The Landa Group has announced the appointment of Yishai Amir as CEO of Landa Corporation and a member of its board of directors. Benny Landa, founder of the Landa Group, will continue to drive the company as its active chairman.
The move comes as Landa gears up for drupa, with its much vaunted nano digital inkjet printing technology on target to be released at the Dusseldorf show next May. Landa says it expects to have customer testimonials at the show, following beta testing later this year.
The presses are not yet in any printer, although ProPrint understands that one un-named printer in Europe is preparing its factory for the imminent arrival of a Landa nano press, and a seven-colour S10 press with coater is in final testing at Landa’s development and manufacturing facility in Rehovot, Israel.
Landa signed up some 430 printers at drupa 2012 at $10,000 a pop to get a place in the queue for a nano press, which it is claimed has the benefits of digital and the speed of offset. The S10 which is a B1 folding carton press was the most popular specification.
The global focus on drupa has moved up several gears this week with the announcements that Heidelberg will launch its B1 inkjet sheetfed press at the show which has been co-developed with Fujifilm, and the co-developed Konica Minolta Komori B2 inkjet sheetfed will also be commercially launched. Other announcements are likely to come over the next few months. The drupa roadshow rolls into Australia today, with CEO Wener Dornscheidt spruikling the show at the Sydney Opera House this evening.
Amir joins Landa from HP, where he was running the graphic arts division in the Americas. He was initially hired by Benny Landa 21 years ago at Indigo.
“These are exciting days for Landa as we round out the executive team and take the business to the next level”, says Benny Landa. “Yishai Amir has exactly the business experience and management expertise needed to help the company realise its full potential. Moreover, he is a highly energetic out-of-the-box strategic thinker with a proven ability to drive innovation and execution, who has a track record of successfully growing businesses. I plan to continue to be a very active chairman and I am thrilled to have such a capable partner at my side.”
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