Canon Australia announces record financial results
Best ever second quarter and first half demonstrate Canon's pivotal role in the uptake of office colour printing and digital photo imaging
Canon Australia and the Canon Australia Group have announced their financial results for the first half of 2004, including a record second quarter and a record first half.
The Canon Australia Group - which consists of businesses in Australia and New Zealand - reported $442.5 million in net revenue for the first half of 2004, up 8.6% on the year-ago half. For the second quarter, the figure was $238.2m, up 6.5% on the year-ago quarter.
Canon Australia's net revenue for the first half of 2004 was $401m, up 8.8% on the year-ago half. For the second quarter, the figure was $217m, up 7.5% on the year-ago quarter.
Canon New Zealand's net revenue for the first half of 2004 was NZ$55.1m, up 6.4% on the year-ago half. For the second quarter, the figure was NZ$29.9m, up 8.2% on the year ago quarter.
"Our leadership in colour imaging, strong business fundamentals and unswerving commitment to our customers have enabled us to sustain our rapid, profitable growth," said Shuichi Tsukahara, Managing Director, Canon Australia Group. "Australia's love affair with the colour image continues to blossom, whether we're sharing a digital photo album with far-flung family at the click of a button or printing, collating and automatically binding a stunning business proposal without leaving our desk."
The Australian results were supported by the company's two main product divisions: the Business Imaging Solutions Group (BISG), which provides hardware, software and solutions to enterprise and graphic arts customers; and the Consumer Imaging Products Group (CIPG), which serves the home, small business and photographic markets.
BISG recorded its best ever month in June 2004. Sales were 18% higher than for the year-ago month, and more than 10% higher than in any previous month.
"Businesses have been replacing costly mixed printer fleets with multi-functional devices (MFDs), which are more powerful, more affordable and easier to manage," said David Gradwell, National Marketing Manager, BISG, Canon Australia. "Meanwhile, the uptake of colour in the office has been so rapid that by June, a quarter of the business-class MFDs that we were selling were colour."
"Growth in photo imaging has continued to be the foundation for the consumer division," said Stuart Poignand, Marketing Manager, CIPG, Canon Australia. "Growth for Canon's digital imaging products was led by SLR cameras, with a doubling of sales year-on-year."
"The spread of digital still cameras is fuelling digital photo printing - demonstrated by the 175% growth year-on-year in sales of all-in-one Bubble Jet printers. This has had a flow-on effect on other areas of our business - including the growth of specialty photo paper, up 350% year-on-year," said Mr Poignand.
