Telford Ricoh factory workers face uncertain future
Workers at a Shropshire factory face an uncertain future after bosses announced it was looking to streamline the business.
Office equipment giant Ricoh UK in Telford, which employs 900 people,will be working with its sister company in France until July, to see if production can be streamlined.
Tim Webber, executive director at Ricoh, based in Priorslee, said the company was keen to keep its employees up to date with any changes.
He said: "The study, which is in the very early stages, will look at how we can standardise the business.
"We are not sure how it will affect jobs or the business but we are keen to let people know what's going on. This is an opportunity to see how the two factories, in Telford and France, can be more efficient.
"We know there is going to be change but at the moment we are unsure about how that will affect jobs."
Mr Webber said the Telford factory, which opened in 1985, was seeing growth in its new machine recycling business, which included printing magazines.
But the company's office machine manufacturing business was shrinking.
He said: "We want to capitalise on the strengths of the two factories, for the greater good of Ricoh across Europe. We will come back to our employees with more information once the study has finished in July.
"We have 900 employees but at the moment we can't make any promises about job losses." Mr Webber said the Ricoh group strategy was to maintain a strong global business, add customer value, provide high-quality technologies and maintain a streamlined and efficient organisation.
He said: "To ensure it remains at the forefront of client needs it is essential that it remains agile and can quickly adapt to market and technology-led changes.
"Today, as a part of an ongoing review to achieve its goals, Ricoh in Telford announced an initiative to its employees.
"They were informed senior management would begin to conduct a study, which would contemplate how to further standardise and safeguard the manufacturing and supply chain process in Europe.
"The activity is a part of Ricoh's global manufacturing and logistics strategy."