The Japanese company Ricoh, which makes printers and other imaging equipment, is planning to cut around 2,000 jobs worldwide by March 2025, representing over 2% of its workforce. Plummeting office MFP printer sales and usage is cited as a factor.
Ricoh is not alone in Japanese printer manufacturers slashing jobs post-covid
In a statement, Ricoh says it plans to focus on businesses related to digital transformation instead. It says about 1,000 jobs will be eliminated in Japan through voluntary early retirement. Ricoh also makes high-volume continuous feed digital presses, cut-sheet toner, DTG and DTF textile printers and Wideformat inkjet printers - all sold worldwide to printing businesses. Performance in this sector was not revealed but it is believed to be outperforming the office MFP and copier sector. 
Declining sales of office-type MFPs cited as main reason for Ricoh job cuts and restructuring
In July 2024, Ricoh launched a joint venture with Toshiba Tec known as ETRIA - whose inkjet printhead business was divested to Riso Corp in January - aimed to improve efficiency in development and production of toner-based MFPs but, declining demand has forced makers to lay off people and restructure.
Another Japanese printed manufacturer, Konica Minolta, has said it will reduce its global workforce by about 2,400 by the end of March 2025. In April 2024, the company announced plans to start a joint venture with Fujifilm Holdings to integrate procurement of materials. At Konica Minolta's drupa expo press conference in Germany this May/June, senior management were quizzed on the progress of this relationship but evaded any meaningful answers.
In Japan, Ricoh will offer voluntary retirement for about 1,000 employees starting in October. Employees who accept the offer will receive an enhanced retirement package and assistance with finding new employment.
Ricoh states:“The company recognise its biggest challenge is to improve profitability. In transitioning to a digital services company, the Company is overhauling its profit structure to better align with its business model.”
Ricoh adds that, in order to accelerate its transformation, the company was, “strengthening necessary skills and capabilities as a digital services company and optimising the personnel structure in each region in line with changes in the business environment.”
Along with the on-going overseas structural reforms it has brought in the new ‘Second Career Support Program’ in Japan. The application period for the retirement scheme will open on 1st October and run until the end of February 2025, with an expected retirement date for successful applicants of 31st March 2025.
Ricoh said the scheme would cost around ¥16bn (circa AUD$166 million), and reduce its costs by ¥9bn (circa AUD$91 million) in fiscal year 2025.
Ricoh had sales of ¥2,349bn (circa AUD$23billion) its most recent financial year and employed more than 79,500 people worldwide.
Post-drupa 2024 expo - a global bellwether of the commercial printing industry's health - Ricoh announced thatdrupa 2024 surpassed all expectations for Ricoh with more than 100 orders, estimated at over USD$225 million, across all inkjet, toner, software, and industrial printhead technologies. Ricoh's Gen5 and 6 industrial printheads are used and highly regarded by several manufacturers of wide format presses.
