Jindal-Fuji combine eyes digital camera market

Shipra Arora / New Delhi

After two years into the digital business, Jindal Photo Films (JPFL), the flagship company of the B C Jindal Group, which sells products under the Fuji brand name, is all set to spruce up its digital imaging business. The company, which has a technical and marketing tie-up with Japan-based Fuji Photo Films and is their sole distributor in India, is setting up service centres exclusively for its digital products in the country. To further strengthen its position in the digital camera market, it is extensively widening the product portfolio in this line.

R B Pal

JPFL, which had no authorised service centres for its digital products till now is setting up four service centres specifically for digital products. These four centres will be located in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, according to R B Pal, managing director, JPFL. However, these centres will initially cater to digital cameras only but will gradually add on other product lines for service support. While the Delhi centre is already operational the remaining three will be up and running by next year. The service initiative is expected to lend further steam to JPFL’s position in the digital market space.

On the other hand, the company is also expanding its network of ‘Fuji Digital Imaging Centres’, from the present 40 to 100 by March next year, entailing an investment of Rs 2 crore. These digital imaging centres are photo labs and studios, which install only Fuji’s ‘Frontier’ mini labs. Digital mini labs are digitised photographic processing equipment While real estate and other investments are provided by the studios, JPFL provides designing, branding and advertising, technical service and training support. The design, look and feel of these imaging centres has been standardised worldwide.

On the products front the company is launching a slew of new digital cameras. It is planning around 10-12 new models in the forthcoming months. JPFL, in the last two months, has launched two new models in the market. The most notable of the new launches from the technology standpoint is the FinePix F410 model, which is a fourth-generation super CCD (charged coupler device) camera. The CCD technology improves the quality of picture stored in the camera as it results in high sensitivity and ultrahigh image quality with better resolution. This is made possible with the octagonal-pixels-in-a-honeycomb pattern in the super CCD which minimises any wasted space that doesn’t contribute to image capture and makes light-collecting efficiency much higher. This enhances efficiency, improves sensitivity, increases the signal noise ratio, and broadens the dynamic range. It is also the sleekest digital camera in the 6.0-mega pixel category having both still and videography mode with voice recording facility. The FinePix F410 is priced at Rs 39,000.

However, despite its extensive range of digital cameras the company continues to face extensive competition from the grey market owing to the huge price differential. As compared to the grey market’s entry-level price of around Rs 3,000, Fuji’s entry-level model is priced at Rs 10,000.

On the storage cards front, JPFL has come out with a very high capacity xD card of 512 MB in June this year. This is significantly higher from its existing 120 MB and 256 MB memory xD cards. xD card is a proprietary technology of Fuji and Olympus, which allows reduction of the size and weight of the digital camera with the storage of film in a very compact form. As compared to this, smart media cards support / allow only up to 128 MB memory.

Presently the digital business accounts for almost one-tenth of JPFL’s total revenues of Rs 432 crore. According to Pal, digital mini labs are going to be the primary growth driver for the company’s business on the digital side. Apart from digital cameras and mini labs, the company’s digital product line also includes digital printers.