Canon India: Double-Digit Growth & Focus on Semiconductors

Bengaluru, Jul 17 (PTI) India is among the "important markets" globally for Canon, where the Japanese multinational will continue its "double-digit growth" helped by a growing economy and demand, top company officials said on Wednesday.

The company sees India as a "high potential" market for its traditional products and services, ranging from imaging to printers business, said Canon Marketing Asia President & COO Tiger Ishii.

Besides India is also a growing market for its other verticals as commercial printing, health business (medical devices) and also sees a potential for its semiconductor business here, in which it produces lithography machines for chip manufacturing.

"India is one of the most important markets not only in Asia but also in the world. India will grow in the future and we see scope here," Ishii said at a media round table here.

Canon -- a leading producer of lithography products -- expects India to be the future for the manufacturing of semiconductors.

"Semiconductors will be India's future. It has big potential for the semiconductor business and we now have a stepper which is a developing semiconductors equipment," said Ishii, also an Executive Officer at Canon Inc.

The company expects to play a role in chip manufacturing in India, where the government is trying to set up large manufacturing setups and build an ecosystem to reduce dependency on imports.

"So that's why we can do something with the Indian market... India is coming to the future. We are very much looking for," he added.

In India, Canon operates in segments such as printers, commercial printers, multi-functional devices, digital cameras, DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, cinematic imaging products, and surveillance cameras.

Canon India President & CEO Toshiaki Nomura said, "We foresee continued year-on-year double digit growth as we strengthen our presence in India by expanding our business and entering new avenues."

In Asia -- including Canon China -- Canon India has been number one in terms of sales growth in the last decade.

Canon India is also the top sales contributor in Canon Marketing Asia (excludes Canon China) since 2015.

Factors, including fast GDP growth, rapid urbanisation, a growing working population and the middle class support the growth of Canon in India, he added.

"We believe these will give us the opportunity to grow our business. We are committed to focusing on the Indian market," Nomura said, adding that it will continue to delight the Indian consumer with its cutting-edge technology product and service.

Canon on Wednesday launched the next generation lineup of its EOS R series by adding two models -- Canon EOS R1 and Canon EOS R5 Mark II.

EOS R1 (Body) priced at Rs 6.30 lakh will be available from the end of November.

While EOS R5 Mark II (Body) is priced at Rs 4.05 lakh and will be available from August this year.

Canon India's revenue from sales and services was at Rs 3,148.13 crore with a net profit of Rs 140.35 crore in FY23, according to the data sourced from the business intelligence platform Tofler.

Its revenue from the consumer information and imaging division was at Rs 1,865.88 crore, under which Canon has the business of printers, projectors, calculators, and digital cameras.

The remaining Rs 1,282.25 crore was from business information solutions, including businesses such as multi-functional devices, faxes, scanners, consumables and related professional and consulting services.

Canon India is a 100 per cent sales and marketing subsidiary of Canon Inc Japan.