Against a background of revenue decline among printer OEMs, the Sharp Q1 revenues were up slightly by 0.4%, but profits slumped.
The company has released its consolidated financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020.
For the first quarter fiscal year 2020, Sharp recorded net sales of ¥517.2 billion ($4.9 billion/ €4.1 billion) a 0.4% year-on-year increase. Profits were down 37.8% year-on-year for the quarter.
The 8K Ecosystem business segment which includes Sharp’s printers, the company recorded net sales for the quarter of ¥267.1 billion ($2.5 billion/ €2.1 billion), a 1.7% year-on-year increase. Operating profits for the segment however were down to -¥4.9 billion (-$46 million/ €39 million).
Sharp said that its first quarter, fiscal year 2020 net sales outperformed the fourth quarter, fiscal year 2019, securing positive bottom-line profit for the company. The only segment significantly impacted by COVID-19 seems to be its Business Solutions segment. Sharp added that its supply chain has “generally normalised”, so the company expects that if sales constraints ease, to see recoveries in its core business.
Sharp predicts that for the full year 2020 it will achieve net sales ¥2,350 billion ($22.27 billion/ €18.76 billion) a year-on-year increase of 3.5%, with operating profits of ¥82 billion ($777 million/ €655 million), a year-on-year increase of 55.4%.
