Ricoh India strives to capture a sizable pie in the market

-forecasts ambitious growth plans with manifold expansion through comprehensive office solutions, new products and enhanced customer satisfaction

– organises launch events in Chennai and Mumbai Having carved a distinctive niche for itself in the fast-emerging digital colour production printing, Ricoh India Ltd, a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd, Japan, a US$ 21.7 billion global major in the field of imaging solutions, shared their plans to target the fast-emerging graphic arts segment in India, recently organising launch events in Chennai and Mumbai. To this end, the company unveiled their new offering – RICOH C901/C901s graphic arts edition, an advanced digital colour printing press designed specifically for production segment.

Notably, long recognized as one of the leaders of office equipment with the top market share in Japan, Europe and Asia Pacific region, Ricoh has taken bold moves to strengthen their position in the production printing segment. Since 2004, it has made strategic acquisitions of industry giants including Hitachi Printing Solutions and IBM’s Printing System Division. Today, the company is widely recognized as the emerging leader in the production printing industry, leveraging its strong research and development as well as strategic investments to stay in the forefront of the business. “Globally, Ricoh strives to offer products, solutions and services that are innovative, have strong customer focus and are true value for money. Our product range in digital production printing solutions has delighted consumers immensely because of quality, efficiency, short turnaround time and prompt after-sales service. Since Sept 2010, when Ricoh entered the mid volume production printing market, we have garnered over 33 percent market share in this segment in India,” remarked N Maitra, managing director, Ricoh India Ltd, disclosing their business strategies at a press conference.

“With a paradigm change in the business environment, consumers are now seeking to further maximize productivity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In India, the graphic arts segment is coming of age and offers a plethora of opportunities. The new launch, which coincides with the global launch, would bring the new range of the RICOH C901/C901s graphic arts edition. It is equipped with new technologies which enable high-quality imaging on a wide scale of media at maximum output. Rated at a speed of 90 minutes, this offers near-offset quality from Ricoh’s PXP chemical toner and oil-less fusing technology. We intend taking a sizable chunk of this market in the first year of operations. For southern India alone, we have already laid out an ambitious plan for this segment,” added Maitra.

Detailing on the various initiatives in India, Sujit Sanyal, senior vice president (business operations) said, “Ricoh’s first-of-its-kind ‘Pro-Partnership Programme’ offering value proposition for customers has been yielding very good results. Our ‘Live Experience Centre (LEX)’ is being started in Delhi and Bangaluru, which will help potential customers to try out the various products – both hardware and software offerings. Additionally, a Media Testing Lab has been added to provide value-added service for customers. We have made an investment of over Rs 20 crore on these initiatives to grow the production business”

“India do offers huge potential for our product mix. Our ultimate aim is to provide all the services that our customers require in the area of document and information technology and make Ricoh a one-stop-solution company for all our customers. Hence we are making rapid strides in the field of office consulting and IT services for which separate business divisions have been set up. We have a robust business plan in place for the next three years and expect to achieve in excess of Rs 1000 crore by 2013. We are stepping up our manpower team from an existing 660 to 1000 by September 2011 including trained front-end sales and engineers. Additionally, we would be expanding to over 400 channels partners by this year end” stated Maitra, outlining the larger game plan for India, “In south India specifically, from our existing offices at five locations, we intend servicing customers to over 100 locations, in all corners of south India. The Live Experience Center in Bengaluru, which would be operational by March, would serve these customers.”

“Western region too ranks very high in our list of priorities and we have stepped up our marketing and servicing set up to cater to this region. For west alone, we have three branch offices and two area offices, with around 350 sales and service personnel. For manpower, we plan to hire the highest number of professionals for the western region,” added Sujit at the Mumbai event. Avijit Mukherjee of the company also gave the brief presentation about the company’s operation with around 78,000 customers using their products. Educational activities for their users will be another top agenda for Ricoh India, informed further Sujit.