New Sony Hilton Upsets Staff

Sony Australia, who will generate a billion dollars in revenue this year in Australia, is set to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars revamping their North Ryde offices in a move that has angered current staff who last month saw 32 colleges sacked because of “cost cutting”.

The Sony staff who this week contacted ChannelNews, claim that Sony is spending “hundreds of thousands of dollars” redesigning their front entrance to look like “the front entrance of the Hilton Hotel” when staff are being told that salary increases are being put on hold.

Sony Australia staff have supplied information to ChannelNews which indicates that senior management at Sony Australia are also favouring exclusive deals with Harvey Norman at the expense of other mass retailers.

It’s also been revealed that Sony is set to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on in-store merchandising and marketing particularly with Harvey Norman stores during the next 12 months in an effort to get “favourable positions” on showroom floors and promote the Sony brand over the likes of Samsung, Panasonic and LG.

One current member of staff said “Sony is suffering globally and despite making big losses they are still spending on a new front entrance. This has angered a lot of people who saw friends dumped on the market last month because of so-called belt tightening”.

They added “Management in Australia keep telling us that they will make nearly a billion dollars in revenue this year and that the Australian operation is very successful. Yet despite this they are sacking people while also spending money on unnecessary luxuries”.

In other claims, a Sony sales executive has said that Sony Australia is favouring Harvey Norman with “several products being bought in that are exclusive to Harvey Norman” the insider said. “Right now, Sony is desperate to hold up sales of Bravia TV’s and Blu ray and later this year a new range of Hi Fi gear. Right across their business they are under pressure but despite this they will be profitable in Australia. We are told that marketing money is being thrown at in-store merchandising in an effort to promote the Sony brand”.

ChannelNews has established that Sony is set undertake a major redesign of their offices under the management of Elvir Dugum, however Sony Australia is refusing to comment officially about the redesign or claims that they are favouring Harvey Norman over other retailers in Australia.

Later this month it is expected that Sony will announce global losses in excess of $3B dollars.

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