Canon India officials Alan Grant (right) and Alok Bhardwaj with actor Yana Gupta in New Delhi on Tuesday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, April 12: Canon India will shift its consumer-strategy focus from a personal computer-centric one to digital imaging entertainment (DIE).

The company has taken a step in this direction by introducing TV-compatible digital products.

?From now, we will focus on digital imaging entertainment, which truly articulates Canon?s belief in putting a human face on technology and since TV penetration base is much more than the 14 million PC in India, enabling connectivity of digital imaging products with TV is a logical extension,? said Alan Grant, president and CEO of Canon India.

The company will spend Rs 20 crore towards establishing the DIE strategy through mass media advertising campaigns. Today, Canon launched 28 products, including DV camcorders, digital cameras, TV printer, portable photo-printer and home-cinema projectors amongst others. This strategy shift for Canon is in line with it calling 2005 as the ?year of expansion?.

Last calendar year, sales turnover of the company was Rs 264 crore. The company targets to close the year at Rs 330 crore.

?There will be a 25 per cent growth in revenues across product categories and we expect a 10 per cent contribution from the digital product category,? said Alok Bhardwaj, vice-president, Canon India.

The company will also expand its retail initiatives in three spaces ? IT, photo, and audio-visual. There are 21 IT retail models, called Canon Retail station, are in operation. The company will add nine more this year.

Canon Digiclik Zones, the photo retail outlets, will be expanded across the B and C towns and the company will add 22 more stores to take its tally to 30 this year.

Canon will also expand its home-cinema centres by adding 11 more in 2005. Currently, there are seven such centres across India.

?About 40 per cent of Canon?s business comes from the top eight towns, while the rest of the country contributes the remaining 60 per cent. Hence, we will expand our retail initiatives in small towns,? Bhardwaj said.

Canon is also looking to start its operations in Bhutan. ?By June, we will be directly supplying our products from India to Bhutan. It is a growing market for us and we expect it to do well,? Grant said.

The seven states of the Northeast and Bengal together contribute about 20 per cent to Canon in the digital camera segment.