Although the sales volume of the bizhub series monochrome A3 MFPs was only on par with the previous fiscal year, sales volumes of the bizhub color MFPs increased in all regions—Japan, the U.S., Europe, and Other regions including Asia—, resulting in increased total sales of A3 MFPs year on year. In OPS (Optimized Print Services), which is a growth area for the field, the strengthening of the global sales structure was a success, and we entered into multi-year contracts for the management of office equipment with 15 companies including the major automobile manufacturer BMW and NASA. In addition, we also promoted the expansion of our IT services network in Europe and the U.S. by purchasing a total of 10 IT service providers in the regions, with the aim of expanding operations to the IT services business in which future growth is anticipated. We also launched the bizhub C754/C654 color models as high-end models of the series in January 2012, further reinforcing product competitiveness in the field.

The three color models of the new bizhub PRESS series, C8000/C7000/C6000, sales of which commenced from the fall of 2010, performed well in the in-house printing and digital commercial printing businesses, and the sales volume of color equipment greatly increased year on year in Japan, the U.S., Europe, and Other regions including Asia. Because monochrome equipment also performed better than the previous fiscal year primarily in overseas markets, sales for the field increased to a scale exceeding ¥100 billion.