• The prestigious Nikon is in dire straits. The operating loss for the April-September period of 2020 announced by the company on November 5 fell to a deficit of 46.6 billion yen. The main reason is that the performance of the main camera business is deteriorating.
• In the video business, which includes cameras, sales for this term are expected to decrease by about 40% from the previous term to 140 billion yen and an operating deficit of 45 billion yen.
• Toshikazu Umatate, president of Nikon, emphasized the stance of carrying out structural reforms centered on cameras, saying, “We want to create a muscular structure in the video business that can generate profits even with sales of 150 billion yen or less.” The production of the main body of the digital single-lens reflex camera handled at the factory in Miyagi prefecture will be consolidated at the Thai factory, and the sales companies will be integrated. In addition, the number of overseas employees is planned to be reduced by 2,000 by March 2022, which is about 20% of the total overseas.
• It’s not just the external environment of shrinking the camera market that plagues Nikon. The internal factor of delay in the mirrorless camera also echoes. Nikon is afraid of conflict with single-lens reflex cameras, and finally made a full-scale entry into mirrorless cameras in 2018. The difference is clear, with Sony’s 1.65 million mirrorless production in 2019 and Nikon’s only 280,000.
• Nikon plans to launch three new mirrorless models at once in the second half of this year, focusing on professional and high-end products, but there are still concerns about whether Nikon can catch up with the delay. Within the company, the SLR orientation that has swept the world is deep-rooted, and it is essential to shift development costs and sales promotion costs to mirrorless cameras in the future.

https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/388837

Nikon Corp. plans to reduce about 2,000 employees, or 10% of its total workforce, due to a slump in its core camera business, Nikkei reported.

Its business was also impacted by the performance of Intel Corp., one of Nikon’s key clients of semiconductor equipment, the daily reported, without saying where it got the information.

In the company’s reform agenda announced on Nov. 5, Nikon outlined a plan to move its camera production to Thailand and discontinue domestic output. The firm is considering cutting its sales force, the paper said.

Nikon posted an operating loss of 26.1 billion yen ($251 million) for the second quarter compared with analysts’ estimates of a loss of 20.3 billion yen.

Thailand means cheaper and bad products

I started to hear very bad leaks from inside Nikon (not from Japan).

It is very similar to Olympus, people constantly talk and look for places outside camera industry (as it is on last breaths anyway).

People who work in EU and US think that cuts before May can become staggering (around 85-95% of all staff). Huge reduction on servicing expanses and all not very profitable accessories and lenses.

More bad news. Nikon is #5 in mirrorless sales.

https://biz-journal.jp/2021/03/post_211003.html

How hard for them to make a very good video camera and stop playing games and stay in business?

• “Imaging Products, we had a record quarterly sales for mirrorless and cameras.”
• “Imaging Products business will turn profitable in real times if we exclude extraordinary costs such as restructuring-related costs and others.”
• “Imaging Products segment was revised upward JPY 5 billion, reflecting the improvement in the third quarter.”
• “We expect to have improved operating profit in Imaging Products business as much as JPY 3 billion.”
• “Imaging Products business, with the high-end shifting and structural reforms, aims to be profitable even when revenue is less than JPY 150 billion.”
• “Imaging Products business is going well recently, but we need to make further efforts in order to stably generate profit because it seems that we have just been helped by the market recovery.”

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4404410-nikon-corporation-ninof-q3-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript

Suggestion from another private talk

Avoid buying any Nikon cameras and lenses if you want to use them professionally. Service cuts and lack of parts can lead to extremely slow repairs or lack of ability to repair.

Nikon optimization will be focused on reducing all expenses on servicing and warranty.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev what's the source of this graph?

Nikon USA recently had layoffs that mainly impacted NPS staff (Nikon Professional Services). Cuts had been very significant. NPS layoffs happened also in Canada.

Just as I told you.

Interesting leaks coming from Nikon

Some representatives tell that Nikon will keep only one DSLR - top, very expensive on. All other models will be killed, equipment dismantled.

APS-C will be gradually phased out, despite mirrorless models with such sensors. Nikon will keep only 3-5 lenses with not FF sensor coverage.

Main focus will be on very reach people, new advertisements for late 2021 and 2022 will be focused on rich old travelers, lawyers, doctors and so on. Also ads will be for top level professionals. Old style amateur focused ads will be phased out since 2022 almost completely.

We'll see multiple steps of price hikes during 2021 and early 2022 making cameras positioned as nice premium modern accessory.