Xerox reported a slight rise in income driven by rising demand for colour in the office, but despite a rise in colour sales its production business was flat, hit by a decline in black and white revenues.

Production, which includes commercial print, grew equipment sales by 3%, but sales were flat overall due to a decline in consumables, service and finance revenues.

Colour equipment drove growth, primarily through a 18% rise in sales of the iGen3, but the firm's new light production black and white machine, the 4110, also helped increase black and white kit sales up by 1%.

Revenues for the division were 633m ($1.1bn) while operating profit fell 35% to 45m.

Total revenues rose 2% to 2.3bn, operating profit rose 5% to 194m, but restructuring charges of 112m and other expenses led pre tax income to fall 57% to 67m.

Having missed Wall Street estimates, the firm's shares fell 7% on Monday (25 July) when the results were released.

EFI's revenues fell 9.3% to 57m and it made a loss of 19m compared to a net income of 5.8m in the same period last year.
EFI's shares fell 1.8% on the news.

By Barney Cox