Canon Middle East has announced its results for the 2003 financial year with an increase of over 33 percent in regional sales. The company has reported strong double-digit growth figures for the last four years, placing the Middle East as the fastest growing region for Canon worldwide.
The success has been driven by an increased demand for new-generation digital and multifunctional devices in both the consumer and office environment, where Canon reported over 133 percent growth in digital cameras and 52 percent growth in digital camcorders. Sales in bubble jet printers also did considerably well with 67 percent growth and an outstanding 167 percent increase in digital color copier product sales. Other business divisions that contributed to Canon’s success included multifunction devices and the latest generation of networked digital copiers, the Canon “iR-i” series.
“It has been an incredible year for Canon Middle East. Despite the difficult political and economic climate we were facing in the region, we have surpassed our expectations with some significant achievements,” said Gordon Jones, president, Canon Middle East. “We have done exceptionally well in the UAE, Saudi Arabian and Iranian markets, followed closely by steady growth across the other GCC and Levant countries.”
On a global scale, Canon has announced its consolidated net sales results of $29.88 billion for the fiscal year 2003. This represents a yearly increase of 8.8 percent over fiscal year 2002, and marks the first time that the company has surpassed the three trillion Japanese yen level for consolidated net sales. Canon reported its 2003 net income of $2.57 billion, which represents a yearly increase of 44.6 percent.
Since becoming a full subsidiary in 2001, Canon Middle East has vigorously expanded its operations in the region through improved infrastructure and services.
“We introduced several incentive schemes for our channel partners that proved to be very successful in the long-run both in terms of our expansion and bottomline sales. Participation at major regional events and exhibitions, such as GITEX, also had a huge impact on raising Canon’s profile in the Middle East,” said Ammar Alul, director of Canon Middle East.
Canon’s strategy with digital technologies is to give customers more choice, and the ability to customize their systems to their needs. Canon was the first manufacturer in the Middle East to introduce the new PictBridge industry standard into its products (any PictBridge compliant camera can be connected to any PictBridge compliant printer). This strategy of embracing open standards also applies to its enterprise solutions, where IT departments can create powerful solutions using their existing Java technology skills on intelligent office products.
“Canon is very pleased with the progress we have made in the last year and we are equally optimistic about 2004. We have already kicked off the year with a positive start and are pursuing opportunities in opening markets, such as Iraq. We will continue to build on this strong momentum with new product launches and on-going activities with our channel partners in the region,” concluded Jones.