[Company analysis] Nikon Corporation (ニコン)

「Nikon Corporation (ニコン)」specializes in the optics and imaging departments, and handles optical equipment such as cameras, digital cameras, binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, glasses, viewfinders, surveying instruments, optical materials, and software. At present, in the digital camera market, it has a brand power equal to that of "Canon Inc.". The number of consolidated employees is approximately 20,917.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Nikon Corporation
Company name (Japanese)	ニコン
Date of establishment	Wednesday, July 25, 1917
Headquarters location	〒108-6290 東京都港区港南2-15-3
Capital	65,476
Consolidated sales	708,660
Consolidated operating profit	82,653
Consolidated total assets	1,134,985
Consolidated capital	616,726
Capital adequacy ratio	54.3%
Consolidated number of employees	20,917

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
In order to manufacture the optical weapons(telescopes, rangefinders, cameras, binoculars, etc.) in Japan domestic level,「Nippon Kogaku K.K.(日本光学工業株式会社)」was established by business integration between the optical division of「Tokyo Keiki company(東京計器製作所)」 and the reflector division of「Iwaki Glass Manufacturing(岩城硝子製造所)」. And that is the predecessor of 「Nikkon」.

During World War II, they worked on the above optical weapon manufacturing and grow into Japan's largest optical equipment manufacturer. After the war, this company name was changed to the current "Nikon" and started to enter the private market. In 1948, the first Nikon camera was launched, which became known to the world by American photographer David Douglas Duncan.

RF cameras were the mainstream camera at the time. However, 「Nikon」judged that they could not win in frontal competition with「Leica」, which was the largest manufacturer of RF cameras at the time. So they decided to jump into the SLR camera field. In 1959,「Nikon」launched its first SLR camera. Then, They focused on SLR cameras for 30 years. Eventually, the Nikon camera was highly evaluated as a camera for professionals, as it was eventually adopted by「NASA」. This company has been the world top class SLR manufacturer, until they were overwhelming by「Canon」.

On the contrary, the entry into the digital camera market was relatively late. For the first time in 1999,「Nikon 」launched the highly practical DSLR, which solved many problems of the digital cameras of that time. In particular, it is superior in speed and algorithm to the competing Canon's DSLR, has high sensitivity and low noise performance. Eventually it gained tremendous popularity among photographers and Nikon's DSLR business has largely grown, so they could be a peer to the Cannon's DSLR business.

In addition to the camera business, 「Nikon」commercialized a reduction projection exposure system used in the manufacture of semiconductors and LCD(Liquid Crystal Displays) for the first time in Japan in 1980. Until 2003, they got the world's top share(about 44%), but since then, they were prevailed by「ASML」and its share eventually dropped to 15%. In other businesses, they released HiS video recorder with OED supply from「Sharp Corporation」.

Currently, more than 50% of Nikon's sales depend on its optical and video related businesses. This is one of the characteristics of「Nikon」, compared with their rival「Canon」which has well diversified business structure. This company has been concentrating their management resources on the optical and visual divisions, in order to keep their comparative advantages.

The problem is, their annual sales have been shrinking since 2013, according to the technological advances in smartphone industry. To overcome this,「Nikon」decided focus their technological strength on developing higher value-added products such as astronomical telescopes and their peripherals, multifunctional binoculars, and portable optical microscopes.

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

 ■ Video related business
This is Nikon's main business and handles DSLR, SLR, etc.

■ Equipment business
They develop and manufacture exposure equipment for liquid crystal display manufacturing and semiconductor manufacturing.

■ Healthcare business
They mainly provide microscopes and related solutions in the life sciences and medical fields.

■ Industrial equipment and others

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		749,273	717,078	708,660
Consolidated operating profit		774	56,236	82,653
Consolidated total assets		1,018,351	1,098,343	1,134,985
Consolidated net assets		538,150	573,541	616,726
Breakdown of sales	Video related business	383,024	360,703	296,169
	Equipment business	248,026	226,334	274,540
	Healthcare business	55,797	56,818	65,434
	Industrial equipment・Others	62,426	73,222	72,518