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May 19, 2006 – Nikon Corporation released their fiscal year-end financial statement yesterday and announced that they performed much better than originally expected. Operating income doubled, and net income rose from 24.1 billion Japanese Yen to 28.9 billion Yen in the past year.
In the past year, Nikon’s net sales increased from 638.5 billion Yen to 730.9 billion Yen. Part of this statistic is due to Nikon’s strong DSLR lineup, with last year’s D70s and D50 releases and this year’s D200. 1.34 million SLR cameras were sold in the past year, as compared to 1.05 million in the previous year.
"These latest results are very positive for Nikon and continue to build on a number of recent successful results," said Yojiro Yamaguchi, President of Nikon UK, in the press release. "The major part of Nikon’s business is in the development and distribution of photographic equipment which has evolved significantly over the past half a century."
Yamaguchi cited Nikon’s flexibility to change from film to digital. "Nikon is committed to the industry and will continue to develop and evolve through investing in new product development," he said. Nikon did make some changes to its film camera manufacturing this past year; it announced it will continue production on the Nikon F6 and FM10 bodies, but will phase out all other models. This came after film camera sales made up only 3 percent of the company’s earnings in 2004.
Nikon also saw a rise in its compact digital camera sales with 7.11 million sold in fiscal year 2005. The company sold 5.56 million units in 2004. The company anticipates that its sales will only climb with the increasing popularity of DSLRs. The sales of its compact models will be augmented by its new poster child, Kate Moss. The British model signed a deal with Nikon just months ago to promote their slim Coolpix line, particularly the S5.