Nikon says "Sayonora" to 1000 workers

Nikon Corp is not doing too well right now- in addition to cameras, they make really expensive precision steppers that make your computer chips. Well no one has any money, no one’s buying computer equipment, no one’s upgrading their steppers.

Nikon Will Cut 1000 Workers to Save $84 Million Annually

Nikon (OTC:NINOY) said Tuesday that it will terminate 800 non-regular employees from its domestic manufacturing unit by March 2010 and another 200 from marketing and servicing departments in Japan as well as overseas. It said the cuts will likely save the company 8 billion yen, or $84 million dollars annually. Nikon is expecting an FY 2010 net loss of 17 billion yen, or $179 million. In a statement, the company said, “Nikon has decided to implement drastic measures for fixed cost reduction in every business step of production, marketing and servicing.”

Here’s a sampling of the latest headlines:

Nikon Corporation To Reorganize Japan Precision Equipment …

Nikon Corporation Expects Extraordinary Loss

Nikon Profit Falls 63%

Nikon Corporation to Apply for Delisting from OSE, SSE and FSE

I was worried about that last one- you either delist because it’s too expensive to continue paying the fees and associated costs, or because you’re not going to be able to maintain the listing requirements (stock price, volume, etc) until I saw this:

Nikon separately said it will delist its shares from the Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka stock exchanges due to low trading volume on these bourses.

Oh- and we’ve got yet another advertising firm. I believe this makes 2 new advertising agencies in the last year or so. And they’re still coming up with idiot ideas like:

LIVE FROM THE RED CARPET…NIKON, THE OFFICIAL CAMERA SPONSOR OF 2009 MTV MOVIE AWARDS

Nikon, the Official Camera Sponsor of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, will reveal all the fun, stylish moments of this year’s award show from the red carpet. This includes a 30-minute televised special, “MTV Movie Awards Confidential presented by Nikon,”…

The kids are coming to want something more stylish and interesting than the blah CoolPix’s…

You guys in Beverly Hills will just have to find another camera store- Ritz is closing 300 stores, unless you’re in need of some retail shelving and counters:

Retail inventory valued at more than $50 million will be liquidated at the stores that are being closed. Store closing sales offering substantial discounts on all inventory at those locations will begin on Saturday, April 4, and are expected to continue until everything is sold to the bare walls.

If you’d like the list of closing stores, you can get it here. California appears to be hit large, mainly in the beach towns, 2/4 locations in my area are going down, Florida looks like it’s getting hit hard, Minnesota has a high count, and Texas also has a large number going down.

As I’ve written before, I shed no tears.

Ritz Camera ne Wolf Photo ne Boater’s World ne Ritz Interactive has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy restructuring:

…Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest camera-store chain in the U.S., won court approval for $85 million in financing from its existing secured lenders while it reorganizes.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath in Wilmington, Del., authorized the so-called debtor-in-possession financing on an interim basis….

But have received $85 in financing to help it remain a going concern.

It’s really hard for me to cry for them- I first encountered them when they bought up the best mom and pop camera store in my area 10 years ago and their product range went from good to amateur. Then I moved to a different stat- where they soon bought out the best pro shop in the area and the second best pro shop.

Then I started to buy everything from B&H Photo Video.

The last time I walked into a Ritz was about a year ago to buy a D3- they had no waiting list and wouldn’t take my name, but one of the employees said that they had 2 on order for him so that he could turn around and sell them as soon as they came in.

I had a similarily unpleasant situation with RitzCamera.com.

We don’t need these guys.

Nikon Revenue Down

Unsurprisingly, fewer people and organizations have wads of cash to throw at new cameras:

Per-share revenue was down nearly 45% for the 6 months from April to December! However, revenue was down ~12 billion yen, ~$133m.

The fiscal year ends in March 09 and revenue is expected to be 10%, while profit is expected to be down 68% from the previous year.

Interestingly, revenue isn’t down terrible, but profit is tanking- presumably because the higher-end items with more profit (D3x, exotic lenses, industrial equipment that costs a fortune) aren’t being bought in the volumes they were.

Not good.

The Bangkok Post (”All the news that’s fit to print”) reports that Nikon has laid off 1,500 contractors due to reduced demand:

Nikon Lays off 1,500 in Thailand

Japanese camera-manufacturing giant Nikon yesterday laid off 1,500 of its subcontracting staff in Ayutthaya province after a slump in orders due to the global financial crisis.

…

All the dismissed workers are under subcontracts and have worked with the company for less than a year, said Pongthai Musikapong, of the Labour Protection and Welfare Office in Ayutthaya.

…

Nikon (Thailand) set up it first factory in Thailand in 1990. There are 8,000 permanent staff and 4,000 subcontracting staff at its four factories.

Well that stinks for everyone involved. Nikon mainly makes the lesser products in Thailand- we I believe that means they expect to see fewer of the low-end cameras and lenses being sold. This makes sense since the Pro’s will largely continue buying what they have to have in order to work, and the amateurs spend for completely different reasons.