With point-to-shoot compact digital camera market declining and margins shrinking in the copier business, Canon is now all set to try its luck in a new segment — movie making camera business and commercial printing solutions.
“Though we have just started the business, we hope to get about 25% of revenue in India from this business segment over the next three years,” said Canon India president & CEO Kazutada Kobayashi.
So far, Canon had two business segments —consumer business that constitutes of compact digital and digital SLR cameras, and copier business mainly targeting the office and home office segment. “Now we are introducing a new segment. It’s always better to have a third wing to ensure sustainability,” Kobayashi told Business Standard today.
The commercial printing business was actually planned after Canon acquired Oce Solutions. Besides printing machines, Canon sells complete solutions for printing including software customised as per requirement.
Canon, which sold 50 units of the movie camera —‘Cinema EOS’ during 2012, aims to sell 200 units in 2013. The Cinema EOS is priced at Rs 15 lakh onwards, he added.
Besides India, Canon hopes to explore the China market for its commercial printing solutions, said Kobayashi. US and Japan are the largest markets for Canon for the commercial printing business. However, China is not a preferred market for movie making cameras, he added.
Canon would continue to focus on middle and high-end cameras amid smart phones with high resolution imaging capabilities eating into sales of compact cameras. “Compact or point and shoot cameras sales were flat in 2012 compared to 2011, mainly as a lot of smart phones are now available with similar camera features. On the other hand, we saw a 30-32% growth in DSLRs in 2012 (over 2011) compared to our estimate of 25% growth,” he said.
The company is targeting revenues of Rs 2,350 crore by the end of 2013 and Rs 5,500 crore by 2016 from Rs 1,850 crore in 2012. Canon gets about one-third of its revenues from cameras, while the remaining comes from printers and copiers as well as commercial printers.
Meanwhile, Canon has set up neon signage, which was first put up in Times Square in 1956, at international airports in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore as part of its marketing initiatives with an investment of Rs 70 lakh.
