Sony Moving Most CE Operations To Calif.
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 10/1/2003
Park Ridge, N.J. - Sony Electronics next year will move most of its remaining northern New Jersey-based consumer-marketing operations to its offices in San Diego and San Jose, Calif. National consumer sales management and select support functions will also make the move, the company said.
Hundreds of positions will be affected, although the company didn't have a precise number. Sony Electronics employs about 1,600 people in multiple buildings in northern New Jersey, and after the consolidation, area employees will be consolidated largely into the company's Park Ridge, N.J., headquarters, which has a capacity of about 1,000. The consolidation will begin next April as building leases come up and run into the summer.
The decision follows the April appointment of Sony veteran Hideki 'Dick' Komiyama as Sony Electronics president/COO and the June 1 consolidation of five consumer business units into three: home products; the personal, mobile, and imaging division; and the information technology products division.
Next year's geographic consolidation will generate 'some cost benefits' because employees from most or all of five leased buildings in northern New Jersey will move into unoccupied space in company-owned buildings in Park Ridge, San Diego, and San Jose, said Rick Clancy, senior VP of corporate communications. 'Our aim is to bring as many people as possible into Sony-owned buildings.'
The move will also 'bring Sony's consumer businesses together in one place,' yielding 'more opportunity for joint promotions and joint business opportunities,' he said. The West Coast is already home to Sony Electronics' IT products division, which markets Vaio PCs and Clie PDAs from San Diego, and to sister companies Sony Pictures (near Los Angeles) and Playstation marketer Sony Computer Entertainment, based in Foster City, Calif., near San Jose.
Likewise, Clancy continued, the move will 'bring together segments of two consumer divisions located on both coasts.' Marketing functions for the personal mobile division's camcorder, digital camera, photo printer and Memory Stick products, for example, are already based in San Diego, but marketing staff in the division's personal audio, mobile electronics and accessories groups are in Park Ridge.
Similarly, home products marketing is based in Park Ridge, but the engineering, product planning, and manufacturing of HDTV and set top boxes are based in San Diego, Clancy said. The home-products consolidation will generate 'more interaction between engineering, marketing, sales and manufacturing.' he said. Home products include TVs, DVD, set top boxes, HDTV, and home audio.
Parts of support departments that will make the move include accounting and the corporate marketing and communications department. Groups remaining in Park Ridge include the broadcast and production systems division and the media and applications solutions division, which includes blank media and data storage products for consumer and professional users.
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