Canon said on Monday it marked record high profit and sales for the year to December thanks to robust sales of digital cameras and colour printers, projecting a better performance this year.
Japan’s largest maker of digital cameras and office automation equipment said its group net profit for the year to December gained 11,9% from a year earlier to an all-time high of ¥384,1-billion ($3,3-billion).
Pretax profit gained 10.8 percent to 612.0 billion yen last year on sales at a record ¥ 3,75-trillion, up 8,3%, Canon said in a statement.
The brisk profit and revenue were mainly due to the continued popularity of its digital cameras as well as colour copy machines with computer network functions, the company said.
Canon forecast further record highs in profit and sales this year, projecting a net profit of ¥ 415-billion, a pretax profit of ¥ 665-billion on sales at ¥ 4,06-trillion for the year to December.
Earlier in the day, a newspaper said Canon president Fujio Mitarai, hailed for turning around the camera-making company, will become the chairperson, ceding day-to-day operations at the firm as he becomes chief of Japan’s main business lobby.
Tsuneji Uchida (64) who is the senior managing director, will succeed Mitarai as president, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said.
Uchida now heads the digital and video camera divisions and supervises perations in flat-screen televisions which Canon plans to launch this year. – AFP