i checked my figures. 49% of total revenue accounted for by the imaging products division in 2004. this includes all cameras, SLR lenses, binoculars, eyeglasses (although all marketing rights were recently sold to Seiko and Pentax only retains the manufacturing), and OEM lenses for digital cameras, most of which are sold to Casio and HP. the reports from Pentax state that they are shifting focus to divisions that are capable of maintaining high profit margins like the medical and opto-components divisions. however, because of the necessity to keep the prestige of the Pentax brand name (which they feel is necessary for maintaining opto-component sales to other digital camera companies without the ability to design high quality lenses), they will do what is necessary to hold their camera market share and profits about constant in the imaging products division, knowing that their margins are declining in digital cameras and plunging in film cameras. the life care and opto-components divisions make about 4-5 times as much profits for Pentax as their camera division, their lowest profit division. the main reason the imaging products division is making any money at all is that they have cut their losses in binoculars to a manageable level by reducing inventory.
the reason Europe gets all of the goodies before North America is that 40% of Pentax's sales go there, while only 30% goes to North America. Pentax's marketing strategy for digital cameras is to target specific niches and demographics. those niches are restricted by the fact that low pixel count cameras are commodities with little profit margin. the success of the entry level DSLR will make or break this strategy as P&S cameras have a much lower useful market life. the imaging products division, excluding the sales of component lenses to Casio and HP, had a profit margin of 1.9% in 2004. after reducing inventory on binoculars, they estimate that the division will stabilize at about 3%. the opto-components division has a profit margin of 5% in 2004 and that is expected to rise. Pentax hasn't said much about its medical products division, but it is the highest profitability part of the company and is also expected to grow rapidly in the next couple of years led by demand for endoscopes and artificial bone products. so don't expect any changes for the next 4 or 5 years in how things are going, and probably not ever. Pentax isn't interested in pushing to increase market share, just hold it steady. Herb... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pål Jensen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:23 AM Subject: Re: The public and Pentax > 50% is photo related products which means for Pentax cameras and lenses. Without cameras, no lens sales. Mind you, in overturn the lens volume is probably quite low compared to the value from cameras sales which are totally dominated by P&S.
