Lot of people seems to be preparing to leave Nikon, usually biggest changes happen in April as Japanese management needs to make numbers nicer to get multi million dollar bonuses during end of financial year. And as now it is only possible by severe expenses cutting - be prepared for silent cutting across all countries.
I started to hear very bad leaks from inside Nikon (not from Japan).
It is very similar to Olympus, people constantly talk and look for places outside camera industry (as it is on last breaths anyway).
People who work in EU and US think that cuts before May can become staggering (around 85-95% of all staff). Huge reduction on servicing expanses and all not very profitable accessories and lenses.
Frequently it is not cheaper (as in China it is much cheaper to build complex stuff and much simpler to find qualified workers).
And it is not bad as lot of premium stuff is made in Thailand now.
Thailand means cheaper and bad products
Nikon Corp. plans to reduce about 2,000 employees, or 10% of its total workforce, due to a slump in its core camera business, Nikkei reported.
Its business was also impacted by the performance of Intel Corp., one of Nikon’s key clients of semiconductor equipment, the daily reported, without saying where it got the information.
In the company’s reform agenda announced on Nov. 5, Nikon outlined a plan to move its camera production to Thailand and discontinue domestic output. The firm is considering cutting its sales force, the paper said.
Nikon posted an operating loss of 26.1 billion yen ($251 million) for the second quarter compared with analysts’ estimates of a loss of 20.3 billion yen.
Give them 18 monthS before inevitable death. I only see their Lens lineup surviving this, that will be bought by others and kaput Nikon.
And looking at this chart, their management did not become smarter
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