CANON INDIA EXPECTS RS 1,000 CRORE REVENUE IN TWO YEARS

Mumbai, October 5, 2008
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Business Standard

Canon India has said it expects its turnover to touch Rs 1,000 crore in the next two years, which is at Rs 500 crore now.

"We took 10 years to achieve sales of Rs 500 crore. But in the next two years, we expect our sales to double," Canon India Senior Vice President Alok Bharadwaj said.

The company closed 2007 with sales worth Rs 500 crore and expects to close 2008 with sales of Rs 700 crore, he said.

Canon, which entered the Indian market in 1997, has been growing at 18 percent per annum. Last year, it witnessed a growth of 35 percent. This year, the company would have a growth of 35-40 percent, Bharadwaj said.

The company has doubled its growth because it has added products for more industries and is concentrating on its top 100 corporate clients.

"We have formed a separate sales team to cater to our top 100 corporate accounts," he said. Canon has increased the retail points from 2,500 to 4,000 now and from 250 distributors to 350, he said.

"These factors led to the doubling of our growth," Bharadwaj said.

However, Canon has become uncomfortable with the devaluation of the rupee against the dollar, because of which costs of imports have gone up. The rupee has gone up by 14 percent against the US dollar, he said.

"At the beginning of the year, we were buying at Rs 41 for a dollar, but now it is Rs 47 to a dollar," he said.