Secaucus, N.J. — Panasonic Consumer Electronics acknowledged information sent to TWICE stating it had notified employees and key retailers that its U.S. sales and marketing operations are “going through a transformation” to better meet market demands.
This transformation, which was said to still be in progress, was described as a restructuring coupled with an organizational realignment and process changes.
The moves follow the announcement in late December that Bob Perry had been promoted to executive VP of Panasonic Consumer Electronics, with responsibility for North American sales, marketing and product merchandising. Perry reports directly to Shiro Kitajima, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company president.
According to a statement issued in response to TWICE’s inquiries on Monday, “Panasonic made some initial changes in leadership in the sales management team, and is now studying what additional changes need to be made across the organization.”
The spokesman stopped short of saying which positions have been changed and what new personnel, if any, have been added to the team. Sources indicated the changes include some management positions in regional sales territories.
The statement continued, “The company expects the changes we are making to dramatically improve our support and service to our dealers and consumers. In the coming months we will be announcing details of these changes to our business partners.”
Panasonic’s corporate parent in Japan said it intends to announce its consolidated financial results forecast for fiscal 2009, including whether to revise the current forecast, in its financials announcement for the fiscal 2009 third quarter scheduled on Feb. 4. Some analysts have predicted the company would announce a loss exceeding $3 billion for fiscal 2009.
