Alongside full-year results on 1 May, Japan-headquartered Seiko Epson announced a goodwill impairment loss of GBP 121.6-m regarding Fiery.
Epson acquired Fiery at the tail end of 2024 in a deal worth around GBP 450-m at the time.
Epson said that following the imposition of US tariffs in April 2025, enterprises became more cautious about investment, “resulting in a weaker than expected market for Fiery’s commercial and industrial printing businesses”.
In the cutsheet segment, mostly commercial printing, that accounts for the majority of Fiery’s revenues “performance fell below the assumptions made at the time of acquisition in line with a slowdown in the overall market, resulting in an approximately 10% year-on-year decline in revenue in FY2025,” Epson stated.
The group also noted that in the industrial printing market, progress was being made in expanding the new customer base, “but it is taking longer than initially anticipated to translate into earnings”.
Epson stated that synergies were being worked on and Fiery was still expected to be the driver of growth in the medium-term.
“Apart from factors affecting market volume, Fiery’s presence and earnings structure in existing businesses remain intact, and the growth trend driven by ongoing digitalisation in industrial printing continues,” Epson asserted.
Overall sales were up 3.7% for the year, at JPY 1,413-bn. Business profit fell by 6.5% to JPY 83.8bn.
At Epson’s Printing Solutions division, the commercial and industrial printing was the star performer, posting sales up 11.6% to JPY 334.4-bn, with a business profit up slightly at JPY 61.1-bn.