[Company analysis] Olympus Corporation (オリンパス)

「Olympus Corporation (オリンパス)」is a manufacturer of optical equipment and electronic equipment, and has three business divisions (medical, chemical, and imaging). In particular, they are the world's largest company in the field of medical optical equipment and microscopes, which specializes in endoscopes and has a global market share of 70%. In the field of cameras, it is the 3rd largest company after「Nikon Corporation(ニコン)」and「Canon(キャノン)」. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 35,124.

 

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	Olympus Corporation
Company name (Japanese)	オリンパス
Date of establishment	Sunday, October 12, 1919
Headquarters location	〒163-0914 東京都新宿区西新宿2-3-1 新宿モノリス
Capital	124,600
Consolidated sales	793,862
Consolidated operating profit	28,281
Consolidated total assets	932,030
Consolidated capital	442,387
Capital adequacy ratio	47.5%
Consolidated number of employees	35,124

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
「Olympus」was started in Japan on October 12, 1919 under the name of「Takachiho Seisakusho(高千穂製作所)」to manufacture microscopes in Japan. From its founding era, they manufactured microscopes and thermometers. However, in 1923, they sold thermometer business, and changed the company name to 「Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.(オリンパス光学工業株式会社)」

Then, this company reached its turning point. 「Olympus」started to develop endoscopy business, according to the suggestion from University of Tokyo and it was late 1940s. In fact, this was a very epoch-making invention, but in view of the background of the late 1940s, developing endoscope required extremely high level of technology. Because the endoscope must have waterproof function, and at the same time, it is necessary to attach almost all camera-related parts such as lenses, films, and lighting should be concentrated in very small space.

Even though it took approximately one year of research and development,「Olympus」successfully launched an early-stage endoscope in 1950. Since then, they achieved the world's top share(70%) in the medical endoscope field. As for the overall sales of「Olympus」, the medical business including the endoscope accounts for 73.0% of the total, and the operating margin is also extremely high(25%).

In the camera field, 「Olympus」released its first camera in 1936, but it was not very successful. However, in 1959, the "OLYMPUS PEN" was launched, and it brought a huge impact on the camera market. This new product is a low-priced compact camera, but still it was equipped with high-performance D.Zuiko lens and excellent image quality. In addition it is half size of conventional camera, so customers could take doubled number of photos even with general film. Thanks to this blockbuster product,「Olympus」was abled to become 3rd largest camera manufacturer.

The basic development philosophy of「Olympus」is user convenience. So once, consumer accustomed to the highly convenient Olympus products, then they could not be able to easily switch to other companies' products. Especially in the medical field, safety is the top priority, so the above tendency is stronger than other fields. That is the reason why「Olympus」still keep the largest share in endoscope market with very high operating margin.

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Medical business
This company can handle not only endoscope related products such as gastrointestinal endoscope, bronchoscope, endoscopic video system, endoscope, and ultrasonic observation device for medical personnel, but also treatment / surgical equipment and other peripheral equipment for endoscopic surgery.

■ Chemical business
In addition to general biological microscopes, they also handle industrial microscopes such as metal microscopes, semiconductor inspection microscopes, and laser microscopes. In addition, they also manufacture ultrasonic flaw detectors, eddy current flaw detectors, phase array flaw detectors, X-ray analyzers, etc. doing.

■ Video business
They also handle products for general consumers such as digital cameras, IC recorders, and binoculars. 

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		740,557	786,497	793,862
Consolidated operating profit		71,192	81,029	28,281
Consolidated total assets		960,032	978,663	932,030
Consolidated net assets		396,228	444,259	442,387
Breakdown of sales	Medical business	570,398	616,331	634,301
	Chemical business	93,370	100,016	104,225
	Video business	62,824	60,298	48,679
	Others	13,965	9,852	6,657