Oki Electric Industry Co is claiming to be the first Japanese manufacturer to establish a direct presence in Eastern Europe it is opening a branch office in Poland on Friday December 11. The Warsaw office will supply the company’s full range of dot matrix and light-emitting diode page printers to nine Polish distributors via an Eastern European warehouse facility based in Scotland. Peter Novaks, a Harvard-educated Pole, will head the Polish business. Oki is also establishing operations in Prague and Budapest – country managers have already been appointed, but technical support and administrative positions still have to be filled, and the distribution network is not yet complete. All staff are being recruited locally. The sites will operate as branch offices initially rather than full-blown subsidiaries, and country managers will report to Terry Laidlaw in Hounslow, Middlesex. Laidlaw said Oki intends to give the companies independent limited liability in due course.
