Canon Global Sales Up Despite Printing Decline

Canon Global Sales Up Despite Printing Decline

Canon does much more than make printers and supplies, and its other businesses have helped the OEM to achieve JP¥842.7 billion (US$7.74 billion) in sales in the first quarter of 2021.

Canon is obviously pleased with this growth of 7.7% compared with the same period last year. But it should be noted that it is still behind its total sales revenue for the first quarter of 2019 which was JP¥864.5 billion (US$7.94 billion).

In his statement, Toshizo Tanaka (pictured), Canon’s Executive Vice President & CFO reported, “Looking back at the first quarter of 2021, the global economy gradually recovered as a result of balanced measures to curb infections and resume economic activities despite no indications that the spread of the coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) pandemic worldwide was declining.

“In the U.S., the economy gradually recovered as a result of increased personal consumption and capital investment through economic measures decided by the U.S. government at the end of 2020.

“In Europe, because of the resurgence of infections, largely due to the COVID-19 variant from the U.K., the restriction of economic activity was prolonged and some countries reimposed lockdowns.

“In China, although the number of new COVID-19 cases increased, the economic recovery continued due to increased domestic demand and exports. In other emerging markets, economies were stagnant due to the resurgence of COVID-19 infections. In Japan, the trend toward economic recovery continued, including exports and capital investments.”

“Under our new medium-to-long-term management plan, we got off to an auspicious start, closing the first quarter with good performance,” said Tanaka.

Printing Business Unit

Tanaka pointed out the demand for office multifunction devices (MFDs), for both color and monochrome models showed moderate recovery in the markets in which Canon operates.

“For laser printers, demand was above that of the previous year, mainly for monochrome models. For inkjet printers, demand in-home use remained solid in developed countries and emerging countries.”

However, the report revealed there was a decline in the net sales of 1.8% compared with the same quarter in the previous year. Operating profit for the printing sector was down -4%.

“In order to operate our printing business as a whole, we established the Printing Business Unit, which encompasses office MFDs, laser printers and now inkjet printers.,” said Tanaka. Canon has three core groups of customers being Office, Prosumers (home, SOHO users) and Production.

Office printing showed a quarterly decline of 7.9% compared with the same quarter last year. Production printing dipped 2.9%. However, the Prosumer group grew 4.4% reflecting the stronger demand for printers in the home.

Looking to the Future

Canon claims it is optimistic about the printing business unit as it looks to the rest of 2021. The OEM is expecting net sales to be worth JP¥1,954.8 billion (US$17.95 billion) for the year which would reflect an 8.3% growth over 2020 and a modest growth on 2019 figures. At the same time, profit from this business sector is anticipated to 17% over 2020 and 9.2% over 2019.

Tanaka concluded, “We are able to flexibly respond to changes in the printing environment caused by COVID-19, through our diverse product portfolio that includes both electrophotography and inkjet technologies, and covers a wide range of applications from business to home use.”

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