EPSON CANADA SHUTS DOWN LOCAL WAREHOUSE

[Anonymous]

Epson Canada shuts down local warehouse operations
Some admin and call centre staff cut as work moves to Indianapolis facility     
Epson
Canada has announced plans to restructure its operations, resulting in
28 full-time staff cuts in its call centre, administrative and
warehouse facilities at the company’s Canadian headquarters in
Toronto.As of August 1, warehousing, customer accounts services and
credit along with some technical services will be consolidated to
Epson’s American operations, said Tony Rossi, director of sales and
marketing at Epson Canada.The call centre, which makes up half of the
approximately 250 Epson Canada employees, will remain in Toronto along
with the company’s sales and marketing team, said Rossi.“We will remain
in Canada with the sales and marketing team and a technical service
team that’s a bit smaller than it used to be,” he added.According to
Rossi the reason behind the changes is to grow Epson’s business more
profitably in Canada. “We’re here to grow the business and we felt
there was some consolidated moves that would improve and streamline our
overall operations,” he said.“The consolidation of much of our
logistical operations into Epson facilities in the U.S. will have no
impact on Epson Canada’s ability to deliver high-quality, timely
service and support to both our channel and retail partners and
customers,” Rossi added.Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, Epson America
has built a 750,000 square foot distribution facility, which will now
coordinate all deliveries to Canada.With a distribution facility of
that size, there is “no need for a warehouse in Canada if they’re going
to have such great volume of printers in Indianapolis,” said IDC
analyst Bradley Hughes.One thing Epson Canada needs to continue doing,
added Hughes, is localizing its products for the Canadian French
market, a responsibility that used to belong to its Toronto
warehouse.But with the new facilities in place, Rossi said, the
warehouse in Indianapolis is more than adequately equipped to handle
localization of products.In Canada, Epson will continue to offer its
products both direct to retailers like Future Shop and Staples as well
through distribution partners like Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Synnex
Canada.“Our distributors will order products as they have in the past,
receive products as they have in the past and they’ll have the same
level of support as they have in the past,” said Rossi.For Synnex
Canada CEO Jim Estill, this restructuring will not affect his company’s
relationship with Epson. “As a matter of fact, this actually means they
will put more of their business through distribution in Canada,” said
Estill. “Change is inevitable in our industry. The companies I worry
about are the ones that do not change. Epson is changing and I see
opportunity in it.”Rossi said Epson Canada will continue to have an
inside sales group that will deal with VARs and resellers. He added
that the company will also move certain accounts through distribution
because “we feel they will be better served.”“The distributors we’re
working with excel in their field which is logistics and they will be
able to provide quicker turnaround times of products to the various
channel partners,” he said.According to Hughes, Epson has been doing
well in both the inkjet printer and MFP market in Canada over the last
year. “Epson has been improving over the last year,” he said. “In the
last quarter they passed Lexmark to the number three spot.”It’s the
same story for MFPs, said Hughes. “In Q1 they were number two in the
inkjet MFP space, whereas in Q1 last year they were number five.”With
restructuring planned to be completed by the end of July, said Hughes,
it will be interesting to see what great an impact the change will have
on Epson’s market share during the highly anticipated retail periods of
back-to-school and the holiday season.“Product availability in the
market is not changing,” said Rossi. “In fact we’re looking at
expanding our market share and growth in Canada.”

[Author]

June 19, 2006 at 1:27 PM