Konica Minolta 2008 Annual Report Download - page 22

19
Business Technologies
Under our genre-top strategy, one key focus was to boost sales
of color MFPs for general offices. Another priority was to raise
production printing sales for the internal printing departments
of large companies and commercial digital printing companies.
We bolstered our range of highly competitive offerings by
releasing five bizhub color MFP models for the general office
market and one bizhub PRO color model for production printing.
The U.S. market began slowing down in the second half of the
term because of the subprime mortgage woes. Nonetheless, we
maintained a high unit sales growth rate in color MFPs. Sales
were similarly solid in Europe and other regions.
In September and November 2007, we acquired leading
dealers in Germany and the United States, respectively.
As a result of these factors, we achieved favorable sales of color
MFPs worldwide for general offices and maintained our ranking in
the top group in the core European and American markets.
We are prioritizing production printing because of the high
growth potential of this area. The main target customers for
these systems are the internal printing departments of large
companies and commercial digital printing companies. We aug-
mented the popular bizhub PRO C6500 with the bizhub PRO
C5500, a new high-speed color MFP.
We concluded a strategic partnership with Europe’s Océ N.V.,
which has outstanding technological capabilities and experience,
as part of a global strategy of solidifying our position in growth
markets. We additionally acquired Danka Office Imaging
Company (DOIC) to harness its broad marketing channels and
top-quality customer base in the United States.
In the laser printer segment, we merged printer and MFP
sales companies in Europe and United States, and worked to
strengthen our sales organization for general office-use products
as we emphasized sales in the general office segment where
print volume growth is expected.
Business Technologies net sales thus rose 6.4%, to ¥701.0
billion. Operating income gained 12.6%, to a record-high level
of ¥90.1 billion.
We will continue to expand our sales channels in the current
fiscal year to maintain growth in color MFP and production
printing operations. We will keep striving in line with our genre-
top strategy to retain our shares of the European and American
markets for color MFPs for general offices and dominate in the
expanding production printing field.
We aim to boost sales to office users of color laser printers
by promoting the building of high-quality machine-in-the-field
(MIF), where print volume growth is expected.
Net Sales
(Billions of Yen)
04 05 06 07 08 04 05 06 07 08
625.8
564.8
606.7
658.7
701.0
Operating Income
(Billions of Yen)
62.9
55.8
65.1
80.0
90.1
Color MFP for general offices
bizhub C550
Combined productivity and
modern design Color LBP
magicolor 4650DN
New model of production printing
bizhub PRO C6501