In a recent company meeting, Leica has announced job cuts. Apparently, up to 100 of the approximately 800 jobs at the headquarters in Wetzlar are to be canceled. This despite the fact that Leica successfully closed the last fiscal year at the end of March with a profit of 40 million euros.
Detailed information has
not been released at this point, but there are many indications that Leica
Camera AG is planning a further restructuring in the direction of digitization
- from a mechanics and optics company to also a software and app developer. Some advertised job openings at Leica clearly
appear to indicate this to be the case. Sophisticated digital features are what
customers expect in a Leica camera today. The global camera market has been
struggling for years against double-digit declines. Leica has been able to hold
its own against this trend so far and it appears to be the hope that an
expansion into the development of sophisticated digitization will allow the
company to remain competitive by developing new features for their range of
cameras.
As of late, additional
business ventures have added considerable income to Leica’s camera and lens
sales. For example, Huawei premium mobile
phones are equipped with Leica optics. Together, the two companies are driving
forward research and development. To some degree the fate of Leica Camera AG
depends on the future of Huawei.
For ten years, Leica has
known only one direction: upwards. They
made a very impressive turnaround after being practically insolvent in the
early 2000s. Sales quadrupled within a decade.
Bucking the trend of declining sales in the camera industry, the fiscal
year ending in March 2018 was the most successful year in company history with
420 million euros. Thus the announcement
of layoffs is being met with concern.
But all indications are that Leica is aggressively addressing the
problems they are facing.
For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right
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