Sanyo, Japan's third-largest consumer electronics maker, said it wanted to raise its global digital camera sales to 300 billion yen in the year starting in April 2005, up from an estimated 200 billion yen for the current year.
It is the world's biggest producer of digital cameras, supplying more than 90 percent of its output to other firms such as Olympus Corp on an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis.
But Sanyo is hoping to use its strength in key electronic components to secure an even bigger share of the booming digital camera market, which globally was worth about $10 billion last year.
Sanyo is a major producer of charge-coupled devices (CCDs), the image-capturing chips in digital cameras and camera cellphones, and is also the world's largest maker of rechargeable batteries.
Sanyo also unveiled a target to increase its cellphone sales to 500 billion yen in the business year to March 2006, from an estimated 345 billion yen in the current business year.
"Growth will mainly come from overseas markets. In China, we have already set up a plant and sales network. We are making steady progress," Sanyo President Yukinori Kuwano told a news conference.
China is the world's largest mobile phone market.
Japanese handset makers including Sharp Corp and NEC Corp are boosting overseas sales by taking their expertise in high-speed third-generation (3G) services and photo-phone technology overseas.
Sanyo aims to raise its group operating profit to 160 billion yen on sales of three trillion yen in 2005/06. It projects an operating profit of 101 billion yen on revenues of 2.45 trillion yen this business year.
"If we can hit that 2.45 trillion yen target this year, three trillion yen for 2005/06 will come well within our reach," Kuwano said.
Kuwano said he sees little impact of a firmer yen on earnings for the current business year as Sanyo has already hedged its currency position for the rest of the year.
The company, based in Osaka, western Japan, also said it was aiming for sales of 100 billion yen in its automotive multimedia business, which includes car audio and navigation systems, in the business year starting in April 2007.
That compares with an estimated 47 billion yen for the current business year.
Sanyo considers the car multimedia business one of the pillars of its consumer electronics operations, alongside mobile phone handsets, digital cameras and LCD display projectors.
As part of its efforts to achieve the ambitious target, Sanyo plans to set up a new Chinese unit in June to develop and produce automotive multimedia products.
It expects car multimedia sales to reach 10 billion yen in China in the year to March 2008.