Ricoh Dethrones Canon as the Copier King

Toshiba merger makes Ricoh the world #1 for office machines

By cjfeola in Photo Industry News on May 30, 2023

Ricoh is merging its printer and copier manufacturing with Toshiba, creating the world’s largest office equipment manufacturer on a shipment basis. Currently Ricoh is number two behind Canon, with Toshiba checking in with seventh place. Ricoh holds 85 percent of the investment into the new venture, with Toshiba holding the remaining 15 percent. Both companies will maintain their own sales and marketing branding, staffs and sales channels.

Ricoh said in a news release that the move was driven by continuing weakness in the office equipment market.  “Although the office printing market is recovering from the sharp decline in printing volume caused by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pre-existing and ongoing trend toward a paperless transition continues. The global market as a whole will continue on a gradual downward trend.”

The partners also cited the need to stabilize supply chains because of ongoing geopolitical risks.

Ricoh Office Equipment

Ricoh said the market is moving to digital solutions that combine hardware and software into unified office solutions. “Against the backdrop of expanding remote work and a worsening labor shortage due to Japan’s shrinking workforce, the need for digitalization of various operations in offices and in the frontlines has become apparent.”

Ricoh and Toshiba said more companies may join the manufacturing alliance, and sent out an invitation to prospective partners.

News of the merger emerged just days after Ricoh announced that its annual operating profits soared 97 percent, in part driven by “ongoing profitability of camera business.” Ricoh predicted an even larger jump in revenue and profits in the coming year for the camera business category.

And Ricoh cited the camera business as a technology it is bringing to the table to drive the success of the new office equipment manufacturing partnership.

“The Business Integration will enable the two companies to shift their resources to focus more on areas of innovation and individual areas of differentiation, thereby increasing their competitiveness and strengthening their business foundations. Furthermore, the two companies will work on joint planning and development of new solutions to support customers (digitization) by integrating image recognition technology utilizing Toshiba Tec’s barcode printer, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), etc., and Ricoh’s optical and image processing technologies, such as cameras and projectors.”

All this means the camera business is becoming increasingly important to Ricoh. The continuing weakness in the office equipment market means profits there will be hard to come by as companies engage in cutthroat competition to keep from losing market share. That’s why Ricoh and Toshiba are combining operations to drive down costs and keep their products competitive in a shrinking market.

The camera business, meanwhile, is already exhibiting “ongoing profitability,” and Ricoh is moving upmarket into higher profit models. The K-3 III Monochrome, for example, is $2,199 at B&H Photo. The regular (color) K-3 III is $1,696, while the K-1 II with battery grip is $1,796.

Likewise, the Ricoh GR III Diary Edition is selling for $1,016, while the regular GR III is $966.