Ricoh and its group firms will reduce their combined workforce of 109,000 by about 10,000 in Japan and abroad over the next three years to shore up their faltering operations. Ricoh’s business has yet to recover from a downturn that began shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September 2008. It is also hurting from the yen’s appreciation and the business environment which has been worsened by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Ricoh’s personnel retrenchment is in line with a goal of boosting the annual consolidated operating profit to at least 210 billion yen ($2.5 billion) on sales of 2.4 trillion yen ($29.26 billion) or more by the year ending March 2014, the electronics and computer solutions firm said.
In the year ended this March, the group operating profit slumped 8.8% from a year earlier to 60.1 billion yen ($732.91 million) with sales declining 3.7% to 1.94 trillion yen ($23.65 billion).