Nikon says sales clicking since September

Japanese imaging major Nikon is hoping that the festival season demand will fuel growth. Hiroshi Takashina, MD, Nikon India, said that the company has seen rise in sales from September.
That marked a pleasant contrast to the sluggish sales period of May-August, but the 55% shareholder in the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras  market hopes sales will accelerate further.

The depreciating rupee and subdued demand wrecked the company’s margins in the last quarter. As a result, the company had downscaled its sales target to Rs1,100 crore from Rs1,200 crore. Nikon now hopes the festival season uptick in demand would not necessitate another downward revision.

Officials said Nikon is now charting out a growth plan to become No.1 even in the compact camera segment (where it is No.2) through innovation and new launches. “New products such as Coolpix S01, which is not bigger than a business card, are seeing brisk movement off the shop shelves already. Besides,  we’ve reduced prices on certain products by 5-10%,” said Takashina.

Competition from smartphone cameras has been another worry, and Nikon is introducing cameras with similar features to combat the threat. “We have also launched another camera which works on an Android function. This has a touchscreen and works just like a mobile camera would. Just that it has better features.”

In order to tackle grey market sales, the company has started providing freebies such as camera cover, memory card, besides bundling other products like watches and pens.

Currently, Nikon India contributes only 1.5% to overall global sales of parent Nikon Corp. Takashina is confident the figure will be 5% in three years.