Profit Decline for Brother’s First Quarter, But Improved Printing & Solutions Results

Brother International of Nagoya, Japan, has released financial results for its fiscal first quarter, which consisted of the three months that ended on June 30, 2023.

Overall, Brother continued to report lower profit, and revenue was flat, the latter of which Brother attributed to the positive effects of the yen’s depreciation. Brother said profit declined due to increased Selling, General, and Administrative (SGA) costs and promotions. However, the news was much better in Brother’s Printing & Solutions business, which reported positive year-over-year growth.

Brother’s first-quarter revenue was ¥200.4 billion ($1.411 billion), down 0.4 percent year-over-year; operating profit was ¥22.02 billion ($155 million), down 12 percent year-over-year; and net income was ¥16.24 billion ($114.26 million), down 10.5 percent year-over-year.

Brother said that despite increased logistics costs and price adjustments (mainly for its Printing & Solutions business), profit declined due to lower sales in Brother’s P&H and Machinery groups.

Printing and Solutions Business

Brother’s Printing & Solutions (P&S) business had first-quarter revenue of ¥127.29 billion ($895.71 million), up 4.9 percent year-over-year, and operating profit of ¥17.99 billion ($126.59 million),up 6.5 percent year-over-year. For the P&S business, Brother reported positive effects from decreased logistics costs and price adjustments.

However, except for the P&S business, all other Brother businesses had year-over-year operating losses. (Brother’s other businesses are Machinery, Domino, Nissei, P&H, NC, and Other.)

Forecast

Brother maintained its forecast for its fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2024.

It’s forecasting net sales of ¥840 billion ($5.90 billion) up 3.0 percent year-over-year; operating profit of ¥70 billion ($492.51 million), up 26.4 percent year-over-year; and net income of ¥50 billion  ($351.79 million), up 27.9 percent year-over-year.

More Resources

• May 2023: Challenging Fiscal Year and Fourth Quarter for Brother, But Forecasts Recovery
• February 2023:  Brother Reports Revenue Increases, But Profit Declines
• February 2023: Brother Enters Industrial-Printer Market
• January 2023: Ninestar Gets Greenlight to Sell Brother Toner Cartridges in U.S.
• December 2022: Konica Minolta and Brother Partner in India with A4 Printers
• November 2022: Brother Previews New Enterprise Color Printers and All-in-Ones
• August 2022: Mixed Results for Brother’s First Quarter