Fujifilm Looks at Doubling Camera Sales this Year

MUMBAI: Digital imaging major Fujifilm has said it will double its marketing budget to 120 crore this year as it looks to double its sales in the domestic market and enhance its market share. "Marketing investment this year will be 100 per cent more than last year, roughly at 120 crore," Fujifilm India country general manager A Rajkumar told PTI here. The company, which had sold 1.6 lakh cameras last year, said it plans to double it to 3.2 lakh units this year and is aiming to increase its pie in the segment to 16 per cent by 2014. The Japanese imaging major at present enjoys a market share of 8 per cent of the digital compact camera market here, estimated to be at 25 lakh units. The company is also eyeing a revenue of 700 crore from the domestic market this fiscal and spends about 8-9 per cent of the turnover on R&D. "This year, we are expecting a revenue of 600-700 crore from India across all divisions," he said. The firm operates in photo imaging, medical, recording, graphic and cameras, with all the divisions contributing equally to the revenue. The company is witnessing demand for cameras from mostly small towns. "We are seeing a demand mostly from the non-metros, that too, mostly the first-time buyers, while the metros are mostly replacement markets," he explained. The company will add about 10-14 new cameras this year and is not looking at setting up a manufacturing plant here. "It is feasible to have a manufacturing plant in China or Thailand and not here," he said.