Canon opens its first retail station in Gujarat

Canon has announced that it has extended its retail network across the
country by inaugurating a ‘Canon Retail Station’ in Surat. The outlet (CRS)
is located at President Plaza, Opp Jeevan Bharati School (UG-18) and is a
one-stop shop for Canon customers to sample products, from Can-on’s digital
imaging portfolio prior to making a purchase decision.

The recently inaugurated Canon Retail Station in Surat, is Canon’s 16th
retail point in the country. With the recent introduction of digital cam-eras in
India, there will be a logical extension for these retail stations to display
digital cameras and demonstrate Canon’s direct camera printing technology.

Expressing his joy at the inauguration, Alok Bha-radwaj, Director and GM
(Consumer Imaging and Info-rmation Division and Volume products), Canon India
said, "Gujarat is an extremely important market for us. This is evident
from the fact that Canon enjoys a 40 percent market share in this state. We have
emerged as the number one player in the BJ printer category in Ahmedabad and
Baroda with a market share of 46 percent and 35 percent respectively, as per IDC
October 2003 report."

Elaborating on the pre-mium customer experience that will be offered at the
Canon retail station, Bharad-waj said, "Canon retail outlets are designed
to provide a complete shopping experie-nce for customers looking at purchasing
our digital imag-ing products such as printers, scanners and consumables. This
customer-centric app-roach, when combined with our superior product por-tfolio,
gives us an unbeatable value proposition and makes us the vendor of choice for
potential customers."

The Canon Retail Station Program was launched in 2002 and as part of this
initi-ative, Canon has so far esta-blished 16 exclusive retail stations and 501
non-exclu-sive retail points in A, B and C class cities across the country. The
opening of Canon’s Surat retail station marks the launch of Canon’s first
retail station in Gujarat.

DQW News Bureau

Surat