Hitachi yet to shed light on market segment exit

It is always a shock when a well-known vendor pulls out of a market segment, and that was certainly true when Hitachi recently confirmed it will no longer be supplying consumer electronics, home entertainment and home appliance products to the Australian marketplace (www.techpartner.news/?101590).

The vendor’s exit from the consumer electronics market has left Hitachi only supplying airconditioning systems for the domestic and commercial market, power industrial products, electronic components and presentation systems. Business also remains the same for its subsidiary companies: Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Hitachi Power Tools.

CRN followed up with Hitachi to shed some light on the move, but the explanation failed to expand on the exit (www.techpartner.news/?101590).

Dipak Kumar, general manager, Electronic Components Group at Hitachi, told CRN that information had come from Hitachi headquarters in Japan that the company was going through a global restructuring.

“The CE division was the only division at Hitachi in Australia to be affected by the global restructure. At this stage we can only say that the decision was made due to a global restructure,” said Kumar. “We want to ramp up the B2B division in Australia. This includes specialist products such as business-grade LCD screens and projectors.”

What a cop out! “Japan told us we were restructuring” is not a true or frank insight into Hitachi’s decision. However it is also difficult to speculate on the true reasons for the move.

It could come down to pure market pressure. Australia is flooded with strong competition for consumer electronics players. LG, Panasonic and Sony are just three examples of brand-heavy and established firms in the Australian market. Australia is also on the door step of Asia – the home of consumer electronics pioneering. In short you have to be at the top of your game to survive.

Other issues could have revolved around Hitachi’s distribution capability in Australia. With such a dispersed population, it is essential that vendors have the proper distribution means in place. Another case could be made for the rise of online retailers and if Hitachi had enough of an Internet presence. As things stand Hitachi pulled out of the consumer electronics market due to a “restructuring”. I wonder how much restructuring is still to take place in the Australian market?

However what Kumar said about additional B2B focus could be great news for resellers looking to diversify themselves. Talk of business-grade LCD screens and projectors is ideal, providing the products developed match up to the competition in the market.

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