Xerox confident with profit forecast for 2007

OFFICE equipment manufacturer Xerox has reported a 53% year-on-year fall in third-quarter earnings but has increased its profit forecast for the full year.

The Connecticut-headquartered printer and photocopier maker, which cut around 900 jobs from its Irish workforce of 1,700 earlier this year, said earnings were down on the same quarter last year mainly due to a once-off tax gain of $448 million (€314m), boosting profits in the third quarter of last year.

Net income for the three months to the end of September was down — year-on-year — from $536m (€765m) to $254m (€363m), but sales rose by 12%, annually, to $4.3 billion (€6.1bn).

The company — which has operations in Dublin and Dundalk — has raised its full-year profit forecast for the second consecutive from between $1.16-$1.18 per share to $1.18-$1.20 per share.

The plan to boost revenue lies with an increase in the roll-out of colour printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines.

The company has, so far this year, produced 38 new products — roughly double the amount it released during the whole of last year.

In Ireland, Xerox has gone from having around 2,500 employees to closer to 900 in the last six years as a direct result of moves to “maximise efficiency” and “improve customer value”.