Originally posted by Mikesul Thanks. Very interesting. Given the risky B&M sector Pentax may have been smart to avoid stores the way they did. I just wish they would pick up their web marketing.
Following is general information gleaned from reading articles and email conversations with former Pentax employees in the mid 2000's.
The dissolution of the Pentax retail marketing and distribution infrastructure has been gradual, and has been going on incrementally for decades. In the 80's they reduced their repair and inventory operation in Golden, CO. In the 90's Pentax significantly altered their selling agreements, increasing the volume brackets and significantly reducing their distributor inventory. They also altered their compensation agreements for sales reps and let a large number of them go. By the time Hoya acquired the holding company the US operation was a ghost of its former self. I think at that point there were two reps for the entire country, nearly the entire operation was outsourced to contractors (including web marketing and the Pentax Webstore) and the President of Pentax USA apparently called on the large internet retailers himself.
Hoya eventually departed Golden altogether and moved just 50 people to their current location in Denver. At the time it felt as if Hoya was dumping lens inventory in the US through the large internet retailers at crazy low prices.
MAP pricing was a real shock when the regular retail pricing strategy was announced in (I think) 2013.
Ricoh Imaging has done a pretty good job so far re-establishing itself in North America but they started from literally nothing. 645z and K-1 can be a significant attractive factor generating cash flow.