The last few days have brought news of some missed earnings projections from Sharp Electronics. Although parts of the company are struggling, Sharp VP Mike Marusic told me the MFP/printer group saw a 31% increase over last year. Here’s what Mike sent me:
[Tweet “Sharp’s MFP/Printer sales increased 31% through September 2014! “]
Thanks for the opportunity to give you some background. Here is what I can share with you;
Due to the fact that we are so close to an earnings announcement, we cannot comment on any particulars regarding the upcoming announcement. As the article quoted, Sharp released the guidance a few weeks back but the story is recently been picked up. What we can tell you is that locally, SIICA is again having another strong year and expected to see strong revenue and profit growth once again. As part of this growth, we will be reinvesting in our channel with a series of upcoming Road Shows, an Incentive Trip to Necker Island in April and a Larger Dealer Trip to Europe later in the summer followed by our Dealer Meeting at the end of 2015. As you know, we restructured the organization last winter in order to invest in growth opportunities. Over the last six months we have also made significant increases to headcount in key areas supporting our dealers and will continue to add open positions to help support our growth.
Separately, I would like to share with you already published financial data that may provide a better insight into what is happening.
- Our Business Products Group (of which we are a part) grew 3.9% Worldwide in our first half (ends Sept) with a OI of 15.9 billion Yen (down 0.1% Y over Y)
- The MFP / Printer group saw a sales increase of 31% YoY through September 2014
- Sharp Corp Debt has decreased over the past year to its lowest level since 2011, improving our debt to equity ratio.
- Sharp increased its investments in R&D during the first half by 4.6%.
- In December 2014, we announced the restructuring of our TV business in Europe. At that time, we indicated that it could have P&L impacts for the year.
Thanks for the heads up on the e-mail. As you can imagine, we are limited on what we can say leading up to an earnings announcement, but locally we are doing very well and will see year over year growth and exceed plan once again. Let me know if you have any questions.
Mike Marusic
SVP – Marketing, Operations & Service
Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America
The following appears on reuters.com
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Sharp Corp warned on Monday it will likely miss this year’s earnings target as an intensifying price war with cheaper Asia rivals in display panels and TVs cuts deep into the consumer electronics maker’s profit margins.
Sharp shares skidded 9 percent to two-year lows after the maker of screens for Apple Inc’s iPhones said it now doesn’t expect to meet an earlier forecast a 30 billion yen ($255 million) net profit in the 12 months ending March.
The warning dashed investor hopes that growing sales to Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd could provide a new springboard for Sharp as it emerges from years of restructuring.
Click here to read the rest of the article on reuters.com
