"Seiko Epson plans to move beyond printers and emerge as a business-to-business company supplying robots, industrial equipment and components to major companies around the world."
Junkichi Yoshida, president of Seiko Epson, made the remarks on the 22nd at a press briefing at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas marking the 30th anniversary of its subsidiary Epson Korea. "We will invest 280 billion yen over three years, centered on growth and strategic businesses such as industrial robotics and precision innovation," he said. The amount is roughly 2.4 trillion won. The company also aims to raise new businesses' share of revenue to 50% by 2035 from 33% last year.
The planned investment amounts to 20% of Epson's 1.4 trillion yen (about 12 trillion won) in revenue last year. The strategy is to channel the earnings and hardware manufacturing expertise built on its position as the world's top printer and projector maker into high-margin new businesses including robotics, microdevices, or precision components, and industrial inkjet technology.
"The area we are focusing on in the robot business in particular is high-precision technology based on timing devices," Yoshida said. "As industries become increasingly sophisticated, we expect robots will also be able to make good use of such processing technology." The plan is to apply precision machining capabilities built up over 145 years in the Seiko watch business to robots, targeting demand at industrial sites that require fine manipulation.
Epson is known in particular as a maker of timing devices, core components in sensors and communications equipment that must send and receive signals with no timing error. The company is also applying timing devices to advance its own robots. Through this approach, Epson is expanding its industrial robot business around its flagship SCARA series.
Yoshida also signaled expanded cooperation with Korean manufacturers, where demand for robots is strong. "Korea is growing significantly, led by semiconductors and advanced industries, so Epson will work with them to solve their challenges and explore investment opportunities," he said. "We also plan to strengthen our support system for robot customers in Korea."
