The company has released its consolidated financial results for the half year ended 30 September.
Sales for Ricoh in the period to 30 September were ¥761.948 billion ($7.29 billion/ €6.23 billion), a 23.4% decrease compared to the same period of the previous financial year. Operating profits was a loss of ¥30.618 billion ($293 million/ €250 million) compared to a profit of ¥48.648 billion ($465 million/ €398 million) in the same period of fiscal year 2019.
Ricoh explains that its fiscal year started with the pandemic and that the global economy has suffered a sharp slowdown, the worst level in the past few decades, due to the impact of the prolonged U.S. – China trade frictions as well as the global spread of COVID-19. In Japan, the economy deteriorated rapidly due to the increase of self-isolation and movement restrictions encouraged by the declaration of the state of emergency in April.
Ricoh added: “In the Office Printing, sales of hardware decreased due to restrictions on sales activities by lockdowns and self- isolation. Sales of non-hardware also decreased due to the decline in demand of printing caused by the decrease in attendance rate (mainly in Europe and the Americas). These effects peak in April to May, and a recovery trend has been seen since June, but the recovery has been moderate.”
Due to home working during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ricoh said that sales in Japan have decreased by 21.9%, in the Americas sales decreased by 30.6% and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa decreased by 18.7% year-on-year, mainly due to the decrease in demand in office printing.
Overall office printing sales were ¥382.2 billion ($3.6 billion/ €3.1 billion) a decrease of 25.4% year-on-year. The segment’s profit decreased by ¥57.5 billion ($550 million/ €470 million) to a loss of ¥6.2 billion ($59.3 million/ €50.7 million) year-on-year. Office service sales were ¥224.6 billion ($2.15 billion/ €1.84 billion) a decrease of 15.2%.
