Clients of Dutch photocopier and printer maker Oce NV are pushing orders back to next year due to the economic downturn, its chief financial officer said. "What we see especially in our financial markets (business) and in the construction markets ... investment decisions are being postponed.
Some of the orders we have already received are being pushed back to the first quarter or even the second quarter," Jan van den Belt told Reuters in an interview. Oce, which competes against Canon, Ricoh and Xerox, said earlier this month it experienced pressure in its financial services and construction markets, impacting feed printers and its technical document systems. The mid-cap company, which makes printers, copiers and scanners, and also offers document-management and maintenance services, now feels the deepening of the financial crisis and the effects on the real economy.
"The last thing I would say is that the crisis is not affecting us," Van den Belt said at the Venlo-based headquarters, a five-minute drive from the pharmacy where Oce founder Lodewijk van der Grinten in 1877 manufactured a colouring for margarine based on a recipe that he had developed.
"It is certainly not the best time to leave," said Van den Belt, who is about to retire, having joined Oce in 2000 after spending more than 20 years at Royal Dutch Shell. He is credited with turning Oce into a cash- and return on capital-focused company.