The company has released its consolidated financial results for the first quarter which ended 30 June 2020.
Brother recorded sales revenue of ¥133.2 billion ($1.26 billion/ €1.07 billion), down 16.4% year-on-year. Overall business segment profit was down 51.1% at ¥8.6 billion ($81.18 million/ €68.83 million). The printing and solutions segment recorded sales revenue of ¥82.9 billion ($782.51 million/ €663.46 million), down ¥15.3 billion ($144.42 million/ €122.45 million) year-on-year.
Brother said that COVID-19 related decrease in print volumes in offices meant sales revenue in the printer segment was down which could not be made up by the increase in demand in the SOHO segment due to home office working.
In its forecast for the full year 2020, Brother expects overall sales to be down 12.1% overall at ¥560 billion ($5.28 billion/ €4.48 billion). For the printing and solutions segment Brother predicts the biggest loss in revenue for the year of overall of ¥55.8 billion ($526.75 million/ €446.51 million) reduction, down to ¥334.9 billion ($3.16 billion/ €2.68 billion) for the full year 2020.
Brother expects that the printing and solutions segment is hit hardest because of the decrease in office print volume to the SMB segment, but also expects revenues to be affected for this segment because if delays in supplies.
