Canon announces full year results 2017

On 30 January 2018, Canon Inc. announced the full year results for 2017. All supporting presentation materials can be found here.

Executive Vice President & CFO, Toshizo Tanaka, stated that the commercial printing market, in which Océ is active, is a growth area for Canon. Here below are a number of relevant quotations. The full transcript and further details can be viewed here.

Statements from Mr. Tanaka during the announcement of the Canon full year results 2017

“Seven years have elapsed since we made a full-scale entry into the commercial printing business through the acquisition of Océ. Over this period, the market environment surrounding this business has significantly changed, far exceeding our initial expectation. Over the next three years, in particular, aggressive investment into R&D is important, due to increasing severe competition caused by competitors entering this market, and due to the change in technology trends. As this will cause a temporary decline in the profitability of this business, we decided to review our plans to reassess the value of this business from a three-year perspective.”

 

“The new products we have introduced so far have steadily penetrated the market. From this expanding MIF, we can expect increasing service revenue as well. From the fourth year on, we expect significant sales and profit growth, returning to the path of growth that we initially envisioned. There is no change in our view that the commercial printing market is a growth area.”

 

“Within the commercial printing market, digital equipment continues to steadily replace offset, thanks to the high image quality of digital equipment and increasing demand for small lot printing of many products.”

 

“In order to respond to a broad range of customer needs, we are developing and introducing solutions that offer high image-quality color printing and can handle a wide range of media. For the VarioPrint i300, our first high-speed cut-sheet inkjet printer, which launched full scale in 2016, we are increasing unit sales with each passing year as market awareness increases.”

 

“As for 2018, in addition to this, we will work to expand sales of two new devices launched in 2017. In the second half of last year, we launched a high-speed continuous feed printer that realizes the highest level of image quality in its class. Additionally, in the fast growing graphic arts market, we launched a new wide-format printer that offers high competitiveness in terms of cost. Both models will contribute a full year to sales in 2018. We expect significant sales growth thanks to the contributions of these kinds of new products.”