that company and the link with the TETRA Pack family in this article).
UPDATE 12/06/2025: headline on the Globes.co.il website: “Landa Digital Printing to lay off over 100 employees – Benny Landa’s nano-graphic digital printing company is laying off over 20% of its workforce after a fall in sales.”
UPDATE 15/06/2025: this article in Printing Impressions contains the full statement by Landa Digital Printing. According to this article in PrintWeek, the decission was taken “in the light of geopolitical turmoil and the Israel-Gaza war.”
BTW, just 𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟮 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 before the massive lay off, there was this article in Printweek: “LDP scaling up to meet market demand – Landa boosts top team“.
A few quotes (bold is mine): “Landa Digital Printing CEO Gil Oron said the business was recruiting “top-tier talent like Simon” as it scales up to meet market demand.”
“The demand for our Landa S11 and S11P presses underscores the industry’s shift toward high-quality, high-speed digital production to meet its many challenges,” Lewis said.
I have a very hard time to believe that in only 2 months and 2 days that situation changed significantly… The Israel-Gaza war started in October 2023, geopolitical turmoil is also nothing this recent… And this kind of restructuring, that’s not something you do overnight, this is a process that takes time, at least multiple weeks, probably months.
UPDATE 29/06/2025: Landa Digital Printing seeks court protection… This was mentioned in at least two Israeli newspapers. This one is in English. The second one is in Hebrew, so you might need to use online translation. But that second one has interesting information, the total debt: 1,7 billion NIS. With the current exchange rate, that’s well over 400 million euro en just 500 million USD. Here is a second article from that second website, from a more global perspective, and in English.
Is this the final chapter? Or will there be some kind of continuation? Time will tell…
UPDATE 30/06/2025: Another article (in Hebrew) with an analysis of the downfall, which includes interesting numbers: “The company claims that at its annual sales event at the Drupa conference, the main conference of the printing industry, it received 16 invitation letters, but these ended up cooking for only 11 orders.” So, the ‘unprecedented sales’ at drupa was about a dozen presses…
“The company claims that it did not meet its sales targets for 2024 (…)”
UPDATE 01/07/2025: There seem to be several candidates according to this article: HP, Canon, Agfa, Fujifilm, Epson, Xerox, Brother, and Koenig & Bauer. And from the article: “Calcalist has learned that investors decided to stop further funding after injecting a final $13.2 million just last month. This came after a shareholder review found 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟯𝟬, and would 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 $𝟯𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 in capital to get there.” The court granted 14 days of protection, which is a very limited amount of time in my opinion.
And another article with some interesting information…
- total investment in Landa Digital Printing: 1,3 billion US$
- “(…) the presses cost more to build than they sell for.”
- “In the first five months of this year, the company’s revenue averaged just 12 million shekels per month, while its operating costs burned through nearly four times that amount.” (12 million NIS = 3 million euro, 3,5 million USD)
- “Yet survival is far from certain. Landa began cutting back late last year, laying off 80 workers in Israel and reducing its global workforce to about 500. Now, another 250 employees, half the remaining team, have received layoff notices.”
Several articles mention the real number of presses sold: over 50. Which is more or less consistent with my list of sales and installments. And which is less than what the Landa management claimed, even in the latest message, when the restructuring was announced, they claimed to have sold ‘over 70’. Those were also the numbers repeated in the press, but as it now seems, these were inflated numbers…
And another analysis: “History repeats: Landa Digital Printing’s collapse mirrors Indigo’s rocky path” Some quotes:
- “From bombastic promises to market reluctance, Benny Landa’s new crisis revives old lessons.”‘
- “At the exhibitions, Landa’s inventions always drew crowds and admiration, but when it came time to place orders and pay significant sums for the machines, customers cooled off. When orders didn’t materialize, revenues didn’t grow and losses piled up. The blame, then as now, was often directed outward at global circumstances, back then, the 9/11 attacks; now, the war in Israel, and at customers who weren’t ready to embrace the revolution.”
- “But at the time of its sale, Indigo was a 30-year-old company that had never met its investors’ expectations and had gone through multiple rounds of layoffs, at one point cutting a third of its workforce.”
- “Those who usually pay the price for his bold visions are his employees. Landa is a gifted storyteller who knows how to captivate audiences and rally them to his cause, even if it sometimes turns into years of chasing an unattainable dream.”
UPDATE 05/07/2025: given the current troubles at Landa Digital Printing, I’ve written an article on the evolution of B1 offset printing over the past few decades, to provide some context. And this is important context, e.g. makeready times in offset have been reduced significantly. From about 30 minutes when the first development of nanography started, to almost instant job changes at this moment… Consider what that means for the Ilustre crossover between digital and offset…
UPDATE 06/07/2025: while doing some more research, I came across a second article on the 2018 investment by SKion. And this one contains an interesting quote from Benny Landa (bold is mine): “The company has a backlog of 500 million euros (approximately $583 million) and plans to supply dozens of machines within the next year and hundreds more in the future.” Given a list price of 3 tot 3,5 million euro per press, that’s about 150 presses in the backlog… And dozens of machines within the next year? In 2019 six presses were installed. Half a dozen, instead of several dozens. And the same amount in 2020. BTW: recently someone who is very familiar with Landa Digital Printing checked my list of press installments: “(…) it’s mostly accurate with some discrepancies.”
UPDATE 10/07/2025: Today court has extended the protection untill the end of August, more information about it in this article. But there was also a second article, with the following headline: ““Landa could become the largest printing company in the world”: Court gives troubled firm a lifeline”. And that’s not the only rather bold, claim… At the end of the article is the following quote from Benny Landa: ““While HP-Indigo digital presses handle small runs, such as books, Landa focuses on very large-scale printing. Today, only 4% of the printing market is digital. Each Landa press consists of 35 tons of technology invented by some of the world’s leading experts. We are at the beginning of a revolution and we are alone in this field, we have no competitors worldwide.” Really??? No competitors? First: there are the Koenig & Bauer | Durst and the AGFA B1 presses and second, as I showed in this analysis, the market gap Landa targets, has disappeared. The gap he is aiming at, just doesn’t exist anymore. Gains in efficiencies on offset presses has made sheetfed offset viable starting a few hundred copies. And also other digital presses have become more productive. Even though their format is smaller, one needs to ask: when do you really need B1 format? Very often a smaller format is the smaller solution.
UPDATE 14/07/2025: Not exactly an update on Landa Digital Printing or an interview, but today there was an interesting analysis on LinkedIn on the ‘uniqueness’ of the Landa NanoInk, by someone who analysed the patents (and who has the right background to do this kind of analysis). Guess what: the ink as such isn’t that unique… What is unique is the drying via the belt.
As a follow-up to this update: the comments were interesting, with someone who was involved in the development adding this: “(…) You’re absolutely right that the patents don’t disclose precise ratios, chemical identities of pigments, binders, surfactants, or other formulation components — and that’s intentional. These specifics are protected as trade secrets.
What the patents do cover, however, are the functional properties of the ink, particularly the rheological behavior of the dried ink film. That’s the heart of the invention.
In essence, any company wishing to implement a blanket-based transfer printing process would need inks that demonstrate similar hot/cold rheological transitions — and that’s exactly what Landa’s ink patents protect. So while the formulations themselves may not seem novel at first glance, their behavior within the system is both unique and critical to making the process work.
If we strip away all the marketing, I truly believe the core idea is brilliant — enabling aqueous pigment inks to print on substrates that are typically incompatible with water, like highly porous thin papers (even tissue) or thermally sensitive plastics like polyethylene, where drying by heat is not an option. (…)”
UPDATE 18/07/2025: Inkish today published an interesting video, a conversation with Joe Falcone, a former Landa Sales Manager… It’s a honest conversation about his time at Landa, the time before and the time after. It’s certainly worth the time watching!
And an interesting, important part, is on NDA’s, whether Landa Digital Printing had very strict NDA’s with customers. “Anyone who has a Landa pulled out, who didn’t keep their Landa press, you notice, you don’t hear anything about it. (…) You don’t hear anything negative, ever, anywhere.
And some of the things you hear positives, these might be Public Relations. It might not be reality.”
This is what I always thought… And the positive things, check out my articles on the Landa S10P World Record, and the record of 20 million flats.
UPDATE 04/08/2025:Today Ctech published an article stating there are only two parties interested in buying Landa Digital Printing: HP and the Israeli investment group FIMI. “Only two parties have expressed interest in acquiring Landa Digital Printing, the high-profile digital printing company founded by Benny Landa. Calcalist has learned that international printing and computing giant HP and leading Israeli investment fund FIMI, managed by Ishai Davidi, are currently evaluating the company. Representatives of both entities visited Landa Digital’s offices in Rehovot last week and met with senior executives to assess the situation.”
And further in the article: “Even so, FIMI’s involvement does not guarantee a bid, while HP’s interest is viewed as more strategic, given potential synergies between its core printing operations and Landa’s high-end machines. Some customers already use both platforms.”
The article also mentioned that Canon, Agfa, Fuji, Epson, Xerox, and Brother were given access to the ‘data room’ by investment bank Nomura, which leads the search for investors. In case you wonder why they requested access to the data room but did not proceed to go into talks, I see two reasons. First: they didn’t like what they saw. Second: they only entered the data room to get access to all information about Landa Digital Printing, without having a real interest to make an offer…
UPDATE 21/08/2025: This morning both Ctech (first in Hebrew, a few hours later in English) and Globes published articles on the first offer, by FIMI: 80 million US$… With the assessment of the current shareholders in mind (300 million US$ and 5 years to get to a breakeven point), one has to wonder what their intention is.
According to the article by Globes, FIMI “aims to make the company profitable.” And: “FIMI is interested in rehabilitating the company operationally, using the recovery methods it applies to companies to bring them to profitability.”
That article also mentions the debt to suppliers: NIS 246.2 million (about 62 million euro / 72 million US$). I wonder if they will stay aboard in a new configuration. And that will be necessary: many elements from a Landa press are from external companies, among which the frame, the inkjet heads, the paper transport. It also mentions a value of the inventory: “nearly NIS 170 million” (43 million euro / 50 million US$). Given that amount, I wonder what is included in that inventory. I did hear rumors about a number of presses being assembled and waiting to be sold, but would that add up to NIS 170 million?
The article by Ctech also mentions the procedure: “The move requires approval from a creditors’ meeting and court approval.” And : “After the transaction is completed, the buyer will hold 100% of its share capital.”
The big question is of course: will this 80 million US$ be sufficient? What will the new Landa Digital Printing be able to do with that limited amount of money? Especially given that assessment by the current shareholders. And especially after having already having invested 1,3 billion US$.
Globes also concludes: “If the bid is approved as part of the company’s debt settlement, it will rerpesent one of the biggest-ever write-downs in Israel.”
The other big question at this moment, with still 10 days to go: will HP also make an offer? Did they wait for the first move by FIMI? Or did they already draw their conclusion? We will soon find out…
UPDATE 25/08/2025: Yesterday Ctech published an interesting analysis: “Why FIMI is betting $80M on Benny Landa’s failing printing dream” First interesting point is that, according to the article, it’s not the two court-appointed arrangement managers that went looking for potential buyers, it’s the current Landa Digital Printing management.
The most interesting part, from my point of view, is this: “Risks remain high. Landa Digital Printing has been, by most accounts, poorly managed. Court filings show the company operated based on letters of intent from customers for 50 printers, but only 11 contracts were ultimately signed. This led to the company burning through $10 million per month, (…).” (bold is mine)
This is a bit confusing: if this is about the ‘original’ 50 presses, that’s a lot of presses / customers without a contract. But as someone noticed, it could also be about the sales at drupa last year.
Also interesting: “Benny Landa himself is expected to exit regardless of the outcome.”
Another article, from this morning, is from Ctech: “Dispute emerges over Landa Printing acquisition”. What is important in this article, is the timeline: “FIMI agreed to extend the validity of its offer until September 4, the date set for the court hearing, (…)” So, the deadline for offers is the end of the month (this Sunday), the decission on the offer(s) will be next week Thursday.
And then there is also this sentence: “We are prepared to invest significant sums and, if the effort succeeds, to share with the current owners payments of up to tens of millions of additional dollars (…)”. Those significant sums, is that on top of the 80 million US$? Remember, current shareholders made the assessment that another 300 million US$ and 5 years were needed to get to breakeven.
UPDATE 31/08/2025: CTech today reports on a meeting last Thursday, a 10 hour long ‘contentious’ meeting with FIMI and representants of the creditors.
FIMI “acknowledged 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆’𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀: “This is a very complex deal. You know how much the company has lost in recent years.” He disclosed, for the first time, that Landa Digital Printing has lost about NIS 500 million (approximately $𝟭𝟱𝟬𝗠) 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, (…)”
Most creditors support the takeover by FIMI, “main opponentn is Viania, to which Landa owes NIS 220 million (65,7 M US$) in future rent payments for a new, specially constructed building the company is set to occupy. Vitania is a partner in the property along with three of Landa’s private companies.” The discussion is about an addendum that was added on Wednesday: which “included a release from legal claims for managers, including founder Benny Landa.”
FIMI’s recovery plan, which heavily relies on keeping the current ‘critical suppliers’: “According to our plan, it will take about three years to reset the company. (…) Replacing critical suppliers in a turnaround like this will not succeed. The company has no production equipment and is dependent on these suppliers.”
“It’s not a walk in the park, it’s very, very difficult, but if I didn’t believe there was a chance of success, I wouldn’t be here.”
Here is more about that Viatania and the building.
UPDATE 01/09/2025: This might seem a weird update: there is no news. But that is also news… Yesterday was the deadline to submit an offer to the court. Unless the Israeli media missed something, HP did not make an offer. And that’s important news, this means that FIMI is the only party that has made a concrete offer. Whether this will be approved, that’s still up to discussion, see the discussion about the addendum in the previous update…
UPDATE 07/09/2025: The verdict is in: the 80 million US$ offer from FIMI got approved. “The deal ensures continued operations and avoids liquidation, protecting the majority of employees’ jobs. (…) Following the acquisition, FIMI will own 100% of Landa Corporation and will continue to employ most of its workforce. (…) She (the judge) emphasized that liquidation would likely yield only minimal proceeds, given that the company’s customers are primarily overseas and its only assets in Israel are machinery.” I wonder whether this provide a long term solution and make the new Landa Digital Printing viable, competitive in the current and future market. IMO, and I’m not the only one, still a lot of R&D needs to be done to make the machine reliable and productive.
The article doesn’t mention anything about the real estate deal, maybe more information will follow…
UPDATE: 09/09/2025: I’ve found two threads on Reddit discussing Landa Digital Printing.
A comment from the first one: “I’ve worked with an S10 (…) I have a lot of thoughts on it. Not many or any are positive. (…) It seemed to always be out of registration and the imaging blanket always needed to be replaced which seemed to be 6 hours downtime everytime (at least one a week).” Also other comments in that Reddit thread are worth a read… Especially the one calling the Landa press their ‘trophy wife’, which is only used to impress important customer.
But also this one: “Return that machine while u can. That thing will bleed you guys dry. Our company has one. Its just gathering dust. Worst investment we’ve ever made.”
And a long comment in the second one, a thread from yesterday:
“(…) Here’s the reality:
The 𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿.
The “𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆” 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘁 everyone hyped up? 𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆. It takes hours to replace, and you’re lucky if you don’t burn through multiple blankets just to get one decent one.
Customers get promises and press releases, while service teams are left holding the bag when things fail in the field.
For years, leadership has been more focused on optics than on fixing real problems.
The people on the ground — engineers, techs, operators — are busting their asses while executives sell a dream and cash the checks.
If FIMI is serious about turning this around, they need to wipe the slate clean.
Innovation alone won’t save Landa — accountability will…”
UPDATE 03/10/2025: Several news outlets had articles on the new Landa Digital Printing last week (here is one of them). FIMI has appointed a new executive chair, Richard Klapholz, who happens to have been working at Orbotech for a very long time, just like Gil Oron, Roni Romm and Asher Levy. Is this relevant? I don’t know, but at least it’s interesting to note. Some articles were also talking about customers ordering a second press. That’s probably ‘recycled’ information from the pre drupa 2024 conference. I haven’t heard about current customers, in the current conditions, ordering a second or third one. What I did hear, is customers shutting down their Landa presses… (for the record: this comes from sources that shared accurate information in the past). What will the future bring? I don’t know. But as long as the technology isn’t at the promised level (see the Reddit threads I shared above), optimising the business management will not be enough to turn the company into a success.
BTW, this is a quote from the new executive chairman: “We believe we are about two years away from breakeven, and from that point on the company can be profitable forever.” Remember that the original shareholders claimed it would take at least 5 more years and 300 million US$ to get to breakeven. Time will tell… drupa 2028 will be an important milestone.
Great story for all marketeers in print.
Absolutely Henk!
Benny Landa is an amazing marketeer, delivering on his promises is something different.
Epic piece of documenting the ‘Landa saga’ and especially Nanography. I know no one else that has shown your level of commitment over so many years in following up on this story.
Thanks Marcel!
Dear Eddy,
Thank you for this thoughtful and thoroughly documented article. Your deep dive into the public record surrounding Landa’s promises is both impressive and important. It’s rare to see such careful, well-sourced analysis in an industry where memory is often short and marketing is loud.
At the same time, I’d like to offer a small reflection, not in contradiction, but perhaps in complement to your perspective.
While it’s true that many of the initial promises have not (yet) been fully realized, I find it difficult to judge a technological revolution by deadlines alone. When a company aims to fundamentally reinvent a process—especially in something as complex as print manufacturing—timelines tend to become fluid. Reality pushes back in unexpected ways.
Yet to keep that revolution alive, companies need fuel: investor confidence, public interest, and internal momentum. And for better or worse, bold promises often serve as that fuel. They attract talent, funding, and attention—without which, the innovation may never move beyond the lab.
In that sense, I believe there is room for both realism and ambition. And I appreciate that your article gives readers the full context so they can form a nuanced opinion.
Thanks again for your work—it’s a valuable contribution to our industry’s memory and discourse.
Warm regards,
Pavel Mikhailov
Thx Pavel!
And yes, some things might need more time than others to get it right. That’s why I’ve included the timelines of several other digital print products in this article: Landa Digital Printing – a textbook example of ‘sunk cost fallacy’?
When looking at multiple digital printing presses, both Indigo and Landa Digital Printing took much more time than others. The fact that Indigo is now a success, is thanks to HP. They redesigned, reengineered the original Indigo. And then you have to question when does perseverance, chasing an idea for a very long time, becomes a liability… Others have stopped the development when they noticed it would take too much time and money to get it right. That’s a brave decision. Maybe even braver than chasing your dream forever.
I completely agree: drawing the line between perseverance and stubbornness is one of the hardest decisions. Knowing when to stop and when to keep going is often only clear in hindsight. Making such a decision requires seeing the full picture, not just the technical or financial aspects.
Among many factors, there’s also one that shouldn’t be overlooked — responsibility: to investors who believed in the project and committed their capital; to customers relying on promised outcomes; and of course, to the team itself — the talented people who have devoted years of their lives to making this vision a reality. (And I must say, Benny Landa and his company have built an outstanding team, especially on the technical side!)
I also agree that sometimes an outside force is needed — just like with Indigo, where HP brought in its resources, expertise, and scale to help transform a bold idea into a mature and functional product.
Perhaps many people are asking themselves the same question right now:
Is it time to keep going — or time to walk away?
Everyone must answer that individually. That’s why the kind of open, professional dialogue you’re encouraging with this article is so valuable.