Ricoh Adds Facsimile Machines to Its Irvine Products
In the United States, a person making photocopies often uses the trade name of the industry leader. “I’m going to Xerox some stuff,” an American businessman might say.
In Japan, a person says, “I’ve got to Ricopy something.”
Ricoh Electronics Inc., the first Japanese company to set up a manufacturing center in Orange County 13 years ago, has no illusions about ‘Ricopying’ replacing ‘Xeroxing’ in American office jargon.
But the company hopes to increase its presence in American offices. To do so, Ricoh has expanded its plant in Irvine to 457,000 square feet and has begun making facsimile machines in addition to the copiers and related products it has been making for the last decade (Ricoh made calculators in its Irvine plant for the first three years).
Ricoh is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo-based Ricoh Co. Ltd., which has assets of $2.2 billion. The company’s national headquarters is in New Jersey.
On Monday, executives from the Tokyo office and from the New Jersey headquarters of Ricoh Corp.--the U.S. sales and marketing arm--will formally introduce the new product line. And, with the pomp and ceremony of a military changing of the guard, Ricoh’s chief American executive will meet his replacement and review the Irvine troops before returning to Japan and a promotion.
Under its own name and the labels of other companies, Ricoh already has amassed a 56% share of the U.S desk-top copier market, with annual sales of 110,000 units. Thirty percent of those copiers are made in Irvine.
Ricoh also is a major presence in the high-speed facsimile business, with 34% of the U.S. market--a market that is growing dramatically as the technology improves.
Twelve years ago, when Ricoh purchased Rapicom--an American manufacturer of so-called fax machines--copies took six minutes to create. The high-speed facsimile machines made by Ricoh in Irvine produce copies in 14 seconds. A facsimile machine uses telephone lines to send or receive an electronic “copy” of an original document. A machine on the receiving end uses specially treated paper to produce a facsimile.
Emil L. Florio, Ricoh Corp.’s public relations manager, said there are 1.5 million facsimile machines worldwide; 400,000 are in the United States. “Manufacturers feel that by 1990, we will triple what’s there globally,” he added.
Joann Watson, a Ricoh Electronics spokeswoman, said the company plans to assemble 2,000 machines a month in its Irvine plant and to increase production within the next six years to 4,000 a month.
Already, the company has added 19 new employees to its 700-person work force, and those 19 workers currently turn out four different fax models--ranging in retail price from $2,900 to $4,900--at a rate of 100 per day. Watson said the company plans to add 200 employees to its Irvine and Santa Ana facilities. Most will work on increasing production of the thermal paper used in fax machines.
Watson said that Ricoh is the largest Japanese-owned employer in the county and that the company is committed to reinvesting profits from its Irvine and Santa Ana operations in the area.
And while 90% of the parts for the company’s fax machines now are produced in Japan, Florio said the company will be purchasing 100% of the parts for the machines from U.S. companies within the next six years.
