Xerox Corp’s office equipment markets are going digital and to try and keep up with competition that has much lower cost structure the company yesterday said it will take a charge of $1bn in the second quarter of 1998 to cover the costs of eliminating 9,000 jobs worldwide – nearly 10% of its workforce – the closing and consolidation of facilities; and the write-down of certain assets (CI No 3,375). Europe is being hit particularly hard. Xerox says it has some 150 specific projects to implement as part of the restructuring including streamlining and rationalizing worldwide manufacturing, logistics, distribution and service operations; centralizing and consolidating US parts depots and outsource storage and distribution; moving from country-centric operations in Europe to a pan-European structure; overhaul administrative processes including the closure of one of its four US customer administrative centers. It expects returns will be spread over three or four years.
