Annual financial results for Canon Inc showed a modest increase in both sales and earnings, achieved in an environment in which overall demand for cameras has been declined swiftly.
Revenue rose 7.2 percent to 3.73 trillion yen ($41.7 billion) in 2013, while operating profit grew 4.1 percent to 337.3 billion yen ($3.8 billion) and net profit gained 2.6 percent to 230.5 billion yen ($2.6 billion).
According to a Reuters report, Canon attributed 217.6 billion yen of its operating profit to the impact of the yen’s weakening versus the euro and the dollar, boosting the value of its exports. Nonetheless, in a market where world demand for cameras slumped by over 40 percent, according to IDC, this has to be seen as a solid result for the world’s largest camera manufacturer.
Canon’s chief executive Fujio Mitarai told Reuters two weeks prior to the release of the annual results that sales of digital single-lens reflex cameras came in under 8 million units in 2013, the first decline for Canon since their introduction in 2004.
Part of the drop is a loss of market share. Canon’s shipments of interchangeable lens cameras accounted for 45.1 percent of global shipments in July-September, according to IDC, a 5 percent drop in share from the year prior and a 25.7 percent drop in unit sales.
‘SLR sales fell last year due to poor economic conditions,’ Mr Mitarai said. ‘But I think that they will rise stably from now on. I want to aim for close to 9 million units in 2014.’ (However, the company’s official forecast for DSLR sales, according to Reuters, is 7.6 million – slightly less than 2013.)
Shares in Canon dipped slightly following release of its 2013 financial results. Price of Canon shares has fallen away slightly since the start of last year, despite a nearly 50 percent rise in Japan’s benchmark Nikkei average.
A report on Canon Australia’s 2012 results can be accessed by clicking here.
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