Savin/Gestetner/Lanier?

Gestetner name is gone, at least here in the US. There are still Lanier and Savin Dealers that carry the full line of Ricoh, just branded with Lanier and Savin.

Over the years Ricoh dealerships have been on the decline at least here in Jersey. I think we (Century) is the only Ricoh branded dealer in the state, however Atlantic is Savin and there is a decent size Lanier Dealer in South Jersey.

Great....so if someone got Gestetner units earlier this year that tells me they were just emptying their warehouse because this dealer is primarily Lanier. What are your thoughts?

So is Ricoh Direct just branding Lanier and Savin at the factory or distribution centers?

If there's a Lanier dealer that is still liquidating new Gestetner-branded equipment, they must not sell much gear at all, because the Gestetner brand went away in the U.S. 4 years ago. If you're seeing Gestetner units being proposed and/or installed, they are most likely refurbished units/lease returns.

I once had a customer tell me she would NEVER have another Savin in her office.

So I asked "How do you feel about Ricoh?"

She replied "Oh, Ricohs are great, you can bring one of those!"

Same machine, different label on the front.

quote:

Originally posted by montecore:
Great....so if someone got Gestetner units earlier this year that tells me they were just emptying their warehouse because this dealer is primarily Lanier. What are your thoughts?

So is Ricoh Direct just branding Lanier and Savin at the factory or distribution centers?

It is completely meaningless what brand name is on Ricoh equipment!!!!! Totally irrellivant. All Ricoh equipment is exactly the same. All the brand name on the front of the machine is is a label or sticker. If you want to know what the equipment really is go look at the serial number badge on the back of the machine where you will find the product code.

Any current Ricoh MFP could possibly be labeled as any of the following:
Gestetner
infotec
Lanier
NRG
Ricoh
Savin

All it takes is a color laser printer and you could brand this equipment anything you want.

For example the current latest and greatest Ricoh Aficio MP C4501 color copier could be labeled as the following:
Gestetner MP C4501
infotec MP C4501
Lanier LD645c
NRG MP C4501
Savin C9145

Here is a link to a brand new Gestetner MP C4501 on the web.
http://www.inception.co.uk/aca..._Colour_Printer.html

When you dounload print drivers for new Ricoh equipment you can even select any of the above names to name the printer so technically there are still current drivers and product brands that have been out of use for quite some time.

Odds are in the case you mention (if the equipment was sold as new) the customer probably previously had Gestetner branded equipment and expressed to the sales rep that they liked the Gestetner equipment. The savy sales rep probably then proposed the new equipment as Gestetner equipment and then just slapped the Gestetner branding kit on the new equipment.

A Lanier or Savin dealer is not supposed to put other branding kits on the equipment but I could easily see it being done if the customer had previously had a particular brand and the dealer wants to keep things the same for them.

I should also mention that a lot of Gestetner dealers had heavily invested in marketing the Gestetner brand in their local market. When the change to Lanier happened many of them were not happy about it and continued putting Gestetner brand kits on the equipment for quite some time after the change.

There is also plenty of good used equipment that is out there coming off of leases that is still branded Gestetner.