Pentax 2004 Annual Report Download - page 5

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 5 of the 2004 Pentax annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 74

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74

3
Hiroshi Suzuki, President and CEO
much consideration, to make investments in new manufacturing plants. Specifically, we have begun construction on an
optical lens plant in China, following the manufacturers of finished products that are our customers as they shift produc-
tion to overseas plants in China and Asia. We have also broken ground on a manufacturing plant in Taiwan for large-scale
LCD photomasks, in order to more quickly respond to the robust demand from Taiwanese LCD manufacturers, who have
recently reported rapid growth. In anticipation of growing demand in the HDD glass disk business following the diversifi-
cation of applications from notebook computers to include portable music players and other devices, Hoya acquired the
glass disk business of Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. In addition, we began work on a manufacturing plant in Singapore that
will produce soft IOLs, a business that we are looking to strengthen in overseas markets.
Another notable aspect of fiscal 2004 was the SARS outbreak, which delayed the planning and construction of the
above-mentioned manufacturing plants in China and Asia. Construction has since proceeded smoothly, and we expect to
begin full-scale operations at the IOL plant in Singapore, the optical lens plant in China, and the large-scale LCD photomask
plant in Taiwan during the second half of fiscal 2005.
In the Eye Care field, which has experienced a rapid contraction of the Japanese market in recent years, the direct
effects from the positive movement in digital consumer electronics was minimal, but improvement in the general economy
stemmed the fall in retail prices being caused by deflation. Amid these circumstances, the contact lens business, which
operates retail stores in Japan, undertook a scrap-and-build program to proactively open new stores and increase conve-
nience to customers, and sought to differentiate itself from discount retailers by offering service with high degrees of
added value. The eyeglass business, which is developing worldwide, strengthened its processing capability by expanding
its laboratory (processing facility) in Spain, and established a laboratory in Shanghai to serve China, a market that is
expected to grow rapidly. Also, in the robust European market, several new products were introduced as a means of
improving the brand and increasing market share, and a number of these have garnered a fair amount of interest.
On the whole, the fiscal year under review was one of earnestly trying to adapt to the radical changes in the exter-
nal environment brought on by the upswing in demand for digital consumer electronics. As a result, though we achieved
record performance, change happened faster than we anticipated, and our production capacity was stretched to its limit.
HOYA 2004-e 入稿用0705 04.7.22 7:57 PM ページ 4