Responding to the needs of large-scale customers for high value-added services as well as the steady growth of the Vietnam market, and in line with globally consistent marketing strategy, Ricoh decided to strengthen its operations with direct sales on top of current strong dealer channels.
Following the rise of the BRICs, Vietnam is one of the emerging markets where big growth is expected. Economic growth continues at an average of 6% annually, and in recent years there has been a conspicuous influx of foreign enterprises, including Japanese companies, into major cities. There are currently over 20 million Internet subscribers (about 25% of the population) resulting from the rapid development of the IT environment. With such rapid growth, the copier market is expected to continue to show nearly two-digit expansion. Moreover, focusing on foreign enterprises, there will be a need for more advanced products and services similar to the needs of Europe, America and Japan, and this is also expected to expand the market.
So far, Ricoh has operated through local distributors to develop its business in Vietnam, focusing on government agencies and small and medium-sized enterprises. With the establishment of a sales company, the following kinds of local development will occur:
Takahisa Nakaji, who has been appointed as Ricoh Vietnam General Director, shared his aspirations for the future, "The establishment of Ricoh Vietnam is aimed at providing timely support to and better catering to the needs of our clients on top of the main objective of expanding the sales network in Vietnam. In this rapidly changing business environment, customers are looking for products and services that offer not only quality, but also increased efficiencies with short turnaround time and prompt after-sales service. I believe Ricoh’s market share will continue to increase with our investment in the support infrastructure including recruiting talents to support the business operations."