Ricoh to Build 3rd Facility in County, Add 600 : Japanese Electronics Firm to Double Its U.S. Output

Ricoh Corp., Orange County’s largest Japanese-owned electronics concern, with manufacturing plants in Santa Ana and Irvine, plans to build a third facility in the county and add 600 workers to its local payroll as part of a doubling of its U.S. production.

The $100-million national expansion, which will include building a fourth manufacturing facility somewhere in the Southeastern states, is designed to meet increased demand and ease trade tensions.

Ricoh will invest in new equipment at its Santa Ana and Irvine locations and begin production and research and development at an unidentified new site in the county within the next three years as part of a national expansion, Ricoh Corp. Chairman Keiji Endoh told The Times while touring the company’s Orange County plants Wednesday.

Endoh said Ricoh Corp. believes that its plants in the United States may become the dominant production arm of its Tokyo-based parent, Ricoh Co. Ltd., which reported sales of $3.3 billion in its fiscal 1986. The construction of a production plant in the southeast United States will ease distribution, said Endoh, who estimated that Ricoh’s U.S. sales will expand at a 12% annual clip over the next several years.

Endoh said the weak value of the dollar, contrasted with the yen, has combined with worldwide concern over the U.S. trade deficit to lead his company to try to enhance its reputation in the United States. The merchandise trade gap widened to $15.7 billion in June, an increase of nearly $1.7 billion from May.

He said through a translator Wednesday: “From an efficiency standpoint, we’d be better to keep production in Japan. But from a business standpoint, over the mid term and long term, we come here.”

The United States provides 40% of the potential worldwide market for the company’s copiers, facsimile transmission machines, cameras and other electronics equipment, according to Emil Florio, a spokesman for the company. Florio said U.S. sales totaled $800 million in the 12 months ending April 30.

Endoh said the company has not been pressured by either the United States or Japanese governments to expand operations here. But Japanese companies have reportedly taken recent Reagan Administration trade sanctions on foreign-made products as a firm warning that foreign producers must increase U.S. presence if they hope to sell goods in this country.

“We want to be perceived as a genuine U.S. company,” Endoh said.

Ricoh’s effort to enhance its image began with with a reorganization in April when Ricoh Electronics Inc.--whose headquarters are in Santa Ana--and Ricoh Systems Inc.--a research and development subsidiary in San Jose--began reporting to Ricoh Corp. in West Caldwell, N.J., Previously, the subsidiaries had reported directly to Japan, and the New Jersey office had mainly handled U.S. marketing.

Ricoh Systems, which manufactures some of the company’s large-scale customized products, has now been made a division of Ricoh Corp. The San Jose facility is expected to be refurbished as part of Ricoh’s announced expansion.

Endoh said details of the expansion are not yet available. But he did say that the company expects to announce the site of its new Orange County facility next month.

Ricoh, which opened its first Orange County plant in 1972, was one of the earliest Japanese firms in the county. And its current local employment of 900 makes it the largest Japanese-based employer in the county, according to Todd Nicholson, president of the Industrial League of Orange County. Nationally, Ricoh Corp. employs 2,400.

Workers at the Santa Ana site manufacture all the consumable office copier products--toners, inked facsimile ribbons and thermal copier papers--that Ricoh sells in the United States. The Irvine facility manufactures copier sorters and facsimile machines and assembles copiers from parts imported from Japan.