The company said that increased demand drove equipment revenue and IT Services growth.
Xerox announced its first-quarter results, recording $1.71 billion (€1.42 billion) of revenue which is down 8.1% year-on-year. This is split into $381 million (€316 millon) in equipment sales and $1.329 billion (€1.1 billion) of Post Sales revenue (which includes consumables, Paper, Services etc).
Talking about the impact of COVID-19, the company said: “During the first quarter 2021, our business was still experiencing the impact of the pandemic, and the recovery in the near-term may be uneven and affected by the emergence of new variants of the virus and the resurgence of elevated COVID-19 cases in various countries and regions. However, we saw a gradual recovery of our revenues as businesses gained confidence in the progress to control the pandemic and resumed investments in new printing technology and services, and we saw a positive correlation between the roll-out of vaccinations, the return of employees to the office, and the gradual recovery of our page-volume driven post sale revenues.
“We expect that measures to control the pandemic and expand economic activity will result in a moderate economic improvement in 2021.”
In its presentation, Xerox outlined strategic initiatives to transform the company, like optimise operations, drive revenue by expanding its software portfolio and grow XFS as a global payment solutions business.
“In the first quarter, in an environment where many offices remained closed, we grew equipment sales and IT Services revenue year-over-year. I am proud of how our employees have continued to deliver for our customers during the pandemic. We made progress toward standing up XFS, Xerox Software and PARC Innovation as separate businesses, which we now expect to complete in calendar year 2021,” said Xerox Vice Chairman and CEO John Visentin.
“With small and medium-sized business and enterprise clients planning to return more employees to the office, our differentiated offerings are well-positioned to serve their growing needs. The strength of our performance, portfolio and strategy gives us confidence we will return Xerox to growth in 2021.”
