Olympus to invest Rs 50cr, opens exclusive showroom

New Delhi, May 14 (UNI) One of the digital technology leaders, Olympus today said it will invest Rs 50 crore to expand its business in the next two to three years, and announced opening of first branded Olympus showroom here.

''We are opening our first exclusive Olympus branded showroom in Delhi and in next couple of months we are planning to add five to six more stores in the cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and to fuel these expansion plans we are investing Rs 50 crore in the next two to three years'' Olympus General Manager (India Liaison Office) Kazutaka Fukuda told reporters while launching patented waterproof cameras.

The objective of starting Olympus exclusive retail chain is to provide valuable customers, a hands-on feel of the entire range of Olympus digital cameras, DSLR's, binoculars and voice recorders under one roof, added Mr Fukuda.

The company targets to sell 1,40,000 digital cameras in the current fiscal and aims for a growth of 30 per cent to 40 per cent in the next two to three years, he said.

The new launch comprises of two new models of digital cameras, Mju-770SW and Mju-780 and one new model of SLR, the E-410 which targets the amateur as well as professional users, all in the price range of Rs 15,995 to Rs 41,995.

The MJU series equipped with shockproof, waterproof, crushproof and freezeproof features to withstand water pressure up to 33 feet, is crushproof up to 100 kgs and can shoot at temperatures of up to minus 10 degree centigrade.

E-410 is the smallest, slimmest, lightest interchangeable lens Digital SLR camera in the world today offering 10.0 Megapixel.

''The power of the Indian economy is something that is now palpable in the far corners of the world, and we know that we are sitting on the top of the iceberg,'' said Olympus Director and General Manager (Asia and West Asia Business) Yoshimoto Nagashima said who was also present on the occasion.

The present size of the industry is estimated at 10 lakh units in contrast to seven lakh units in last year, and three lakh in 2005, which is expected to touch 16 lakh units by 2010, he said.

Out of this, the digital camera business alone of the company constitutes over 42 per cent share which amounted to Rs 878 crore last fiscal.

UNI