[Leica] Leica hit by Asian crisis

[Stephen Kobrin <kobrins@wharton.upenn.edu>]

An article in this morning's Financial Times said that Leica is to cut
costs after sales dropped by 47% in Asia.  It noted that  sales and profits
fell sharply in the closing months of 1997 and that the company was about
to embark on cost-cutting and streamlining of its product range.  According
to the FT, cameras originally destined for Asia were diverted putting
pressure on prices in the US and Europe.  The Minox division was singled
out as encountering particular difficulties.  They claim that Leica will
reduce capacity to counter the sales trend.  The article closes by noting
that the Minox operation will be restructured to focus on core products
with both job cuts and a move of production to Portugal.

This is a bit hard to square with news of the new M6 and the new 28-35-50
lens.  It may explain the long lag in getting replacement lenses recently
reported by a number of people on the LUG.

Steve