Our company

Our history

Ricoh was formed in 1936 in Tokyo, Japan. Our founder, Kiyoshi Ichimura, was a remarkable visionary who championed a responsible, progressive and people-first approach to doing business. Mr Ichimura recognised the importance of embracing human potential to create a better future for our people and planet. This idea has inspired our focus for more than 85 years on developing solutions that empower creativity and help individuals achieve Fulfilment through Work.   

Over the decades, our company has gone from strength to strength, with several world firsts in workplace innovation. Some of our defining moments include developing the world’s top-selling copier, introducing the first high-speed facsimile, launching the RICOH Theta – the world’s first imaging device that captures fully spherical views – and pioneering a circular economy model, the Comet Circle™. 

We’re proud of our reputation as a market-leading hardware manufacturer and, as our customers’ needs continue to evolve, so has our business. In recent years, we have been transforming and diversifying as a leading partner of choice in workplace experience and process automation, with global recognition from experts across our industry. As a group, we deliver value to customers in around 200 countries through our 79,544 employees.