Printer consumables sales fall 5% in tough market conditions.
Overall, the sales at Ricoh rose by 3.5% year-on year for the nine months period of FY2019 for Ricoh, however, office printing sales of consumables fell by 5%.
Total sales for the nine months reporting period of FY2019 were ¥1,489.4 billion ($13.57 billion/ €12.39 billion), an effective year-on-year increase of 3.5% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Office Printing did not do so well and recorded a decrease in sales of ¥48.2 billion ($439 million/ €401 million) compared to the same period in the previous year.
Total sales were ¥760.9 billion ($6.9 billion/ €6.3 billion) for the segment. Ricoh explained that hardware sales stayed stable and were up 2% over the nine months period, but consumables (non-hardware sales) were down 5% for the period.
For the third quarter in FY2019 which ended 31 December 2019, revenues were also down year-on-year. Ricoh said that earnings declined amid lower hardware revenues “owing to focus on profitable sales”, forex impact, a sales downturn in Japan and impact of US tariffs. However, the company also added that colour MFP unit sales rose 6%.
For its forecast Ricoh added that it will undertake additional initiatives like expanding Office Printing and Commercial Printing sales as well as cutting costs in the segments, which it hopes will achieve full-year operating profit targets and boost the company’s profitability.
