Kyocera Mita merger sparks global restructure

The days of printing and photocopying convergence have well and truly arrived. Kyocera today announced the finalisation of its merger with Mita and the formation of its Australian operations, Kyocera Mita Australia.

Since 1998, Kyocera has been reorganising and managing Mita under the jurisdiction of the Osaka District Court with a view to eventually bringing the photocopy specialist under the Kyocera umbrella. The integration of the companies is the first phase of a worldwide restructure for the organisation. But unlike many acquisition changes, Kyocera Mita Australia is actually looking to increase its employee base and its channel partners.

"We are actually hiring staff," managing director David Finn told the industry at the official launch of the new company.

The company is also revising its channel strategy. While Kyocera has traditionally entertained a strong reseller base, Mita has not sold through the channel. The new entity will reorganise its dealer discount strategy and gradually expand its distributors based on competency and service.

At this stage, the company has not opened its photocopier products to the distributors, but this will change as the channel displays competency.

"The inclusion of the distribution channel will be a phased implementation," explained Finn. "The first stage is to introduce consumables and our entry level analog copiers and faxes."

In April, this will be expanded to include Kyocera's entry level copiers, while existing Kyocera resellers will be offered the new range of convergent product offerings to come from the merge. This includes the soon-to-be launched FS 8000C -- the first Ecosys colour laser printer which the company claims will reduce operating costs by 50 per cent and cost less than $10,000 - and the KM-6230, a digital copier, printer and scanner.

"There are enormous opportunities for the channel - it is almost frightening," enthuised Finn. "Our standard IT guys will get all the toys as they prove competent and capable. We will get the dealers on board and distributors will be phased in as they display competency."

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