100 jobs are on the chopping block as Canon cuts Australian staff by 10%. A bulk of back-office support and admin roles will be scrapped as the business restructures in a bid to boost local profits, but its Professional Print division looks set to survive the cull.
Canon is arguably the largest graphic arts supplier to the industry with an Australian workforce of 980. In calendar 2013 it recorded a $7.55 million post-tax profit on turnovers of $756.5 million, revenue up just 0.3% year-on-year. A Canon Australia spokeswoman confirmed that the decision to downsize was down to increasing business efficiencies, going to on to say that it would not affect the company’s print division.
“These roles are all administrative support functions and do not impact the way that printers work with their Cannon account manager or service technician. Importantly, these changes will make us more agile and able to respond quickly to customers in the commercial print space as we get set to step up our operations,” she said.
“Last year we commenced a review of our local operations and we have been gradually implementing changes to improve our structure and processes. These include new and expanded roles for some of our people and the transition of other roles to external partners.”
The downsize is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year. It will see the 100-or-so dropped jobs outsourced to business process management providers Genpact Ltd. and Convergys. The spokeswoman adds that Canon remains firmly committed to the commercial print market, citing the company’s recent investment in its new state-of-the-art Sydney headquarters in Macquarie Park.
“To further emphasis this, Canon is also excited to unveil some innovative new products in the coming months specifically targeted towards printers, which will demonstrate our further commitment in commercial print.”
It is from its new Sydney head office that a majority of roles look set to be lost.