In the first six months of the current financial year (April to September), Ricoh witnessed a slight drop in sales, down to ¥988.2 billion ($8.75 billion/€7.71 billion), from the figure of ¥988.8 billion ($8.76 billion/€7.72 billion) in the same period last year – a 1.1 percent decrease.
Gross profit also fell, from ¥390.4 billion ($3.46 billion/€3.04 billion) to ¥383.8 billion ($3.4 billion/€2.99 billion), a 1.7 percent drop. However, operating profit more than doubled, rising to ¥52 billion ($460.9 million/€406 million) from 2017’s ¥22 billion ($195 million/€171.7 million), an increase of 136.2 percent. Profit before income tax expenses was therefore also up, reaching ¥50 billion ($443.1 million/€390.4 million), a climb of 181.8 percent from last year’s ¥17.7 billion ($156.9 million/€138.2 million).
For the second quarter alone (July – September), there was a broadly similar story: Sales fell 1.8 percent, to ¥497.3 billion ($4.4 billion/€3.88 billion), whilst gross profit slipped to ¥189.4 billion ($1.67 billion/€1.47 billion), a dip of 0.5 percent. Operating profit provided a comfort, however, rising from ¥3 billion ($26.6 million/€23.4 million) in Q2 2017 to ¥32.2 billion ($285.4 million/€251.4 million) in Q2 2018 – a rise of 946.9 percent.
In the company’s Office Printing segment, Half Year sales fell from ¥559.3 billion ($4.95 billion/€4.36 billion) to ¥538.5 billion ($4.77 billion/€4.2 billion), a 3.7 percent decrease. Whereas in 2017, this segment contributed 56 percent of Ricoh’s overall sales, in the first half of 2018 it was down to 54.5 percent.
This was almost replicated in Q2 in the same segment, where sales dropped 3.6 percent to ¥264.8 billion ($2.34 billion/€2.06 billion), and where the percentage of total sales fell from 54.3 percent to 53.2 percent.
The segment’s operating profit for the first half of the year was up 12.9 percent, to ¥57.2 billion ($506.9 million/€446.6 million), while for just Q2 it was a bigger rise, to ¥27 billion ($239.3 million/€210.8 million), increasing 40.1 percent from the year before.
Reflected on the results in this segment, Ricoh said: “Sales in the overseas market decreased mainly in hardware and related supplies due to refining of business meetings based on the profit-oriented marketing strategy in accordance with 19th Mid-Term Management Plan. Gross profit decreased accordingly. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased significantly due to the effect of structural reforms.”