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| Edited By: Mansi Taneja |Source: DNA |Updated: Apr 17, 2018, 05:15 AM IST
The advent of smartphones has pushed people into clicking pictures like never before making such devices a good entrance for photography. On account of this, the number of people buying serious (for professional or individual use) cameras has gone up, Kazutada Kobayashi, president and CEO, Canon India, tells Mansi Taneja. The company, which is targeting an annual sales of Rs 3,500 crore by 2020, also plans to increase its presence further into small towns and cities.
We have two segments -- business-to-consumer (B2C), mainly cameras and small printers, and business-to-business (B2B) with copiers, scanners, commercial printers and other products. Both domains are growing at a healthy pace in the last six years and we are making good progress. For the first time, last year, we recorded a double-digit growth. In future, we want to maintain this double-digit number.
The potential of this market is still very high from a global perspective and we are very much keen on the development in future.
It is fifty-fifty. We want to maintain this proportion going forward. For consumer business, the demand is naturally bigger in the second half because of festive time of the year while the demand in B2B space is almost flat. We can hedge some fluctuation risk by making good proportion between the two segments.
There are three factors. First, the demand for the compact camera or the basic ones--point and shoot--has tremendously decreased in the last five years because of smartphones. Second, serious cameras have been increasing after the introduction of smartphones. A person who buys a serious camera definitely has a smartphone but is looking for additional value and upgrade. Hence, the smartphone is a very good entrance for photography.
Third, the number of people clicking pictures, taking videos has tremendously increased -- about 10 times. Among those, there is still a group of people who are not happy with the quality of pictures taken by smartphones and want an upgrade. This is a good driver to promote photography.
Smartphones have expanded growth market of photography and people are now more inclined towards it.
More prominent ones which you will see in weddings will be professional ones. However, a major chunk of DSLR cameras is being used for daily life, travelling, and other occasions. They are also being used by new mothers particularly to capture pictures of their growing children.
India is one of our top five growing markets in the world. It is rapidly growing in terms of our business. Our growth target is double-digit. Last year, we recorded Rs 2,600 crore sales and by 2020. We expect Rs 3,500 crore this time.
We are also expanding our retail network Canon Image Square to cover more small towns and cities. Currently, we have 251 such stores and by end of this year, we will increase this to 280.
