Olympus first quarter results published: “operating profit recorded in Imaging Business”
Olympus published the full Q1 financial report. And there is good news:
- in Q1 the Imaging Business had an operating profit of 0.9 billions of yen.
- While overall revenue decreased (because of the decrease in compact camera sales) Olympus increased the mirrorless system camera sales revenue by 14%
- The full year forecast for the Imaging Business predicts an operating profit of 1 billion of yen.
This is what Olympus writes:
In the mirrorless camera field, sales increased as the Olympus Group maintained strong sales of the flagship mirrorless camera “OM-D E-M1 Mark II,” introduced in the previous fiscal year. Meanwhile, in the compact camera field, the Olympus Group continued to limit the number of units sold in response to market shrinkage. Consequently, revenue in the Imaging Business overall decreased year on year.The Imaging Business returned to profitability after having recorded a loss in the same period of the previous fiscal year due to progress made in pushing down expenses.
It’s interesting to note that Olympus predicts to make only a small 0.1 billion profit in the upcoming three quarters. The strong Q1 performance goes all on the E-M1II. This means Olympus does not plan to introduce any major “money-making” camera til early 2018 at least. The E-M10III which is expected to be announced within the upcoming weeks is surely not a high profit camera.