Michael Mogridge has hit back at the banning order which has seen him and all Landa reps barred from the Melbourne Exhibition Centre during PacPrint, accusing the organisers of picking on his company.

He says, “The reaction from PacPrint has been childish and unfair. Landa is not marketing during PacPrint, we are just planning on meeting printers who have expressed an interest in Landa.”

However Adrian Fleming, PacPrint president says, “Landa was promoting PacPrint on its website, inviting people to come and meet Michael Mogridge at the show. The 150 paying exhibitors who are making a major investment in PacPrint are rightly not expecting to effectively pay to support someone else’s marketing activities."

[Related: PacPrint bans Landa]

Mogridge says, “Why are they picking on Landa, I am sure there will be reps from Heidelberg and KBA at the show."

Addressing that issue Fleming says, “Yes there will probably be reps from the offset guys that are not here, but they are aware that they cannot engage in any marketing activities. The PacPrint board has made it clear from the start that it will not tolerate guerilla or ambush or suitcase marketing.”

Mogridge says, “Landa has made it clear that it will only exhibit at drupas, so the next time we will have a stand anywhere will be in Dusseldorf in three years time.”

The PacPrint Board has the backing of all 150 exhibitors in its approach to non-exhibitors, with the CPI helicopter rides of the 2005 show still in everyone’s memory.

Landa is developing a new digital printing technology nano which it claims will print at offset speeds. Its development has been slower than expected, but the first beta presses are due to go in this year.

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