Ricoh Imaging sales are roughly half those of Leica
Some interesting research done by a reader (thanks Mistral75):
- In the 1960s and 1970s Asahi Optical was bigger than Canon and Nikon together
- Today, Ricoh Imaging sales (= Pentax + Ricoh Theta, GR and WG sales) are roughly half those of Leica.
This information is not exactly confidential nor something I have made up but the result of information digging and calculations:
Leica
This is the easiest part since, as a German company of a certain size, they must publish their accounts (consolidated accounts and company’s accounts). The problem is, they do it as late as the German law allows them to. Go to bundesanzeiger.de – just type “Leica Camera” in “Suchbegriff” then click on “Suchen”.
Consolidated turnover:
- 2011/12: €318.7m
- 2012/13: €343.6m
- 2013/14: €360.4m
- 2014/15: €364.8m
- 2015/16: consolidated accounts haven’t been published yet.
Parent company’s turnover:
- 2014/15: €276.4m
- 2015/16: €299.5m (company’s accounts were published on 23 January 2017)
Considering the steady growth and the increase in the parent company’s turnover last year, I consider that the group turnover for the 2016 calendar year should be around €400m.
Ricoh Imaging
This is trickier since the Ricoh ‘Other’ division includes, but is not limited to, Ricoh Imaging. There are leasing activities in Japan and there might be other activities too. For instance, one only discovered that the ‘Other’ division included San-ai, an apparel retailer (actually, swimwear and lingerie), when they announced they had sold it.
Ricoh published a few days ago their accounts for the first three quarters of their 2016-2017 fiscal year, i.e. for the April – December 2016 period.
In addition, their accounts for the last quarter of their 2015-2016 fiscal year, i.e. for the January – March 2016 period, are available.
The reports made by CIPA, the Japanese ‘Camera & Imaging Products Association’, are another very useful source of information:
Outside Japan, I made the assumption that the ‘Other’ division includes Ricoh Imaging and nothing more; in doing so, I can only overestimate the turnover of Ricoh Imaging. I obtain the following figures and market shares for the 2016 calendar year when comparing the ‘Other’ figures with the CIPA data:
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: ¥6.0bn (2% of the market)
- Americas: ¥3.8bn (1.5% of the market)
- Rest of the world (mainly Asia excluding Japan, and Australia): ¥6.0bn (1.6% of the market).
The market shares above are quite low, hence my assumption “‘Other’ = Ricoh Imaging” is probably valid; at least, there shouldn’t be any material businesses in addition to Ricoh Imaging.
The situation is very different in Japan. The 2016 turnover of the ‘Other’ division is equal to ¥95.7bn, which is 63% of the total CIPA shipments (cameras with built-in lens + interchangeable lens cameras + lenses). I therefore chose to estimate the turnover of Ricoh Imaging in Japan by applying a (generous) 5% to 10% market share to the CIPA figures, which led me to a Japanese turnover comprised between ¥7.6bn and ¥15.1bn.
Adding these various figures, I obtained for Ricoh Imaging a global turnover comprised between ¥23.4bn and ¥31.0bn.
The 2016 average €/¥ exchange rate being €1 = ¥120.20, the 2016 turnover of Ricoh Imaging would be, according to my calculations, comprised between €195m and €258m, i.e. close to €200m.
Hence my statement: “Ricoh Imaging sales are roughly half those of Leica“.