Leading worldwide industry manufacturer Ricoh will be cutting 2,000 jobs, an initiative that will conclude in March, the Tokyo-based company announced late last week. The move comes as part of Ricoh’s corporate value improvement project, and includes a voluntary early retirement program that will be offered to 1,000 employees in Japan.
According to Nikkei Asia, the job cuts represent roughly 3% of the company’s group-wide workforce of more than 79,000 employees. Ricoh will record a one-time cost of about $112 million from the voluntary severance for the fiscal year ending March 2025.
The move comes as Ricoh focuses on assisting businesses with digital transformation while scaling down the office machine business, Nikkei Asia reported. The cuts are expected to bolster the company’s profits by 9 billion yen from the fiscal year ending in March 2026.
When reached for comment, Ricoh USA officials referred to the company’s voluntary retirement press release. Asked how many U.S. employees may be subject to job reductions, the company wrote, “We refrain from disclosing the breakdown by region or country of the head count optimization outside of Japan.”
The joint venture between Ricoh and Toshiba Tec, called Etria, and its 8,400 employees are not expected to be part of the job reduction initiative, according to Nikkei Asia. It also reported that Ricoh forecasts a 9% increase in consolidated net profit (48 billion yen) for this fiscal year.
