Pioneer To Announce Major Restructure

Pioneer Australia is set to announce a major restructure of their operation according to Company insiders. The news comes as the Company struggles to get traction in the Australian market due a lack of an LCD TV range which the Company is set to roll out later this year.

Following a trip to Japan in March Pioneer Australia Managing Director Yasuo Sakuma has been undertaking a major review of the Australian operation which has struggled in the plasma TV market due pricing and distribution issues.

While it is not known whether there will be layoffs it is known that the Company is looking at the possibility of Pioneer branded retail shop that will sell vision, sound navigation and car entertainment products. A spoksperson for Pioneer Australia said “We are going to be making a major announcement soon re the Australian operation. We do not know whether their will be layoffs. We doubt it. It is going to be more about the restructure of the business going forward” they said. 

During a recent interview with ChannelNews and SmartHouse Yasuo Sakuma said that he wanted to position Pioneer as a premium brand and that the Company did not want to compete in the “mass or bottom end” TV and home entertainment market.

Due to the withdrawal of both Hitachi and Fujitsu from the Australian market and the decision by Loewe to cease distribution in Australia retail analysts have said that a big opportunity exists for Pioneer to become a major supplier in the specialist market while also working with selected retailers to develop a Pioneer shop within a shop strategy that will allow them to position their products which include high end 2 channel audio, home theatre systems and display as a premium brand. 

This week Pioneer who are part owned by Sharp and Panasonic revealed that they have finally reached an agreement on a comprehensive partnership for the development and production of plasma display panels, according to a Nikkei Business Daily report

According to TWICE details of the agreement are to be determined in an official agreement expected next month, but the companies said they will combine their expertise to develop next-generation plasma display panels, the report said.

Matsushita will manufacture the jointly developed panels for both companies in time for both to begin selling televisions using the component parts by the fall of 2009.

According to the report, the deal calls for Matsushita taking on all of Pioneer’s approximately 200 PDP engineers beginning in June to help accelerate development of next-generation PDPs, while enabling Pioneer to reduce costs. What is not known is whether the Kuro plasma engine technology developed by Pioneer will remain exclusive to Pioneer?

Matsushita executives said the forthcoming plasma TVs will make up the core of its higher-end large-screen flat-panel TVs.