Ricoh is Facing its Biggest Crisis

[prwhite]

According to an article in the NIKKEI Asian Review, Ricoh is facing its biggest crisis ever, and is staring at huge losses as the market for multifunctional printers (MFPs)—Ricoh's cash cow—evaporates and its global sales network racks up high costs.

MFPs contributed 90% of Ricoh's consolidated sales for the fiscal year that just ended, and the division's profit plunged, lowering Ricoh's operating profit-to-sales ratio to 4.6%, less than half the ratio at Canon, which also suffered a setback in the same segment.

Ricoh President and CEO Yoshinori Yamashita—who took the helm in April—began visiting sales outlets in Japan, the U.S. & Europe, urging senior officials to pursue profits instead of more market share. Job cuts, he said, will come through "attrition"—mandatory retirement & workers leaving of their own volition. Also reported, is a plan to outsource sales to dealers in North America.

 

[Manafaith]

Well, we just signed on a 9110 due to deliver next week. Hope all goes well with the Ricoh transition

 

[prwhite]

Indeed, we all do!

 

[kinni88]

Paul, if you are basing your business around general office printing, expect a decline in the business. I was at HP Discover as a contractor discussing the decline of the multi function printer and received sharp rebuttals from some HP execs that were quite upset when I mentioned there are much better profit margins in industrial printing over office printing. HP and Xerox have both split their printing businesses and HP is focusing on HPE -- see the latest CRN article on Meg Whitman.
Ricoh is a good company with good product, but the world of 8.5" x 11" paper is changing quickly.
The good news is office printer sales are still stronger than FDM desktop 3D printer sales. Desktop 3D is starting to level off after the hype then decline from 2013/2014.

 

[[email protected]]

Well, we just signed on a 9110 due to deliver next week. Hope all goes well with the Ricoh transition

Ricoh has only transitioned it's non-enterprise wide business to authorized Ricoh dealerships. The result is a strong focus on services-led offerings in the enterprise marketplace, meaning those companies that represent multiple placement opportunities as well as those who would benefit the most from a services and software delivery perspective. Ricoh direct sales will continue to offer all levels of MFP's as well as Production solutions to those customers. In addition, and to address your concern directly, Ricoh continues to invest in it's production print group which includes a heavy focus on directly supporting the graphic arts community.