According to Epson's financial report, the group's sales for fiscal year 2025 reached 1.39 trillion yen (approximately 60 billion RMB), with approximately 70% of revenue originating from printing solutions. Net profit was 75 billion yen. However, this annual report could not conceal the structural pressures experienced throughout the fiscal year. Cumulatively, for the first three quarters, Epson's consolidated revenue surpassed 1.04 trillion yen, a 2.0% year-on-year increase, but operating profit declined by 7.1% to 58.4 billion yen, indicating persistent challenges with revenue growth not translating into profit growth. Profit from the core printing solutions business fell by 8.0% year-on-year, as the contraction in cartridge printer sales and rising tariff costs continued to squeeze the traditional profit model of this established giant. The year 2025 represents a transitional period for Epson, characterized by a slowing "old engine" before a "new engine" has fully taken over. On one hand, there is steady penetration of ink tank printers in emerging markets, while on the other, the company faces multiple challenges including weak projector demand, increased US tariffs, and yen exchange rate fluctuations. The financial figures suggest that the growth logic reliant on "selling hardware and supplies" is approaching its ceiling. Can an 84-year-old printing company successfully transform itself in the smart era?
Recently, Epson released its "Epson 25 Renewed" corporate vision, outlining a significant shift: Epson no longer wants to be perceived primarily as a printing company. In an interview with Chinese media, including Global Times, Yoshida Junkichi, President, Representative Director, and CEO of Seiko Epson Corporation, candidly reviewed the successes and shortcomings of the previous decade's strategy and charted a new path for growth. He believes that for a company to advance further, all growth must be planned with sustainability as a prerequisite. The Chinese market is a crucial part of this plan.
**Strategic Pivot: From "Selling Equipment" to "Emphasizing ROIC"** Epson's financial data for FY2025 shows that paper-related businesses still account for about 70% of its global revenue. This figure faces direct challenges in the current digital era, as the global trend towards paperless offices is irreversible, and the traditional printing market has entered a phase of competition for existing market share. Yoshida acknowledged two key reflections from the previous ten-year strategy: insufficient reform of the profit foundation and being too slow to invest resources in high-growth areas. This indicates that during the current period of change, Epson has recognized that inflexible management approaches have caused it to miss significant development opportunities. Consequently, the new vision shifts focus from solely emphasizing sales to highlighting the importance of ROIC (Return on Invested Capital). The vision sets an ROIC target of 8% by FY2028. Concurrently, targets include a return on equity of 10%, an operating profit margin of 8%, and increasing the profit contribution from the industrial sector from the current 45% to 60%. According to Yoshida, this vision aims to sustain growth in existing businesses while making larger investments in emerging industrial fields, enabling Epson to achieve greater profit growth alongside scale expansion.
**Four Value Creation Areas: Industrializing "Efficient, Compact, and Precise" Technologies** Epson's technological foundation is characterized by efficiency, compactness, and precision, which guides its application focus areas: precision processing, MEMS, and optical sensing. The new vision aims to leverage these technologies to empower four broader sectors: efficient use of energy and resources (e.g., inkjet printing of perovskite solar cells), industry advancement driven by precision technology (crystal devices, semiconductor materials), addressing labor shortages (industrial robots, digital printing), and enabling new methods in education, work, and lifestyle (projection content ecosystems). A key characteristic of these four areas is that they are not Epson's traditional sales channels; instead, they represent "engineering-type businesses" that require deep integration into customers' production processes. Yoshida stated directly, "Therefore, it is very important to change our previous sales approach. In the past, it ended with simply providing the product or solution. We should make sales the starting point for building a good relationship with the customer, ultimately forming a recyclable, long-term business model that supports the company's development." Previously, the valuation ceiling for traditional hardware manufacturers was often low, partly due to the limitations of the "one-time sale + consumables" model. Transitioning to a "solutions + recurring services" model is a common challenge for leading printer companies like Canon, HP, and Epson. Epson's distinct approach lies in choosing a more industrially focused path—using its component and precision manufacturing capabilities to directly engage with the foundational layers of industry. Yoshida revealed ambitions to increase the revenue proportion from these industrial areas to 50% and their profit proportion to 70%, ultimately driving towards the 8% ROIC target.
**Robotics: Leveraging Technical Strengths Over Chasing Trends** When discussing the current hype and capital influx surrounding humanoid robots, Yoshida maintained a calm perspective. He noted, "Epson's strength in robotics lies not in the actuation itself, but in sensor technology, including tactile sensors, and control technology." Strategically, Epson has rebranded its former "Manufacturing Solutions" business as "Advanced Robotics," signaling intent to expand beyond industrial robotics into broader sectors like healthcare and services, with corresponding developments in embodied intelligence. However, the core strategy remains unchanged: avoid building general-purpose humanoid robots and instead focus on its technical strengths in robotic "perception and control systems," akin to giving robots a cerebellum. This approach is commercially more pragmatic. The potential market for humanoid robots in industrial applications is vast, and the requirements for precise operation, force feedback, and flexible grasping in industrial and service scenarios align well with Epson's technical expertise.
**Sustainability as a Business Opportunity, Not a Cost** Epson has committed to investing 100 billion yen (approximately 4.8 billion RMB) in environmental initiatives by 2030 and aims to become carbon negative by 2050. This investment is substantial, especially at a time when many companies are scaling back ESG spending. Yoshida's logic is clear: this investment is not charity but is intended to transform production processes in other industries. For example, using inkjet digital printing to replace traditional dyeing can drastically reduce water and chemical usage, while low-power crystal devices can reduce energy consumption in AI data centers. He stated, "The ultimate competition in AI is a competition for electricity." Epson's goal is to develop components that help AI systems save power, which directly lowers operational costs and is likely to be well-received by the market. Furthermore, the key to converting ESG investment into commercial competitiveness lies in its "technology spillover" effect. Epson's core principles of efficiency, compactness, and precision inherently feature low power consumption and resource savings, making its sustainability goals and product competitiveness highly synergistic.
**China's Role: Evolving from a "Large Market" to an "Innovation Hub"** Yoshida described the Chinese market with two key observations: the astonishing speed of innovation and its irreplaceable scale. More notably, his perception of China's role has shifted. In the past, multinational corporations viewed China primarily as a sales market and production base. Now, Yoshida explicitly positions China as an "application innovation hub." Reports indicate that Epson's production output in China is approximately 6.457 billion RMB, accounting for 15.87% of the group's total production value. Sales in China are around 6.953 billion RMB, contributing 10.55% to total sales, with leading positions in areas like printheads, robotics, and electronic components. China is not only one of Epson's largest overseas markets but also a key testing ground for exploring integrated smart processes encompassing sales, manufacturing, product planning, design, R&D, and collaborative solution creation. However, the market environment in China during 2025 was not calm. According to IDC data, shipments in China's print peripherals market declined by 12.5% year-on-year in 2024, and the market remained in a phase of structural adjustment in 2025. Pressure on demand stemmed from office budget cuts due to economic fluctuations, a post-pandemic demand correction, and reduced demand in the education sector. In the projector segment, the overall scale of China's home projector market shrank in 2025. While premium products priced over 10,000 RMB saw growth against the trend, Epson faced competitive pressure from both international and domestic brands.
Facing these pressures, Epson's approach in China is not purely defensive. On the consumer side, the company employs a "technology + localization" strategy to extract new value from the existing market. By mid-2025, registrations for the "Epson Cloud Printing" WeChat mini-program exceeded 10 million users. The company also partnered with IPs like Disney to launch co-branded printers (e.g., featuring Lotso or Frozen characters), aiming to stimulate home printing demand through content and scenario-based marketing. Simultaneously, Epson collaborated with local large language model partners to launch the industry's first AI learning printer, transforming a single hardware product into an integrated solution offering both printing functionality and auxiliary learning value. The "Epson WorkForce Enterprise" shared printing solution embeds printing services into convenient locations like convenience stores and campuses, expanding the user base through an "on-demand, shared" model. On the industrial side, Epson China plays a more pioneering role. In 2025, Epson introduced the LA-A series robots, specifically tailored for Chinese industry. Featuring lightweight design and high-rigidity structural optimization, these robots maintain precision capabilities while significantly improving cost-effectiveness, meeting the automation upgrade needs of China's dominant sectors like 3C electronics, lithium batteries, and automotive parts. Notably, Epson's SCARA robot sales in China have consistently accounted for over 50% of its global sales for several years. This statistic reflects both the explosion in demand for smart manufacturing in China and validates the potential for "Created in China" innovations to influence global markets. Yoshida believes, "Epson's key development areas are in sync with China's future economic direction. We hope to contribute to solving social challenges in China through our technologies and solutions." He revealed that Epson plans to strengthen its business in China through increased collaboration with partners.
**Challenges: Balancing Speed and Corporate Culture** When asked about the biggest challenge for Epson's transformation at the end of the interview, Yoshida's answer was "the rapidly changing environment." This is not a mere platitude. Epson is an 84-year-old company with 75,000 employees worldwide. Its corporate culture, built on "integrity and effort" and "innovation and challenge," is an asset but can also become a burden. The friction cost of shifting from "steady management" to "swift and decisive action" should not be underestimated. Yoshida's own management philosophy—combining "calm optimism" with "swift decisiveness"—reflects this tension. He describes his role as fostering "TEAM EPSON," supporting every employee to perform their duties with speed. However, the reality in the AI and robotics industries is that technological pace means iterations measured in months. Epson's long-term vision faces significant challenges when measured against the rhythm of Chinese tech companies. The ability to integrate the innovation and speed DNA of the Chinese market while maintaining Epson's rigorous quality standards will be a critical variable determining its future competitiveness in China. The corporate vision summarizes Epson's future with three phrases: "Innovating Technology, Creating Intelligence, Empowering Society." Epson is attempting to accelerate. Yoshida emphasized, "Standardization is important when balancing innovation speed and global standards, but achieving global standardization can be time-consuming. Therefore, if a priority must be set, we should place greater emphasis on the speed of application and implementation."
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