U.S.A.:Canon's Oce Lays Off 135 Employees in Connecticut

[Anonymous]

Canon’s Oce Lays Off 135 Employees in Connecticut

Oce North America Inc., the Trumbull-based servicer of printers and copiers, will lose 135 jobs in Connecticut as a result of consolidations taking place three years after being acquired by a Japanese company.

James Magrone, an Oce spokesman, said the cuts are part of an overall integration plan that has been developed over three years, since Canon Inc. bought the copier and office equipment company.

"It’s not a surprise. It didn’t come out of the woodwork suddenly," he said. The job cuts cover a wide variety of positions in administration and support, but are less than half the total of employees working in the Trumbull facility at 100 Oakview Dr. He did not reveal the number of employees who would be left. Magrone’s own position is among those listed to be cut on Dec. 31.

Oce filed a notice with the state that it would cut 124 jobs in Trumbull, 10 in Shelton and one in East Hartford beginning on Dec. 31. The bulk of the layoffs will come on New Year’s Eve of this year, with 70 people scheduled to lose their jobs and waves of layoffs to follow throughout 2013. The company said it is keeping its facilities open.

Consolidation and a changing world have forced document solutions companies that make printers and copiers to respond in different ways.

Canon competitors, including Xerox and Lexmark International Inc., have seen a decline in copier and printer related revenues as customers choose to view documents on mobile and other devices rather than print them, according to Bloomberg News. The result has pushed some in the industry to focus more on services, as Xerox has been doing, or cut staff and explore the sales of units, as Lexmark is reportedly doing.

Canon on Oct. 26 reported quarterly earnings that fell 35 percent from a year ago, with revenue from its office division, which includes Oce, down more than 13 percent to $5.2 billion.

The company said it saw steady growth for office multifunction devices while demand for laser printers leveled off and inkjet printers declined.

Canon bought Oce for $1.1 billion in 2009 in the Japanese company’s largest single acquisition in its history. Oce had itself acquired the Trumbull operation in 2005 when it bought Imagistics International Inc., a spinoff of Pitney Bowes, in 2001.

The Trumbull facility served as the back office and executive headquarters for Oce’s North American business, but some of those functions are being consolidated into Canon operations, he said. Sales offices are also being consolidated.

Affected employees are being offered severance and those who have health insurance through the company will receive up to 120 days of coverage at the company’s expense, according to the notice.

[Author]

November 6, 2012 at 9:10 AM