Strong sales, weak yen help Canon, Nikon
By
Mike Tomkins
(Monday, February 6, 2006 - 16:56 EST)
Two of the biggest players in the digital SLR market have both released financial information in the last few days.
Documents from Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp. both reported strong sales of digital cameras, and improving profits assisted by a weaker yen. Canon, reporting on the financial year just ended, saw its Q4 (Oct - Dec 2005) group operating profit rise 28% to 169.3 billion yen. Q4 sales rose 14% to 1.1 trillion yen, while net income in the same period rose 34% to 108.2 billion yen.
Canon's camera unit reported a Q4 sales figures increasing 18% to 296.9 billion yen, with operating profit up 59% to 63 billion yen. The company projected shipments of 19.2 million digital cameras this year, including 2.2 million SLRs, after achieving sales of 16.9 million digicams with 1.9 million being digital SLRs last year. In particular, Canon's report called attention to the Digital Rebel, EOS 5D, and four PowerShot models (the SD400, SD450, SD550 and A520) as being strong performers. Full year net income is expected to show an 8% improvement to 415 billion yen.
Nikon Corp., meanwhile, offered a report showing its Q3 (Oct - Dec 2005) group operating profit tripled from 5.9 to 19.8 billion yen, with net sales up 25% to 192.9 billion yen. Net income fell 7% to 14.5 billion yen, but the company raised its full-year forecast 18% to 53 billion yen. Digital SLR forecasts for the full year are down from 1.6 to 1.4 million units units for fiscal 05/06, but compact camera sales are projected to be up from 6.4 to 7.0 million units, thanks partly to brisk sales of the Coolpix S1 and L1 models.
|
