Instax Continues to Grow and is One of Fujifilm’s Most Valuable Product Lines
Instax is no doubt a popular product line for Fujifilm, but the company has recently revealed that it is even more valuable than some might realize: it is one of the most important for its entire imaging division and accounts for a majority of sales.
As revealed in Fujifilm’s 2022 financial report and explained by Tokyo Keizai and Digicame Info, despite not revealing specific sales figures for just the Instax line, Fujifilm continues to note its importance. Instax-related products account for the majority of Fujifilm’s “Consumer Imaging Segment” which had sales of 266.9 billion yen in 2022, an increase of 22% over the previous year. This segment accounts for 65% of the sales in the entire Imaging Business division, which includes all of Fujifilm’s cameras including Instax.
This business group contributes 14% of total sales and 24% of Fujifilm’s total profits, and as a result Tokyo Keizai describes it as a “main income earner” for the company.
“In FY2018, before COVID-19, sales of the imaging business were 386.9 billion yen. It will be 410.3 billion yen in the most recent fiscal year 2022,” Tokyo Keizai reports.
Square-format instant film, which has been sold since 2017, has shown a huge leap in popularity over the years and the sales volume of this segment of Instax alone has increased sixfold, with an additional 30% increase expected for 2023. The report also notes that the Link series of portable printers is also selling exceptionally well, with Japanese sales increasing 30% year-over-year and international sales increasing 20% over the same period.
The publication notes that while digital cameras have been squeezed by the proliferation of smartphone cameras over the last several years, Instax cameras aren’t competing in the same way and appear unaffected by the growth and widespread availability of smartphones. So while standalone digital camera sales have contracted, Instax sales have continued to increase.
Suffice it to say, of business is booming for Instax. While other films suffered greatly at the growth of digital cameras and digital cameras have also dipped in popularity, Instax appears to be completely immune to these changes.
Looking at how well Instax does for Fujifilm, consumers should expect the company to do even more in this segment to take advantage of its popularity. If this has an effect on any other Fujifilm business segments remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised to see Fujifilm go even harder in the instant film market in the coming years.
