Latest News | Long-term Growth Plan for Domestic Market Intact: Canon India

New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) Imaging products major Canon India on Friday said though its business has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, it has not changed its long-term growth target for the country.

The company also witnessed a spike in sales of its home printers during the lockdown period as people were working from home.

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"We have not changed our long-term growth strategy. In order to cultivate this, we would be introducing new products as announced yesterday," Canon India President and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi told PTI.  

The company had on Thursday launched two full-frame mirrorless cameras -- the EOS R5 and EOS R6 -- in the domestic market at a starting price of Rs 2.16 lakh.

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The company aims to corner 50 per cent market share in the mirrorless camera segment here.

Kobayashi further said Canon's growth target for the next five years for the Indian business has not been changed, but declined to give details.

Terming 2020 as a year "to stay calm" and "think about the next phase of growth", he said the company expects a return to normalcy in 2021.

"Naturally, we cannot think about business in 2020," he said. "2020 is defined as a year attacked by the natural disaster and thereby we want to make it as a moratorium. The challenge in this year is how to survive."

Survival comes first of all with "safety and security of the employees" because human asset is fundamental to the company, he said.

However, he added, "Profit is also very important for our company to survive. We need to drop our expense... we need to keep our operations lean and fit. We have to see our operations regrow from 2021."

Kobayashi said the company witnessed high demand for home printers in June.

According to him, there is a lot of space in the home printer segment to grow.

"Still the home penetration of printer in India is at the lower side in comparison to other countries," Kobayashi said. "We are ready to cater to this demand."

The company is hopeful of a recovery from the second half of the year, he added.

"The first half demand is not 100 per cent killed. We expect to recover the demand in the second half if the situation allows us. If we catch up (with) the 2019 level in 2020, then I am happy," Kobayashi said.

Canon India imports some products and accessories from its global factory in China, but has the option of sourcing goods from its other manufacturing facilities in South Asia if the need arises.

"Luckily, we have several factories at countries other than China which are producing a similar category of products, mostly in South East Asia," said Kobayashi

He said import from China has not been affected till now.

"As soon as it becomes a barrier in the business, then we would switch the source from other countries," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)