Polaroid, in India, was hitherto entirely focused on establishing its studio Polaroid business which contributed Rs 40 crore last year.

``Our focus has changed now. We'll now rebuild the brand and introduce and promote our latest range of products and technologies extensively in India,'' Polaroid India's country head Ms Achal Khanna told The Financial Express.

The company is expecting a growth of 30 per cent in 2001 over last year's sales turnover of Rs 40 crore. ``Our bottomline will go up to Rs 65 crore,'' Ms Khanna said. The company's operations became profitable only last year when it posted a net profit of Rs 4 crore.

Polaroid has invested about $30 million so far in its India operations. The company plans to pump in fresh investment of Rs 4 crore during 2001.

With its 26,000 one-minute passport vendors spread over 15,000 outlets across the country, Polaroid enjoys the leadership position with a over 95 per cent marketshare in the instant photography category. ``Studio Polaroid is our cash cow-we now want to leverage that strength in the consumer segment,'' says Ms Khanna.

To start with, Polaroid is launching three pocket cameras and joy cameras-I-Zone, 790 and Joycam-in the first quarter, which are its largest selling products worldwide especially amongst teenagers and kids. In the second quarter, the company plans to launch high-end digital cameras at low prices. All the products will be imported initially and may be manufactured in India at the company's OEM base in Goa-which incidentally is the only manufacturing unit to manufacture the model 484 cameras for the world market-once sales pick up.

Though worldwide Polaroid products are low priced and competitive, in India high slab of duties-80 per cent in case of cameras and 30 per cent on films-makes them expensive. I-Zone camera, for instance, is available at $25, while as in India after duties it will be priced at Rs 2,150. While the product roll has just begun in Mumbai, these will be launched in Delhi and other metros this month through its distributor Phil Corp. The company plans to open about 10 to 20 exclusive franchisee outlets in the top metros in the current year, and also open shop n shops in some of the leading department stores such as Planet M, Lifespring, Akbar Ali's and others. Apart from that, the company will also retail its products through high traffic stores such as Archies Galleries, music stores, bookshops and gift shops. ``The idea is to target teenagers and kids who are anyway spending a lot these days,'' Since its primary target audience will be teenagers and children, Polaroid plans to hold roadshows in colleges andschools; have co-promotions with cineplexes such as PVR and other youth-oriented brands. The company has earmarked an ad budget of Rs 4 crore this year for brand-building exercise.

`We plan to have a Rs 2-4 crore ad budget but we'll spend it very judiciously,'' says Ms Khanna. Apart from focusing on the consumer segment, Polaroid is also looking to tap the government and institutional segment and hopes to achieve Rs 8-crore sales from this segment. That is not to say that the company will not pay attention to its studio business. It has devised a new strategy to expand that segment as well. From conventional photography outlets, the company plans to expand the reach to 15,000 non-conventional outlets such as PCOs, docmentation centres, chemists and petrol pumps.