Prima Division Eyes No 3 Slot In Copier Market

The Rs 800-crore copier market is dominated by Xerox, Canon and Gestetner in that order. Godrej will invest Rs 10 crore in the next three years to strengthen its distribution network and take market share away from them.

Sunil Kumar Manwati, general manager- marketing and operations told the company had chalked out a marketing strategy targeting 100 channel partners by December this year. Godrej will sell over 2,000 copiers and rake in sales of Rs 24 crore in this fiscal year, he said. The company is aiming at a market share of 8 per cent by the end of this fiscal.

 

Also on the anvil, are talks with leading foreign manufacturers to sell multi-functional copiers and printers. The tie-up will be finalised in the next year. The company currently vends the Rex Rotary brand of analog and digital copiers licensed from Ricoh of Japan.

To achieve its objectives, the company has chalked out a marketing strategy and would have 100 channel partners by December this year. The copiers division is expected to break even this year.

The company will be launching its website godrejcopytech.com next month. Initially, the website will act as a showcase on the Net it will eventually graduate to being a platform for online sales of copiers. The e-commerce activity is expected to kickstart in January 2001. In the meantime, Godrej has moved ahead with an alliance with horizontal portal Rediff.com to sell copiers on its site.