Canon earmarks Rs 50cr for South market

CHENNAI, INDIA: Canon India announced its strategies to reinforce its presence in South India market. The vendor also unveiled 23 new digital cameras and camcorders to widen its product portfolio. The product launch is a part of the company’s ongoing efforts to further accelerate the growth of the market in South.

Canon unveiled eight digital compact cameras, 10 digital video camcorders, one digital SLR, one compact photo printer, two lenses and one flash card.

Speaking on the occasion, Kensaku Konishi, President and CEO, Canon India said, “We at Canon are constantly making efforts to provide our customers with an enhanced portfolio of offerings. We try to offer our customers with the best products that cater to their exact needs. We feel immense pride in being able to offer such products to our customers as it also helps to build a stronger relationship with them.”

The company announced the launch of an exclusive program for select partners, called Canon League. The program aims at strengthening Canon’s relationship with its key retail partners in the form of benefits. The benefits range from sales support like promotions, displays, retail branding, volume tie ups, and better margin and incentives. The program is aimed to focus on 200 key partners of eight A class cities, 45 B-class cities and 27 C-class cities.

Claiming that Canon posted a revenue of Rs 665 crore in 2008, growing by 31 percent, Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP, Canon India said that the company proposes to achieve a target of

Rs 840 crore at a growth rate of 25 percent amidst the slowdown. “Despite the current market situation, we are continuously trying to provide our customers with products that provide them value for money along with adding to the fun quotient of the product. Canon is continuously leveraging technologies in creating new features that add functionalities based on tomorrow’s needs,” he claimed.

Pointing out that the total photography industry is about Rs 1,200 crore, Bharadwaj said that the company expects it to grow by 20 percent this year. He also said that the non-metro regions have contributed nearly 51 percent to the growth of the company in Q1 of 2009 and it would continue to focus on leveraging the growth further.

On the special focus given to the South market, Bharadwaj said that the region has been contributing less than its potential when compared to the other regions and the focus will create a bigger marketshare for Canon in South. “Tamil Nadu has been the highest contributor for Canon in South and we would like to replicate the same show in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka by promoting our products in more than 100 towns in South. We will also be increasing the credit limit for partners from 30 to 60 percent and have already tied-up with Standard Chartered Bank for offering financial assistance to the channels. We are planning to increase the contribution from South to 30 percent from 26 percent.”

The company has planned to invest about Rs 50 crore for its activities in increasing its marketshare in South. Claiming that the camera division of Canon is poised for a 30 percent growth, Bharadwaj said that the company would be enhancing its channel structure for digital cameras and camcorder, which now includes over 1,000 retailers across IT, photo and consumer electronic channels.