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Canon Fact Sheet

Corporate Background  

  • Canon Inc. was founded in 1937. Canon Europe was established twenty years later in 1957

  • Canon Inc. employs more than 160,000 people worldwide. Canon Europe employs over 11,000 people across 20 local country operations in the EMEA region.

  • Canon’s consolidated net sales for Canon Inc. for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 were ¥794 billion (US $8,268 million) (April 1, 2009 - June 30, 2009). Canon’s consolidated net sales for Canon Inc. for the first half of 2009 (ended June30, 2009) totalled ¥1,481 billion (US$ 15,425 million or 10.9 billion euro) (at exchange rate of ¥96 = US $1).  Euro amounts are translated solely for the convenience of the reader from yen at the rate of JPY 136 = 1 euro, the approximate exchange rate on the Tokyo Foreign Exchange market as of June 30, 2009.

  • Canon Europe contributes approximately a third of the company’s global revenue, selling to customers in more than 110 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa 

  • Canon’s first European manufacturing site, Canon Giessen GmbH,  was established in Germany in 1972

  • Canon’s corporate philosophy is encapsulated in the word Kyosei, meaning living and working together for the common good  

Brand 

  • Canon’s Brand Promise is to help people realise the Power of Image

  • The European Brand Strapline,You Can,  was launched in 2002 and is designed to  inspire and encourage customers to realise the Power of Image

  • Canon was ranked 36th in the Business Week 100 Best Global Brands 2008 survey

  • Canon has also been awarded Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Camera Brand in Europe for 9 consecutive years

  • Canon was ranked 4th in the Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies 2009 Industry ranking  (‘Computers’ category) 

 
Environmental initiatives

  • Canon launched its toner recycling system in 1990

  • Canon is reducing CO2 emissions by shortening transportation routes and promoting rail transportation in Europe

 
Technology & Innovation

  • Canon’s Imaging Engines were created by integrating a series of technologies developed throughout Canon’s history. They are the core technologies in all of Canon’s current products:

    • Image Capture Engine – High resolution and high image quality for lens, sensor and image processing technologies

    • Electrophotography Engine – Electrophotography technology is at the heart of laser beam printers and copying machines that have been rated as the best in the world

    • Inkjet Engine – Capable of delivering mircroscopic ink droplets as small as one picolitre (one-trillionth of a litre), even making DNA chip fabrication possible

    • Photolithography Engine – Canon’s semiconductor exposure technology integrates the ultimate in optical and ultraprecision positioning technologies

    • Display Engine – Next generation flat screen display technology delivers large screen, high quality images with low power consumption

  • Canon is Europe’s market leader in D-SLR*

  • The Canon EOS 450D and EOS 400D are the best selling D-SLRs*

  • Canon was the inventor of the Bubble Jet method of inkjet printing and introduced the industry’s first cartridge-type copying machine

 
 Sponsorship

  • Canon Europe partners with the Red Cross by supporting youth orientated projects across 13 European countries

  • Canon Europe became the first WWF Conservation Partner in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 1998. Since 2007, Canon Europe  has sponsored a WWF polar bear tracking programme designed to stop the decline of the polar bear population and raise awareness of the effects of climate change

  • Canon Europe has a 30-year history of supporting football, with past and current sponsorships including the following:

    • Official Sponsor of UEFA EURO 2008™

    • UEFA Cup Final, UEFA Super Cup 2007

    • Russian Premier Football League

    • Africa Cup of Nations 2008

  • Canon Europe is the Principal sponsor of the London and Milan Fashion Weeks and is a sponsor of Paris Fashion Week

 
Research and Development

  • In fiscal 2008, the Company increased R&D expenditure by ¥5.8 billion from the previous fiscal year to ¥374 billion, accounting for 9% of sales. From this total,

    • ¥123.5 billion, or 33%, was allocated to the Business Machines segment

    • ¥45.5 billion, or 12.2%, went to the Cameras segment

    • ¥205 billion, or 54.8% went to the Optical and Other Products segment

  •  In 2008, the Company was granted 2,114 patents** in the United States, placing it third among all corporations

  • Canon has ranked among the top 10 U.S patent recipients since 1984 (a 25-year period)

  • Canon has ranked among the top 3 U.S patent recipients since  1992 (a 17-year period)

  • Canon has ranked among the top 5 U.S patent recipients in 22 of last 23 years

 
 *Source: GfK WEU 14 Jan~Dec 2008 (volume)

**Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Calculated based upon announcements of weekly totals.

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  © Copyright 2009   |   Terms and Conditions of use