Canon opens Its First B2B Showroom

Canon India Pvt. Ltd. announced its first-ever B2B brand showroom in India called – Canon “Business Solutions Lounge” at Vipul Agora Mall, M. G. Road, Gurgaon where the customers can walk in and see the use and application of various Canon Business Imaging products.

The lounge is an all-new concept aiming to provide all kinds of enterprise customers and professionals with the most compelling and comprehensive display of Canon’s vast range of business offerings in a non-selling environment.

Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO, Canon India, and Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice- President, Canon India, inaugurated the showroom. This is Canon’s first fully-owned international-class interactive and informative B2B outlet in the country. Spread over 4,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art lounge provides the appropriate ambience and right platform for new products as well as new technologies and solutions to be showcased and experienced. 

Canon “Business Solutions Lounge’ will exhibit a range of Copiers, Laser Multifunctional Devices, Faxes, Document Scanners, Colour Networked Copiers, Large Format Graphic Machines, Digital Colourpress and Document Print Management and Scan Solutions under one roof.

Speaking on the occasion, Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO, Canon India, said, “It is a momentous occasion for us at Canon. Canon’s BIS Solutions lounge is a unique ‘first-of- its-kind’ concept in India serving as a guide for the large corporates as well as SME and SOHO segments by providing a ‘before-you-buy’ experience and information. This initiative is first of its kind in the industry and we aim to capitalize on the high growth in the economy to enhance our brand awareness. With this, Canon India seeks to create and win over more informed customers, thus showcasing our long-term commitment to the market.”

Sharing his sentiments, Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, Canon India, said, “We at Canon believe that there was a need for a platform for us to showcase our products’ superiority and unique technologies while allowing the customers to experience a complete range of business imaging solutions. By visiting the lounge, the customer can not only obtain first-hand information on latest products to be able to make an informed choice of purchase, but is also not under any commitment to purchase.” Canon has displayed over 15 products in this showroom. The star attraction of the brand showroom is its newly-launched digital Colourpress (ImagePressC7000VP) which gives colour printouts as good and even better than offset print quality for applications such as brochures, manuals, posters, customized mailers, etc. Explaining about the future plans and increasing awareness, Som Gangopadhyay, Director – Marketing and Channel Business, Business Imaging Solutions (BIS) Division, Canon India, said, “We want to bring technology and people together. We are going to launch similar B2B showrooms in Mumbai and Bangalore within the next three months. We have empowered all our sales people to bring customers at any time convenient to them and even in the late evening hours from Monday to Saturday. We do not expect walk-ins but want planned and demos by appointment.” Som further informed that the company is targeting government, corporates and BIS verticals. Canon is targeting growth of Rs.700 crore with 40-per cent growth in the B2B arena. Canon has 360 primary channel partners, 4,000 secondary retail points, 50 Canon flagship stores and 32 Canon Care Centres. Canon products are available in over 300 towns in India. Overall, Canon’s presence is expected to increase to 6,000 outlets by December 2008. Creating an industry benchmark with new technologies in the latest product range, the company launched 80 new products in 2007. Overall, Canon India touched a revenue of Rs.510 crore in 2007. Canon India has a Software Development Centre located in Noida. Set up in the middle of 1999, the Canon Software Development Centre is one of the six such cutting-edge technology centres established by Canon Inc. globally. It develops original technologies as well as supporting Canon marketing companies worldwide with application software. Canon India is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 certified and its Software Development Centre has achieved the CMM Level 3 status. In 2006, Canon India received the CII-EXIM Business Excellence Award for its strong commitment to excel.