Ricoh Wide Format Marketing

Art Post (Guest)

I'll also post this in the "Gimmie A Break" Message Board.

I have been selling the Ricoh brand wide format products for almost five years. I am a Ricoh nut, I admire the corporate vision, the product and core philosphy from Ricoh LTD.

I saw the opportunities for higher margins, less competition and a shorter sales cycle years ago. Our dealership smaller than most, was able to penetrate a very good portion on the low end business in our area.

About a year ago, Ricoh opened a up wide format to a dealer that was a Ricoh duplicator dealer only. The impact was minimal in my territory.

In our market place we have Lanier, RBS, IKON, Savin Dealers and Ricoh Dealers.

Just last week, while we were at a wide format training seminar at Ricoh. We were told that Ricoh was strongly considering enlisting the largest Xerox Wide Format Dealer (dedicated wide format) in the State.

I have taking offense to such a move, a move like this states that all Ricoh cares about is the movement of boxes. All the time at Vision in Vegas we were told about how valuable the dealer is and how the dealer enables Ricoh to grow in the US market. What a great partnership they have with their dealers.

Well that's a bunch of horse $%#@! That large dealer wanted no part of Ricoh when we had the FW740/750, or the 760/780, How bout the 470W, nope the dealer still did not want any part of the Ricoh Wide Format Vision.

Times have changed and now the "X" Dealer wants in with the promise of "boxes".

As we support Ricoh in this forum for all RFG vendors, Ricoh should "think twice" about the dealers that got them to where they are!

I remember my Mom (may God be good to her) saying, "Don't forget about the little guys, who got you where you are today"!

Right on Mom!

7/12/048:51 PM

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JohnMember VIP

Kudos Art,
Ricoh's speech at Vision was full of hot air.
They will continue to hold their independant dealers'feet to the fire whenever they want to move boxes. We have been a wide format dealer for 7 years since the 740 and 830 days. We have more units in the field than any other Ricoh dealer in the state. But when we asked for price support on a deal and were told "no, not big enough", and lost to Ikon who beat us by $4,000.00 on a FW470, we realize who we are in their eyes. And who gets support when needed.
Considering we have strictly been a Ricoh only dealer since 1992, they should be kissing our a**. Not many of us out there.

My .02

7/13/0412:04 AM

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Brad Sipes (Guest)

Art - I feel your pain! In a letter to a Senior VP at Konica, my boss wrote that selling the Konica 8050 to IKON, and allowing them to re-label, was the biggest sellout in the history of the copier industry. I guess that Konica isn't the only "sellout" when it comes to their products. I hope for all our sake that the "X" dealer doesn't get involved because it's pretty easy to sell against them in the WF arena right now. Good luck

7/13/041:53 AM

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Color1Elite P4P'er VIP

You guys are not alone, Ricoh is threatening the same thing here in Kentucky. We have three locations and have always done well with the wide format machines. We received a call that Ricoh was considering an IRGA member to set up as a wide format dealer. It doesn't matter that this guy already has Xerox and Oce. John, you are right on the money all Ricoh cares about is moving boxes. One thing they had better consider is the image after the sell. I had the opportunity to sell a machine to someone who had purchased a Ricoh 870 from an IKON dealer 5 years ago. Last year the technician told them their machine was dead and they would need to upgrade. They went without a wide format machine for a year, they called me and we talked about Ricoh, they didn't want any part of it. I convinced them to send me their service records and saw that IKON had charged them over $18k in service over a 4 year period (by the way the IKON rep or Technican failed to tell them that they needed to make sure the Ricoh was not in the same area as their ammonia machine). Long story short, my tech wend down, they moved the ammonia machine, we changed the developer and drum machine works great now. Why would Ricoh want to continue this and degrade the image of the Ricoh product?

8/17/048:01 AM

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Mega (Guest)

Well, its been alittle over 2 years since these "gripes "were posted . I would be curious to hear the "state of events" as they are now for your areas.
thx

11/1/069:55 AM

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Art Post (Guest)

My territory, the large Xerox dealer never took on the Ricoh line, however still have comp from RBS, Lanier and others.

Art

11/1/0610:12 AM

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Mega (Guest)

I just visited a dealer in the greater Boston area and he carries the Ricoh WF, Xerox WF, KIP WF and KM WF. I have seen a 240W labeled Toshiba and he mentioned that he also has seen a 240W labeled with Toshiba!! Here in CT we see it labeled as Ricoh, Savin, Gestetner, Lanier, GEI, and once as Toshiba.

11/1/0610:43 AM

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