Originally posted by normhead Does anyone know if Pentax is actually shrinking and losing customers?
Last I saw with actual numbers, they were increasing their market share, by staying pretty much the same. You can't assume any given company is on the same curve as the rest of the market. Seriously, you can't discuss a specific company based on general trends. That would be unethical, illogical, and inaccurate. And I don't like it.
There haven't been 'hard' data concerning Pentax in ages. The last ones were published when Ricoh bought the Pentax imaging business from Hoya: the revenue (¥15bn) and operating income (0-) generated by the Pentax imaging business during the half-year period between the 1st of October, 2011 and the 31st of March, 2012.
Originally posted by Ricoh: The impact of PENTAX Ricoh Imaging Co. for FY2012/03 was 15.0 billion in net sales and no impact in operating income.
Source:
https://www.ricoh.com/-/Media/Ricoh/Sites/com/IR/data/pre/pdf/h23q4_con.pdf page #3
Originally posted by Ricoh: PENTAX was in our group for just 6 months last year, and so it could only contribute 15 billion yen in sales, with a break-even operating income.
Source:
https://www.ricoh.com/-/Media/Ricoh/Sites/com/IR/pdf/essence_text_0426.pdf page #2
Other reported data from the same period suggest that the revenue split of the Pentax imaging business was roughly 1/3 Japan 2/3 rest of the world.
At that time, the Ricoh camera business was bleeding money (the compact market had begun to shrink).
Originally posted by Ricoh: Other business resulted in minus 6 billion yen operating income. The largest factor behind the loss is compact digital cameras of Ricoh. PENTAX was almost brake [sic!] even in profit.
Source:
ibidem, page #5
During the same half-year period in 2018-2019, seven years later, Smart Vision generated ¥9.2bn in sales. The are no figures concerning the Pentax business.
Between October 2011 - March 2012 and October 2018 - March 2019, the market (as measured by the value of camera and lens shipments as reported by CIPA) fell by 43%, from ¥883bn to ¥504bn.
In addition, there are a few 'soft data' concerning for instance Europe and France:
- The Ricoh Imaging General Sales Manager for Europe told me that the sales of Pentax equipment follow a minus 15% / minus 20% yearly trend.
xxx - The manager of La Boutique Pentax in Paris told me that, if it weren't for the GR III, they would have had to close shop in 2019. (They sell very few Theta cameras, those are mostly sold through BtoB channels in France). They are is eager for new, relatively affordable Pentax products to entice people to come to their outlet and buy Pentax equipment. For instance they are organising two half-day operations around the D FA 70-210mm f/4, lending for free and during a few hours a copy of the lens, together with a K-1 Mark II if requested, to people who have registered in advance and offering various rebates on the whole product portfolio on this occasion.