Canon to focus on IT peripheral products

PUNE: In order to counter the slowdown, Canon has revamped its strategy to

increase its market share in the printer market. The company has invested Rs 10

crore in this effort, which covers their brand building exercise, channel

initiatives and the launch of 12 new products in the IT segment that includes

scanners and printers.

Canon is primarily known as a total image solutions provider in India. The

new business model however hopes to rectify this image and sell Canon India as a

major IT peripherals player.

Canon India systems product division general manager, Alok Bharadwaj, who was

in Pune for the launch of their new range of IT peripheral products, said that

the company would go all out to penetrate the local market, especially the B and

C class cities.

Canon India has projected a turnover of Rs 225 crore next year. From a

revenue of Rs 15 crore expected at the end of this year, the company has drawn

up plans to take this to the target of Rs 60 crore next year with the

introduction of new generation products.

"With the total restructuring of our peripheral business, we hope to
increase our market share in the printer segment to 18 per cent in the next two

years. Non-metro cities will play a major role in plans for growth and promoting

our brand", said Bharadwaj. According to industry reports, Canon had less

than four per cent market share in terms of unit sales in the inkjet printer

segment as compared to HP' s 74 per cent and Epson's 17 per cent.

Canon India has put in place a distribution network to reach out to the

non-metro cities. The company plans to grow its channel base to include 30

reseller partners, 30 corporate partners, 50 retail partners, 1000 assemblers

and other small dealers by December 2001. The emphasis is on a new channel

strategy that heavily focuses on channel profitability.

"We plan to target non-metro cities which constitute 75 per cent of the

peripheral market in the country. The idea is to opt for regional distributors

since they would have the local reach,'' he explained, adding that they had

plans to build a presence in top 25 Indian cities by the end of this month.

In order to increase its local penetration, the company has increased its

staff strength from 4 to 28. 50 care centers have been created covering 25

cities to take care of local service needs. These would be increased to 100

service points next year.

However, there are no plans to unleash a price war with HP. Bharadwaj

believed that they could sell alongside with HP respectably. In March next year,

there are plans to introduce the LCD projector, web camera and video

communication devices.