Pioneer Electronics has reported a $194 Million dollar loss due to a 22% fall in sales of their consumer electronics products, sales of in-car gear rose 15.4%.
The Japanese company is now planning to spin off its home A/V business and integrate it into a home electronics sales subsidiary. It is not known how the move that is set to happen in July will affect the company’s Australian operation which also acts as a distributor for none Pioneer products.
In home electronics Pioneer hopes to leverage its DJ equipment business which is strong in Australia “to achieve steady growth”.
While sales overall were up 3.5% year on year, the company, which has struggled to make a profit since getting out of the plasma TV business, said that increased OEM sales of car navigation systems and consumer-market sales of car audio products had helped the company.
Home electronics sales declined 22 percent year on year, to 95,925 million yen. Although sales of DJ equipment rose, sales of optical-disc-drive-related products declined substantially, the company said.
Operating income declined 52.1 percent year on year, to 5,997 million yen, due to an increase in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses and a lower gross profit margin, among other factors.
Pioneer recorded a net loss of 19,552 million yen compared with the previous fiscal year’s 3,670 million yen net income, reflecting the decline in operating income and combined with 6,242 million yen in restructuring costs and a 5,040 million loss on impairment of investment securities recorded as an extraordinary loss.
Pioneer executives announced a two-year plan for its business segments. In car electronics it will “work to create new value through transforming the business model.” Part of that will be technology that “transcends conventional car navigation systems,” in a partnership with Mitsubishi Electric to jointly develop a “multimedia platform” for vehicle-linked next-generation automotive equipment.
