7. Expanding businesses overseas entails risks for Epson.
Epson is continuing to expand its businesses overseas; slightly less than 70% of its consolidated sales for the business year ended March 2013 were overseas. Epson has production sites all over Asia, including China, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries. It has also established many sales companies all over the world. As of March 2013, overseas employees account for more than 70% of Epson's total workforce.
Epson believes that its global presence provides many advantages. For example, it enables Epson to undertake marketing activities aligned with the market needs of individual regions and leads to greater cost-competitiveness by reducing manufacturing costs and lead times. There are, however, unavoidable risks associated with overseas manufacturing and sales operations. These include but are not limited to changes in national laws, ordinances, or regulations related to manufacturing and sales; social, political or economic changes; transport delays; damage to infrastructure (e.g., power supply); currency exchange restrictions; insufficient skilled labor; changes in regional labor environments; changes in taxes, regulations or the like protective of trade; and laws, ordinances, regulations, or the like related to the import and export of Epson products.