For the first quarter Ricoh saw recovery from the business impact of office printing and commercial printing caused by COVID-19.
Ricoh’s sales for the first quarter increased by 20.6% year-on-year (YoY) at ¥424.8 billion ($3.88 billion/ €3.28 billion). The company said that in the office printing business, the recovery in non-hardware sales was slow due to the slow recovery in the percentage of employees attending offices because of the resurgence of infection with COVID-19.
However, sales of edge devices such as multifunctional printers and laser printers significantly exceeded the previous corresponding period, when sales plummeted. Ricoh added that in the office services business, sales have grown steadily, due to the acceptance of its proposals for resolving customer issues such as remote work promotion and digital transformation.
Looking at the different sales regions, Ricoh explained that in Japan, sales increased by 7.5% YoY. Although the sales recovery in the office printing business slowed due to the declaration of emergency in major cities by the resurgence of infection and priority measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the package sales in the office service business continued to be strong.
Sales in the Americas increased by 24.1% YoY. Ricoh said that the sales recovered in the office printing business and commercial printing business while economic activity was recovering due to the spread of vaccination.
Sales in the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa increased by 43.2% YoY. Although the recovery in the office printing was moderated by the resurgence of COVID-19, sales of office services increased due to accelerating sales of office services packages and continued acquisitions of IT service companies.
Sales in other regions increased by 23.4% YoY, mainly due to the sales recovery in the office printing business. As a result, sales in the overseas market increased by 31.3% as compared to the previous corresponding period.
