Rivalry, recession reduce copier sales firms' ranks: but Xerox retains hold on no. 1 spot by wide margin.

More than six years after the first (and only previous) List of the top 25 copier sales companies in Los Angeles County was compiled, Xerox Corp. maintains hold of the No. 1 position by a wide margin with 3,078 total employees in the area (see The List page 24).

Xerox's next largest competitor, Eastman Kodak, has only 570, which is a huge increase from its total of 125 six years ago. But Eastman Kodak's growth is not typical of the industry as a whole.

Nearly across the board, the companies have downsized their employee numbers over the last several years.

Konica, for example, decreased its employee total to 117 from 400. Savin, No. 4 on the 1986 List with 400 employees, is down to 130.

Savin's California operations director, Henry Sullivan, attributed Savin's downsizing efforts to financial necessity. Savin's financial problems began when the economy started to soften and the firm's client list started to shrink.

The company realized it had overextended its overhead and that, in order to maintain its competitiveness, costs would have to be reduced. In the process, several jobs were eliminated.

According to William Ernisse, vice president, field operations/West for Xerox Corp., Xerox began downsizing in the early 1980s in response to a loss of market share to offshore competition. Numerous middle level management positions were eliminated in order to reduce overhead.

Eastman Kodak's jump to the No. 2 copier sales company position from 1986's No. 10 spot can be partly attributed to its takeover of the copier division of IBM. In 1986, Kodak took over the servicing of IBM's equipment. A company spokesperson also cited the expansion of Eastman Kodak both nationally and worldwide.

Pitney Bowes made the most dramatic downward movement of all the companies in the top 25, dropping from No. 6 in 1986 to No. 15. Pitney Bowes' regional vice president, Steve Guerrero, explained that although it may appear that Pitney Bowes has been slipping in its copier sales, in reality the slide is a result of company restructuring.

Since the last List of copier sales companies was published in 1986, Pitney Bowes' copier division has separated from Pitney Bowes' mailing machines division under the name of Pitney Bowes Business Systems.

In 1990, when the split was first effected, there were about 30 people in the Los Angeles office of the Business Systems division of Pitney Bowes. Since then, the number has more than doubled to 65.

Canon/Astro Office Products, a division of Canon USA, was one of only a few companies that actually grew between Lists. Its employee ranks increased to 550 this year from 388 in 1986.

Canon/Astro's office manager, Pamela Lauchner, credited the opening of new offices in the Southland. In 1986, Canon/Astro dealt strictly in Los Angeles. Since then, sales operations have expanded into Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties under the direction of the Los Angeles office.