Sales of printers at everyone’s favourite printer maker continue to decline at OKI according to their latest consolidated financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending 31 March 2020.
Net sales for Oki for the nine months period ending 31 December 2019 were ¥327.9 billion ($2.99 billion/ €2.73 billion), up 28.6% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. Oki said that this significant increase was due to “big-scale projects besides the expansion in scope of application of percentage of completion method.”
However, net sales for the printer segment reduced for the period by 7.2% year-on-year, at ¥69.5 billion ($633 million/ €578 million). Oki said that this decrease was due to sales decline for office printers in Europe besides the impact of yen appreciation.
Three sources feed the overall income for Oki: telecommunications services, printers and ATMs and an emerging fourth income stream is contract electronics manufacturing specialises in small-scale production of a wide range of products.
On January 6, 2020, Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd. and OKI Data Corporation, the OKI Group’s printer company, concluded an exclusive international sales agreement for the distribution of OKI Data’s wide format inkjet printers.
Under the terms of this agreement, the two companies will expand their sales alliance in Japan, announced in March 2019, to encompass overseas sales.
Under this agreement, from April 1, 2020, Mimaki Engineering will sell OKI Data’s wide format inkjet printers, ink and other supplies, and maintenance parts in overseas markets through Mimaki Engineering’s robust international sales network.
The products covered by this international alliance include OKI Data’s two wide format inkjet printers capable of high-speed, high-density printing—the ColorPainter H3-104s and the ColorPainter M-64s—as well as ink and other supplies for these models and for other OKI Data’s wide format inkjet printers previously sold by OKI Data. Mimaki Engineering will initiate sales and maintenance of these products on April 1.
Forward looking, Oki has not revised its full-year projections for the printer segment.
