China's Aigo switch to digital camera operations

Sep. 8, 2008 (China Knowledge) - Beijing Huaqi Information, a Chinese Hi-tech company that owns the famous brand of "Aigo", will concentrate on the digital cameras operations, in view of the fast growth in the sector, according to Feng Jun, president of the Beijing-based company.

The digital camera operations will be one of their major businesses in future as the company has started to break even and began to book profit from the sector this July after a large amount of investment over the past 4 years and intense marketing efforts, said Feng.

Beijing Huaqi Information (Aigo) Digital Technology Co Ltd aims to enter the high-end market by more complex single-lens reflex cameras. Currently, its production of digital camera products ranged from 5-megapixels to 10-megpixels.

In the first half of this year, the total digital camera sales in China market grew 31% year-on-year to 4.94 million units, and sales value increased 13.3% to RMB 9.988 billion. Aigo contributes 2% of the total sales, and it is the only Chinese brand in the top 10 cameras in China by sales volume.

Feng said the company booked revenue of about US$400 million last year, and it would allocates 80% of the net profit to R&D as well as brand promotion. Feng also said the company planned to list two or three of its 27 subsidiaries.