All Ricoh U.S. Employees,
I believe it is important for all Ricoh employees to understand how we are doing in today’s very difficult economic climate. Click here for excerpts from the Investor briefing given by Zenji Miura the Ricoh CFO.
On a worldwide basis Ricoh recorded a 5.8% reduction in revenue and a 59% decline in operating income from the previous year. Ricoh, as with all Japanese companies, was negatively impacted by the strong Japanese Yen and weak U.S. Dollar and Euro. In fact, when you remove the exchange rate impact, our total Revenue grew by 1%. Exchange rate changes also accounted for over half of the company’s profit decline.
While these results are disappointing, they are strong compared to other companies, both inside and outside of our industry. Ricoh is a healthy and aggressive company positioned for growth.
As for the Americas, including Ricoh U.S., Latin America, Canada, IKON, Infoprint Solutions and REI, our Revenue grew by 16%, mainly as a result of the acquisition of IKON in November. However, we experienced a significant loss for the year. This was due to a number of factors including the weak dollar, one time charges based on finalizing our Oracle project and completion of the One Company integration.
One of the highlights of the year was our direct business, which despite the challenges of the Oracle transition and the tough business climate, actually grew slightly year on year.
Even with the current economic realities, our projections for the 2009 fiscal year show considerable improvement. We’ve adjusted our pricing to reflect current currency exchange rates. We’ve made great strides in stabilizing our Oracle system. We’ve reduced expenses in many areas of the company. All of these actions will help us drive revenue growth and improved operating income in 2009. As we move forward, there will be challenges that impact our operations. We will work through them and learn from them. Our customers’ needs and concerns are our top priority and Ricoh will continue to develop and deliver products, services and solutions that offer the best business workflow applications in the industry. Through all of this, we must maximize our resources and minimize waste to secure profitable growth over the next year.
Ricoh is a global leader, in part, due to our portfolio of hardware and software, our dedicated sales and service organizations, our dealer partners and, most importantly, our 100,000+ dedicated employees across the globe.
Ricoh has the number one market share in most markets around the world and we have been recognized as an environmental leader, a technology leader and, most recently, as one of the 100 most ethical companies in the world.
I want to thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to Ricoh. As you all know, I am fully committed to the Ricoh Vision, Mission and Values. I believe that with a clear mission and solid values, even with an uncertain economy, this new fiscal year can be an exciting time of growth for employees, customers and partners alike. Let’s work together to make it happen.
This announcement was requested by - Mr. Kirk Yoshida
Chairman & CEO
Ricoh Americas Corporation
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