Goodbye Gestetner SA

Johannesburg, 15 Jul 2009

Document automation and solutions company, Gestetner SA is no more. The company will, with immediate effect, begin trading as Ricoh SA.

The company says this is part of an international rebranding exercise by the Ricoh Group, of which Gestetner SA is a subsidiary.

MD of Gestetner SA and now Ricoh SA, Richard Pinker, says: “For our customers, it is business as usual.”

He says that apart from the name change, customers will now also have access to more of Ricoh's worldwide products and services.

“We, as Ricoh SA, will now also be able to make use of the international research and development knowledge to offer customers more than we previously could. It furthermore gives us an opportunity to re-launch our products in the EMEA market, creating a higher awareness to customers and recapitalise on the products and the Ricoh name.”

This move is part of Ricoh Group's overall brand strategy as per the company's three-year marketing plan, to raise awareness of the brand globally, according to Jim Potter, VP of Ricoh Europe.

“This international network will continue to allow us access to best practices, research and development. As Ricoh SA, we are proud to be able to contribute directly to the European activation of our global brand statement 'Moving ideas forward',” adds Pinker.

The company will take a phased and integrated approach to sorting out all aspects of the change. “We realise that in current economic times, our distributors and channel partners can't all, from a cost perspective, do complete rebranding and changes, so we will take it step by step.”

Pinker also notes that customers can expect a greater deal of software enhancements from a workflow perspective, coupled with Ricoh's integrated document management solutions.

“We are also bringing entry-level products to the South African and EMEA markets in the latter part of this year, as we believe these are solutions needed in the African environment, as well as due to the current economic environment,” Pinker states.