Last week French regional newspaper, La Provence, broke the news that Xerox is closing its “global centre of excellence” in France. Further details of the closure were provided by Print Business UK. Xerox has announced the closing of the Impika subsidiary privately to French employees but made no public announcement. The closing will result in loss of jobs for an estimated 141 people.
With Xerox in the financial news regarding a potential hostile takeover of HP, and a year out from the failed merger with Fujifilm, they appear to be trying to keep the closing of Impika under wraps. An anonymous source cited conversations with Impika management indicating that Xerox may be keeping the closure quiet due to concern that the method of closing may run afoul of EU labor regulations.
The Baltoro, introduced earlier this year, provides a foundation for future Xerox inkjet products. With an inkjet platform based on US-developed technology, it is not a complete surprise that future inkjet development is being centralized in the US. In addition to development of turnkey products, Xerox has also been pursuing growth of their OEM channel with W Series and M Series Print heads.
Update:
Xerox issued a statement this afternoon:
“We are committed to our broad inkjet portfolio and are investing in production inkjet innovation to introduce new industry-leading capabilities such as the Baltoro(tm) HF Inkjet Press. We are closing the Aubagne site at the end of the year and will centralise inkjet manufacturing within existing Xerox sites. We have a robust transition plan in place to ensure business continuity.”