[pschlute]

According to a statement from the head of operations in the P.Sc. office, the personell is being made redundant and nordic operations will be managed from Germany via the Swedish branch of Focus Trading. He also claims that none of the old staff is moving to Focus Trading.
So, yes, I'm fairly sure that the Uppsala located office is being closed.
And I will miss the availability, the service-mindedness, and the Pentax-savvy-ness of the experienced local guys.

-- MW

That is sad news then. I hope the service you get in future will be good, but I agree there is nothing that can beat good experienced service.

Unfortunately this reorganisation is nothing new in business and the current economic climate doesn't help.

[Kei]

Hoya + Pentax is now a bigger company with better economies of scales, there’s bound to be duplicate offices that will be closed. Since Hoya takes over Pentax its obvious any changes will be made on Pentax’s side so it fits into Hoya’s bigger picture.

I see it as a good sign that Hoya is making changes to Pentax’s operations, there will probably be more in the future as its still relatively short time after the merger. Complete re-structuring will take at least 2 years IMHO; Hoya needs time to get feedback after the first few changes before going ahead with next steps. It would be bad if Hoya did nothing at all because either: 1) Hoya is stupid; or 2) Hoya realizes it’s a lost cause so didn’t even bother.


Dissolving/liquidating a subsidiary does NOT mean all assets are dumped into the ocean; so Hoya/Pentax is not going to lose anything major. Rather the assets & liabilities will be absorbed by the parent company. Therefore Hoya/Pentax is NOT going to lose $15 million or <1% of its assets by closing down the subsidiaries, and neither it will make a dent on the books (so doom-sayers and keep quiet now; being an accountant I think I know what I’m saying ).

[ftpaddict]

TOKYO, Sept 2, 2008 (Asia In Focus via COMTEX) -- HOCPF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- HOYA CORP. (TSE:7741) said Monday that it plans to close a Chinese subsidiary by the end of March and transfer its lens-unit manufacturing operations to a factory in the Philippines. The Filipino factory has been assembling digital cameras.
* By also making lens units there, Hoya aims to enhance productivity and speed up the delivery of products to customers.
* The company believes that the liquidation of PENTAX BASO (GUANGZHOU) OPTOMECHATRONICS CO. will have only a minor impact on its group earnings.

Source: HOCPF Japan's Hoya to transfer Chinese lens-making ops to Philippines



OH NOES THE SKY IS FALLING RUN AND HIDE.

[jake.astig]

Hooray for the Philippines factory!

Since early this year, I've heard rumors of capacity being ramped up for the production of an entry level DSLR in the Philippines facility. Sadly no specifications were leaked.

Only a few weeks left!

[daacon]

I don't usually partake in these types of threads and well in this case I continue not to .....

[chrisman]

During my corporate life I worked for two multinationals, one with 200,000 employees and the other with 400,000. Whenever they incorporated another company (takeover), which was often, they always axed any non-profitable parts of these companies but at the same time supported their core business.

That's the way corporate life is! If Pentax do the right thing under Hoya, they will flourish. If not.......

[beaumont]

Thought I'd check out this thread. Regret that I did. Rice High has once again taken away two minutes of my life that I will never get back...

[*isteve]

"Its that funny man again - the one with a monkey on his back and a sign saying 'The End of Pentax is Nigh' ".

"Move along dear, and dont stare - he's not right in the head".

[baldeagle21b]

Good for them. We now return you to your regular programming.

[AlpenTak]

Sometimes RH comes out with a useful post or two, other times it's utter rubbish, either way I don't really care and don't mind the guy but am I the only person that gets a chuckle out of RiceHigh's user rank given his always controversial standing here?

[Stratman]

I think RH is just reaching for any straw he can grab that LOOKS like it is negative for Pentax. It aggravates me, but I usually just ignore his drivel.......

[nakey]

Hey, I think we are all missing the silver lining here. RH didn't link to an article on his blog, but actually to the pertinent, if meaningless, info.

OMG??? WHAT THE HELL?? HAS THE SKY FALLEN? RICE LINKED TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN HIS BLOG?????


this it is, ladies and gentlemen. the sign that Pentax is truly screwed, and we should all follow benjikan's lead and head to Holga.

HE DIDN'T LINK TO HIS OWN BLOG FOR ONCE!!!!!! THE SKY HAS FALLEN, PENTAX IS SCREWED!!!!!!!!!!!!111shiftshift1




Now if you'll excuse me, i'll keep shooting. Call me when Photokina arrives...

[cupic]

Small factories? The two factories to be closed at Shanghai and Guangzhou add up to a total asset of value 107,845,000 RMB, which is equal to 15,953,402 US Dollars!

Yes, US$15M!

$15M US thats just the lunch bill p.a for the execs


cheers

[MRRiley]

I think RH is just reaching for any straw he can grab that LOOKS like it is negative for Pentax. It aggravates me, but I usually just ignore his drivel.......

The trouble is that his "blog" consistently comes up very high in internet searches (which he helps by placing links to it everywhere he can) and when potential Pentax purchasers decide to look Pentax up they are assaulted with his drivel, misinformation and pseudo-scientific measurbations. I know one guy at work who bought a Nikon because of what he saw on RH's site. Unfortunatley it was too late for me to tell him the truth about Pentax as he had several thousand dollars tied up in Nikon lenses when he mentioned it 2 weeks ago.

Ricey, if you read this, and IF you are really a Pentax fan and are only doing what you do to try to influence Pentax to make better products (as you claim), then you are contributing directly to any downturn in sales that Pentax might be experiencing.

THIS is why I do reply and react to RH's posts. Knowledgable and real-world users of Pentax cameras and lenses need to counter RH's misinformation. We do this by refuting his claims and showing results achieved with Pentax equipment.

p.s. Maybe Adam would consider a special category for RH.... that of MUCKRACKER...

[marlon]

re-form is good. LThis is pretty standard for the transformation process.