Fujifilm published its financial report from April 2023 to March 2024 and its professional imaging division saw a huge leap in revenue: it earned 172.1 billion yen (about $1.1 billion), which is up 20% year over year, thanks in no small part to the X100 series and the continued growth of Instax.
Fujifilm’s entire business continues to grow and its revenue is up nearly across the board (and revenue is up overall), but its camera division is particularly strong. In Fujifilm’s language, revenue and profits “soared” as its Instax line and digital cameras both saw huge gains.
The company’s Imaging Division is broken into two sections: consumer and professional. Consumer Imaging is entirely its Instax line of cameras while its Professional Imaging division is all of its larger-sensor digital cameras, from the X-S20 through the GFX100 II; the X100 series is categorized under “Professional Imaging” as well.
Combined, Fujifilm’s Imaging division saw its revenue jump up 14.5% in the period between April 2023 and March 2024 and its operating income jumped up in kind 39.9%. Impressively, both Consumer and Professional Imaging saw notable increases that carried the entire division up.
For its part, Instax continues to be wildly popular. Last December, PetaPixel reported that Instax made up more than 50% of Fujifilm’s imaging business and was still growing. The numbers in this annual report support that. Instax continues to make up nearly two-thirds of the company’s Imaging business: its operating income is over 63% Instax-driven.
But that’s actually a lower percentage of the overall business than last year because Professional Imaging is growing too. Thanks to the popularity of its X100 series — and no doubt aided by the runaway success of the X100V and the X100VI. Fujifilm specifically mentions the X-S20, the GFX100 II, and the X100VI as reasons for the huge year.
Of note, while Instax makes up a majority of the income for Fujifilm’s imaging division, its revenue was up 11.5% year over year. That is very impressive, but it’s dwarfed by the growth of the Professional Imaging division which saw a huge 20% revenue jump year over year. Instax is still king, but Fujifilm’s high-end cameras are growing faster.
Fujifilm’s success goes to show that it’s not that the camera industry is struggling — a common refrain from other manufacturers who have for years bemoaned the effects of the smartphone camera on their businesses — but more that other camera makers may not know what consumers want to buy. Not everyone gets it, but Fujifilm clearly does.