On Feb. 7, Ricoh released its results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2019 and the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, 2019. For the nine-month period, sales of ¥1493.8 billion (¥13.6 billion) were up .3% from the previous year, buoyed by growth in the Office Services business, while operating profit of ¥69.4 billion ($631.8 million) was down 12.3%.
Results by segment
Office printing was down 11.2%, with non-hardware revenues declining, per Ricoh, amid a focus on profitable sales, and earnings declining after a demand spike in Japan ahead of a hike in consumption tax and the impact of U.S. tariffs. Office services rose 9.5% on expanded sales of IT services and business-specific solutions centered on Japan and Europe. Commercial printing was down 2.1% reflecting delays in closing business deals and lower non-hardware sales for monochrome transactional printers, while industrial printing was up .4% due to expansion in new inkjet heads and other new products.
Digging further into the office printing segment, for the nine-month period hardware sales were up 2% (excluding forex), while non-hardware sales were down 5%. For the third quarter, revenue and earnings were both down, although unit sales of advanced color MFPs were up 6%. Ricoh notes that sales of color MFPs were solid in Japan and overseas.
Forecast
Ricoh projects sales to remain essentially stagnant from last year, with .2% year-over-year dip to ¥2,010 billion ($18.3 billion) from last year’s ¥2,013.2 billion ($18.33 billion). Operating profit is expected to increase 15.2%.
See the full report and supporting materials at Ricoh’s Investor Relations page.
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