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Ricoh sells printers, copiers, and office equipment, plus IT services that help businesses manage documents and workplaces.
Ricoh is the company behind the copier and printer sitting in countless offices around the world. When a business needs to print, scan, copy, or manage documents, Ricoh is one of the names that comes up, alongside competitors like Canon and Xerox. The company builds multifunction devices — machines that print, scan, and copy — and sells them mostly to businesses rather than homes.
But selling a printer is only the start. Ricoh makes much of its money from what comes after: the toner, the maintenance contracts, the service agreements, and the software that keeps those machines running. It's a bit like selling a razor cheaply and then earning steady profits on the blades. The company also runs a large services business, helping companies digitize paper files, manage their printing costs, and set up modern workplaces where documents flow electronically instead of piling up in trays. Ricoh has pushed into industrial printing too, making large-scale printers used for signage, packaging, and commercial labels. That segment is smaller but growing as businesses shift from traditional printing presses to digital ones that can handle short runs and customized jobs. The company also offers IT services, including cloud tools and workplace technology, as it tries to stay relevant in a world that uses less paper than it used to.
Based in Tokyo, Ricoh is an old Japanese company with roots stretching back to the 1930s, and it has long been one of the country's best-known office equipment brands. The business faces real pressure: companies are printing fewer pages, and the shift to digital documents has shrunk the traditional copier market. Ricoh's response has been to lean harder into services and industrial printing, betting that businesses still need help managing information even when that information lives on a screen instead of a sheet of paper.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026