The Canon Australia Group – which consists of operations in Australia and New Zealand – reported revenue of $927.2m in 2004, a 6.1 per cent increase on the 2003 revenue of $873.6m. The Group’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2004 was $251.7m, a 3.2 per cent increase on the year-ago quarter, in which revenue was $243.9m.

Canon Australia’s revenue in 2004 was $842m, a 6.4 per cent increase on 2003 revenue, which was $791.5m. Canon Australia’s revenue in the fourth quarter 2004 was $229.5m, a 3.3 per cent increase on the year-ago quarter, in which revenue was $222.2m.

The local results mirror the performance of the Canon Inc group, which reported annual revenues of US$33.3 billion (a year-on-year increase of 11.6%), with group net profit increasing 28% to a record US$3.3 billion.

For both Canon Australia and the Group, 2004 was a record year closing with a record fourth quarter. According to Shuichi Tsukahara, managing director, Canon Australia Group, these results reflect Canon’s success in targeting a number of very high-growth markets for consumer products and business solutions – including digital photography, home photo printing, enterprise colour printing and outsourced printer/MFD fleet management services.

“The Canon Australia Group has once again reported year-on-year growth, which is a testament to the entire organisation’s ability to develop compelling solutions for emerging markets, based on Australian and global R&D and delivered in direct response to customer needs,” said Mr Tsukahara.

Colour enterprise printing is another important high-growth very high-value market, and in the middle of 2004 Canon Australia released figures showing that in terms of proportion of units, Canon was beating the industry average and every competitor in the transition to colour.

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