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I was curious to see Sony and Nikon's financials this year, because of the tariffs and what impact they had on the other Japanese manufacturers. Were they in a similar scenario as Canon, and did they plan as well, or even better than Canon did, to circumvent the majority of the issues with shipping out cameras this year?
When we talked about Canon's financials in detail before, we noted that Canon posted increases in sales but a decline in operating profit as it incurred additional fees, which lowered its profit margin. But as far as sales were concerned, it was business as usual, and Canon was still bullish about showing a net sales increase for the year.
As for the Imaging Group, we posted strong sales growth of entry-level interchangeable-lens cameras such as the EOS R50 and EOS R100, particularly in China and Asia. Sales of compact cameras also expanded thanks to a substantial increase in supply through increased production in response to strong demand. As a result, overall camera net sales increased 5%. For network cameras, we posted a net sales increase of 8% as sales remained solid. As a result, Imaging Group net sales increased by 5.9%.
Nikon Financials
First up, let's look at Nikon. It's rather shocking how far they have slipped in sales from where they once were. For Nikon, both revenue and profit have fallen from last year's 3rd quarter, but it was expected to do so, and Nikon even beat out their projections for the 3rd quarter. Nikon's unit sales have also increased from the third quarter of last year, having shipped / sold 480,000 units, up from 410,000 units.
I'm a little surprised that their net revenue would slip even though they shipped more cameras out. I would then suspect that their product mix drifted to less expensive cameras and lenses than what they anticipated. However, having beaten their projections for the quarter is a good thing for Nikon.
Nikon is expecting their entire fiscal year to be slightly under the net revenue of last year, and with a corresponding drop in operating profit. They do expect to ship more cameras, though, an increase of 12% from last year.
Sony's Financials
I appreciate Canon and Nikon still drilling into the weeds when it comes to their imaging sales, indicating how well their companies are doing in terms of lenses and cameras – and continuing to do so even when the units and revenue start to decline from the lofty days of the DSLR boom.
This isn’t what Sony has done. Sony has played hide and seek with sales in various segments and has basically obfuscated any possibility of seeing how well their cameras and camera systems are performing in the overall marketplace.
What we do know is that Sony has posted a 7% decrease in sales and attributed that to unit sales of displays and not imaging. But when they discuss their operating income (profit), they mention that imaging has had a decrease in sales and operating income due to tariffs. So, take that as you will. My wild assumption would be that Sony has experienced a decline in both sales and profit in their camera division. Sony's camera division is usually wildly profitable because it also contains their cinema line, which is by far heads and shoulders above Canon's.
I found it curious that Sony suggests that sales have had a downturn in China and the US, though. CIPA seems to indicate that shipments have done well, especially in China.
Outlook
There certainly doesn't seem to be any major panic from the camera manufacturers with the uncertainty of global trade, partly because of the increase in sales in other regions, so the companies have diversified their trade and can absorb the hiccups, such as what has happened this year.
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And we have seen that with the CIPA statistics, where year on year, the Japanese camera companies are shipping out more cameras than last year.
