Interviews

“We plan to expand exponentially through channels”

CSP

Rajeev Tewari, Director CSP Group, Canon talks to Darnia Khongwir about the roadmap for channel partners in 2013

While it made its foray in the Indian market a tad too late when other players already had a strong foothold in the printers market, Canon India nonetheless has reported a growth of 22 percent last year. Canon has been in India for close to a decade now. It entered the Indian market selling its photocopying products. It launched its line printers in mid-2000 at a time when the market was overrun with HP printers.


What has been your growth graph?

We registered a growth of 22 percent last year. The growth levels were not as expected the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. Last year we were able to establish Canon in the printing market.We have two kinds of printers – Laser beam printer and Inkjet Printer. Canon came to India as a photocopying company at a time when printing market was ruled by HP.We entered the printing market in 2009 and it has only been in the last couple of years that we have been able to make any dent in it. Our entry benchmark was 20 per cent market share. Below that and we would have been struggling.
For the Inkjet division, the marketing strategy for Inkjet is different from that of Laser Beam. There are the System Integrators that connect the top enterprises in national and regional projects. The Laser beam printer is sub-divided into single function –entry level and mid-high level. Multifunction – entry level and mid-high Level.
Our focus is on the entry level because the gross is higher. We are trying to build profitability by increasing avenues in the mid-high level products as well.We do distribute by traditional distributor. For partners who have the reach we can provide financing to them. We have our own direct sales team of about 100 people.


The new things with printers from Canon

We will have more colour scheming. Printers will be made available in a wide variety of colours. We also plan to allow for printers to be Wi-Fi enabled.

What is Canon CSP focus for 2013?

We are planning on an extensive expansion drive in the next two years. We plan to expand our reach exponentially and connect with our customers directly through various channels. We plan to increase our distributors- 60 by 2013 and 80 by 2015, Canon image stores- 160 by 2013 to 300 by 2015, national retail chains- 510 by 2013 to 800 by 2015, direct Channel- 40 by 2013 to 140 by 2015 and online and television tie-ups -10 by 2013 to 20 by 2015.

What are your plans for VARs?

For 2013, we plan to pursue more channels.We are in the process of development of Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the mid and higher level.We have 43 VARs in place. We want it to increase to about 100 before the year is out. We are in the process of developing our VARsand consolidating on them. We want our VARs to grow in all geographies.

Canon also said that there are 150 copier partners who are essentially account managers and growing. We are looking to enter the enterprise segment and increase our foothold in that space. While the multifunction market is growing, the single function market is shrinking. The mid and high-level market is growing while the entry level is shrinking. Inkjets are no longer the preferred printers for enterprises and SOHOs, with the demand for Laser beam printers driving the markets in these segments as well for private use. Even individuals who buy printers for home opt for multifunction printers with the proliferation of digital cameras and mobile phone cameras.
Very soon, Canon will have company branded outlets apart from the regular retail chain outlets like Chroma and Reliance Digital. Focus will be more on flagship outlets. Sales via television channels too have skyrocketed with 3,000 to 3,500 multifunction printers being sold in one month.

What is the roadmap for channel partners?

Canon till now had two separate teams for selling Inkjet and Laserjet printers, 25 people used to look after laser printer business and 17 sales executives were handling inkjet. From this year onwards, we have merged both the sales team. We decided to merge the teams to thin the team and reinforce our communication with our secondary channels (Canon-empowered partners). Now, we have our direct sales team presence in 52 territories. This team along with our primary channel would support our 3,000 secondary channels. We are also doubling the number of Canon Image Squares, our branded stores, to around 150 by 2013. All these are managed by our channel partners, and we are looking for more coverage in B- and C-class cities this year. Canon has also decided to strengthen its corporate and enterprise sales by adding around 50 Value Added Resellers and Corporate partners and want to take the current 43 VARs strength to 100 and then consolidate. We will also add customer focused Canon Corporate Partners. Channel of 100 such partners to penetrate SMB accounts with mid and high-end Mono and Colour printers.

Canon believes in regular engagement with Channel partners and interacts with them to help them reach out to customers with adequate and correct information. We also help the partner in capital management and advice and guide them in their inventory planning. One of the major aspects of our channel management is to advice and properly guides them to recruit the right manpower. In order to do the same, Canon has formed a Training Division – Canon Sales Integrated Training Academy (C-SITA) that caters to sales and marketing staff of Canon India, its Partners’ sales force and promoters of Canon owned retail Stores and NRCs.”

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