Nikon India may be forced to increase prices of its cameras, if there is no abatement in the fall of the rupee, Nikon India Managing Director Hiroshi Takashina said.
“The rupee fall has impacted our profitability hard. The problem is quite serious for us. We hope that the Indian government does something to contain the fall. Otherwise, we will have to increase prices,” he said.
Nikon India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Nikon Corporation. It distributes, markets and services the entire range of Nikon imaging products, NIKKOR lenses. It also services industrial products, including microscopes and technical measuring instruments, The digital single lens reflex range has 10 models with prices ranging from Rs.32,950 to Rs.5.25 lakh while the COOLPIX compact range with 19 models has price points from Rs.4,990 to Rs.23,950 . The company imports these products from the facilities at Japan, China and Thailand.
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Launch
Mr. Takashina was here to launch the DX format D3200 camera. He said that this product would help strengthen the company's position as the market leader in the DSLR segment where it had a 55 per cent share.
To a question, he said that the company was targeting to increase its present 1.5 per cent contribution to the parent company's turnover to 5 per cent by 2015. An assembly unit was also a possibility, if the market expanded sufficiently, he added.
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Nobuaki Sasagaki, Nikon Corporation General Manager, marketing department, imaging company, said that newer products were being planned.
In India, the demand for DSLR is 1.7 lakh units, which is expected to increase to 2.5 lakh this fiscal. “We expect to maintain our market share this year, too,” Mr. Takashina said.
He said that while the company had slipped on its turnover target last fiscal (due to problems with supplies from Thailand which was affected due to the floods), it hoped to reach the Rs.1,200 crore target set for this fiscal.