Today I spoke with Camilla Jenkins, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Fujifilm about the company’s recent announcement of the creation of FUJIFILM North America Corporation, which will merge FUJIFILM U.S.A., Inc. and FUJIFILM Graphic Systems U.S.A. Inc effective January 1, 2010. FUJIFILM Canada Inc. will become a subsidiary of the new company as of April 1, 2010. Jenkins explained that since the President of the new organization has not yet been named, she is pinch-hitting, saying, “We don’t have that individual identified yet, although I am certain we are close. Once that person is in place and grounded, we will be able to probe a little more into what the specific strategies will be.”

Jensen indicates that this reorganization is not as major as it appears on the surface because these businesses have been working more closely together over recent years and the restructuring of the organization simply formalizes something that was already happening organically. When asked what impact the move might have on jobs and physical locations, Jenkins replied, “We are not anticipating any impact on jobs or physical sites. The North America change is more about bringing like-minded businesses into one consolidated group so that we can take advantage of opportunities to serve customers better and communicate more effectively. A similar sort of regional consolidation is going on in other parts of the world for Fujifilm; it is not just a U.S./Canada event.” Jenkins adds that obviously, there is always the need to look at the cost effective ways to run a business and the Fujifilm businesses will continue to look at their businesses that way, saying, “but from the standpoint of the unification of this business, we did not do this in order to reduce staff size. It was more about taking down any barriers to better communications and identification of opportunities to serve customers more effectively than we can currently do as separate organizations. Each of these groups will continue to operate as they do today.”

Jenkins, who is currently part of the shared services included in Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, indicates that there are a number of other shared services initiatives that have already been underway for some time, including distribution and logistics.

Since the organizational change takes effect January 1, 2010, it seems likely that the new President will be announced before that time. Jenkins speculates that the President will be sourced internally, although she cannot confirm that, saying, “We have a lot of good people.”

With respect to the impact on customers, Jenkins added, “We really don’t think that customers will in any way have a change in who they deal with in terms of Fujifilm people, because we are not digging into the Fuji units. It is more taking down the silos and increasing synergies, so if it works, customers will like us even better.”

WhatTheyThink will be watching for announcements and will bring you news about the new President as soon as it is available, and, of course, will be interviewing that person once he or she has had an opportunity to get settled in.