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Ricoh Australia has acquired the shares of Lanier Australia from regional parent company, Ricoh Asia Pacific, and will unite the two companies by July 2014 with a stronger focus on IT services.
Some 300 employees and 8000 customers Australia-wide will transfer across to Ricoh Australia, which has already been looking after much of the logistics and technical support for Lanier.
Les Richardson, managing director of Ricoh Australia, and Andrew Rohan MP at the opening of Ricoh’s new Eastern Creek centre
Les Richardson, managing director of Ricoh Australia, says the two companies have been looking to expand their offerings in workflow, document management and managed IT services, as well as invest in infrastructure and marketing – so it makes sense to combine their efforts in a subsidiary arrangement and create a stronger single entity.
He tells AP, “Being able to unite these initiatives under one global brand is going to be a big advantage for us. It just makes sense to bring the two companies together.
“Our new Eastern Creek centre is an example of how we can get synergies between the two companies, rather than duplicating processes with Lanier. So Lanier will also be serviced from that centre, and they will come under our carbon neutral printing programme – which will benefit their customers.”
New infrastructure: Ricoh’s Eastern Creek centre will service Lanier as well
Richardson says Lanier’s range of managed workflow, information technology and print service solutions will still be available under the Lanier brand through regional dealers.
He says, “We want to maintain those relationships with the dealers that sell the Lanier brand. Our dealer channel see the decision as particularly positive and are pleased that Ricoh is not going to drop the Lanier brand, we are going to support them.
“It’s been quite a big project for us to get this happening, and I’m really pleased with the response from our customers and our staff. We’re all pretty excited here. Our suppliers have been very supportive, and our staff see that together we can be a much stronger company than separate.”
Lanier customers have now been notified of the transition, though Richardson says it should be largely business as usual for Ricoh and Lanier customers alike.
Ricoh bought Lanier in 2001 as part of a global acquisition. Its international network operates across 200 countries with sales of $US23bn.
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