Canon registers growth in slowdown

NEW DELHI, INDIA: IT peripheral business division of Canon India claims to have registered a growth of 49 per cent, compared to the growth in first half (H1) of last year, and has clocked revenue of Rs. 93 crore in first half of this year.

Canon India attributed this growth to opportunities that the company identified at the time of economic slowdown. “Industry grew by 5 per cent and we registered a growth of 49 per cent in this H1 compared last year H1. When everyone was cutting on their visibility cost, we went aggressive in the market,” said VP Sajeevan, assistant director, consumer system products division.

“We covered over 3 lakh square feet outdoor advertisement space. We adapted 360 degree approaches for our publicity and has to spent Rs 10 crore for this. The result is visible now in terms of our growth and the increased market share of 31 per cent," he added.

In H1, 2009, Canon did 17 mega style exhibition, 198 road shows and 59 channel meet. "This all efforts have helped us in reaching out to 21 lakh consumers in last 6 months," said Sajeevan.

Canon also sees huge business opportunities in government projects. As the Government of India has set aim for paperless governance in next five years and will be required to archive data in printed form, Canon is confident on increase in demand for print business. The company has set its eye to meet Rs 850 crore revenue by this year and by 2010 it aims to touch revenue figure of Rs 1000 crore.

"According to a survey, a human life needs minimum 750 print between his birth certificate to death certificate. Also, as there is no surety that a technology can break down at any time, the government needs to go for archiving, which in itself is a huge business opportunity," explained Sajeevan.

While Canon's laser printer business registered a growth of 160 per cent and gained 31 per cent share of the market, the company has witnessed 33 per cent growth in scanner business from government segment which is especially purchased for archiving government documents.

"There are lots of new government projects coming up like e-literacy in Maharashtra and very active e-governance projects coming up in Gujarat which are going to push business opportunity for IT peripherals in western region. We see host of new business opportunity will come from governments Unique Identity Card program which will initially need huge amount of printing work to be done," he added.

Canon has 315 original link centres (OLC) or authorized centres across India and over 2000 channel partners. However, the western region of the country did not contribute as per expectations of the company.

It contributed only 15 per cent at a time when the company expected it to contribute 27 per cent growth in revenue. Canon will now pump around Rs 10 crore for its aggressive marketing plan. Canon has plans to increase its OLC from 315 to 450 by end of this year. Out of these, 120 OLCs will be opened in western region.