Canon India eyes 26 p.c. growth in 2013

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Digital imaging major Cannon India is eying a 26 per cent growth in 2013 on the back of its cameras and a range of new products including compact cine cameras and home and commercial printers, a top official said on Tuesday.

"We achieved Rs.1,850 crore last year. We are aiming at a 26 per cent increase to Rs.2,350 crores this year. We see our sales equally divided between cameras and printers," Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi told IANS in an interview.

"We see big growth in the camera segment. Today, less than 5 per cent of urban households in the $5,000-35,000 (Rs.250,000-Rs18 lakhs) earning basket has a camera. We aim to take this to 20 per cent as a first step and then jump to 100 per cent," Kobayashi said.

By 2015, he estimated there would be 4.4 crore families in this earning bracket. Speaking about demographics, Kobayashi saw women from their late 20s onward as the primary market for point-and-shoot cameras (Rs.5,000-Rs.48,000).

For the higher end digital SLRs (Rs.25,000-Rs.430,000), "the average customer would be 40-plus, married and with two children and earning $40,000 (Rs.21 lakh)," he added. "We want to create a culture of photography," he said. To this end, he pointed to the next big step: home printing.

The company earlier this month introduced an inkjet printer priced at Rs.4,000 that utilizes photo paper that turns out professional quality 4x6 prints suitable for framing.

"It would be nice to have the walls of homes and offices full of pictures of family and other loved ones," Kobayashi said. At the upper end of the range are commercial printers that can accept up to A3 size paper.

"These can print just about anything from brochures, to cards, to menus, to pamphlets to what have you. They are extremely versatile. The company will also be aiming to make a dent in the movie industry with its Eos digital cine camera that ranges between Rs.15 lakhs and Rs.45 lakhs.

"This is one-third the size and one-tenth the cost of the existing cameras," Kobayashi said. "We sold 50 units last year, mainly in Mumbai and some in Chennai and plan to expand the market four times this year. This is a small but symbolically important move on out part," he added.