Gordon Jones

'We saw a 30 per cent increase in our business in the first half of the year, and we hope that the current crisis will not damage that positive momentum,' says president of Canon Middle East Gordon Jones.

'Our attitude is business as usual, to keep moving forward, and we will be going ahead with our participation in Gitex as planned. The only question mark over Gitex is how far visitor levels will be affected by the current situation, but we currently have no intention of pulling out'.

Indeed, Canon intends to use the Middle East's largest IT event to showcase some of its latest digital products and solution technologies, under the banner 'Imaging Across Networks'. This is very much the Canon approach, to succeed by offering superior technology and the highest quality products with clear value and user benefits, rather than competing just on the 'best price'.

'Of course we realise that price competitiveness is an important factor which cannot be ignored,' says Mr Jones. 'But Canon does have an outstanding reputation for quality and innovation and last year ranked number three world wide in terms of patents registered. We invested around seven per cent of our $24 billion sales on research and development, and earned more than $100 million from patent royalties alone.

'In the Middle East we are trying to shift the balance from pure price to cost-performance considerations, based on a better appreciation of regional and local needs. We have great confidence in the quality of our products and services. In particular our advanced digital products are gaining significant ground'.

Meantime, Canon Middle East will be shifting its headquarters to the Dubai Internet City in November. It is only three years since Canon established a branch office in Dubai and Mr Jones thinks the new location and proximity of IT creativity in the DIC will be a distinct advantage for the group.

'We have grown from a staff of five to 24 in the past three years, and are preparing for another growth phase next year in the DIC,' he says. 'Canon Middle East was a bright spot in a pretty gloomy world outlook for 2001-2002, and we very much hope that will not be endangered by recent events'.

Last year Canon beat the world wide IT slowdown with a six per cent rise in sales and a very positive profit performance. This year's sales will undoubtedly be dented by the overall downturn in the IT sector and the slowdown in the US and Asian economies. But the capacity to deliver a performance well above the average for the sector is still there as Canon continues to produce many of the best products in its field.

'We are still confident for healthy double-digit growth here this year, and are very optimistic about the future sales in the Middle East,' says Mr Jones.