New Delhi: Japanese imaging products major Canon is aiming a 14 percent growth in sales this year across the segment after two years of slowdown in the economy.
The company, which also sells office printers, personal printers and commercial printers, would increase the number of Canon Image Square shops to 300 by December 2016 to boost sales in the DSLR camera segment in non-metro places.
"This year we are aiming to mark 14 percent growth which is nearly the double of the country's GDP growth...We had a growth rate of 30 percent from 2007 to 2012. After that Rupee had dropped, which slowed down the growth till 2014," Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi told PTI.
Canon sales growth had plummeted to 6 percent last year, he said.
However, the company is expecting a higher growth rate of 30 percent in the commercial printing segment this year, he added.
Moreover, the market leader in the DSLR camera segment is aiming to increase its market share further to 50 percent from its present 45 percent.
"We are doing pretty well in this segment and increased sales by 30 percent last year. This year we want to increase our market share to 50 percent," he said.
In 2014, the company sold around 150,000 units of the total DSLR market sales of 357,000 units.
Kobayashi further said:" By the end of this year we would increase Canon Image Square to 180 and in 2016 it would be around 300. It would mainly focus on camera business but would also exhibit printers and projectors."
Meanwhile, Canon today launched a new range of projectors - nine LV and XEED series in the market and expects 10 percent market share in this category with a sales of Rs 100 crore in the next two years.
"We will be reaching out to potential customers across all the major metros and aim to capture 10 percent market share by 2017 with a sales of Rs 100 crore," Kobayashi said.
The company would target the corporate houses, educational institutional and public sectors with its projectors through its 200 sales offices which would be increased to 250 in next two years.
At present, Canon India contributes one percent of the global sales of its parent company Canon Inc which stood 3,727,252 million Yen in 2014.
