Brother Industries, who owns Domino inkjet and also make direct-to-garment printers, industrial labelling printers, coding & marking equipment and MFPs, has posted encouraging results for its first quarter of the Japanese 2022-23 financial year April-June. Sales revenues were just over $2 billion in Australian dollars - a rise of 14.8% over 2021 first quarter - but profits took a slight hit, reflecting the global business costs environment. Print and inkjet were star performers.
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| Brother's GTXpro DTG printer is a popular choice in Tee-shirt and other textile printing |
Brother's P&S (Print and Solutions) division turned in a strong performance for the Japanese giant's first quarter results, with a 23% increase in sales revenues, translating into a 9% increase in the segment's profit. Domino, which is listed as a separate segment, saw a 14.5% sales increase but profits took a 21% dive.
Domino Inkjet imprinters are sold by Trimatt Systems in Australia, while GJS and Emroidery Source handle the Brother GTX series of Tee-shirt and direct-to-film printers.
Brother's latest results once again reflect the durable demand for print technologies - and the changing trend towards all-digital inkjet production across many other industries. Margins may be under pressure due to rising raw material, freight and foreign exchange costs, but the business sector is robust. Brother is also moving towards a CO2 neutral business platform, with the UK and Slovakia branches already having achieved this.
First made famous for its sewing machines, Brother is now a diversified conglomerate with footprints in machine tools, injection molding machines, personal & home products, networks and karaoke tech. However, it is print and print-related technologies that generate by far the bulk of revenues.
Below is a schematic of the company's divisions.
