Komori is on course to end the financial year with sales 8.6% lower than in the 2019/20 financial year. When this year is completed at the end of March the company anticipates it will report sales of ¥71.0 bn.
This is thanks to a growth in sales in the Japanese market and a forecast increase in sales in Europe. This in turn is attributed to inclusion of full year sales from MBO for the first time.
At the Q3 mark sales are running 8.3% below last year due to the economic hit of the pandemic. The company says that in Japan the postponement of events, reduction in marketing and fall in incoming tourism combined to reduce confidence in investments and so delayed decisions on investments in sheetfed press capacity. As the country had been due to host the 2020 Olympic Games, volumes of marketing literature have been well below what was expected.
However, orders for web offset presses and security presses from companies upgrading capacity more than compensated for the drop in sheetfed business resulting in sales above last year’s level. There was also growth in sales of equipment for printed electronics.
In the US market sales picked up in Q3, but not enough to offset the collapse earlier in the year. By the end of the first nine months, sales in North America were down more than a third compared to the previous year.
The Chinese market has recovered from the blow dealt by lockdown. While sales at the nine month point were 14.4% behind the 2019/20 level. orders received have recovered and are now at 98% of last year.
Overall orders for Komori are at 70% of last year’s levels at this point. This is reflected across the range, though web and security presses, after a bump in sales this year, are worst hit and are running at 23% of two months ago. Sheetfed press orders, the company’s main source of income, are at 78% while the new division producing machinery for printed electronics is running 9% above last year. The company anticipates that by the end of the year, orders will be at 81% of 2019.
The company is attracting interest in its Lithrone GX/G Advance models. These would have been its focus at Drupa, but instead of a high impact launch in Germany have had to be introduced via visual events. This became available for delivery in Q3.
It is, says the company, a solution “capable of helping customers enhance ROI” delivery superior productivity and, crucially for the domestic market perhaps, is “easy to operate”.
