TOKYO –
Pioneer reported turned a net profit and
higher sales in its fiscal year ended March 31.
Net income of 10.4 billion yen ($128.7 million) on a
4.2 percent sales gain to 457.5 billion yen ($5.66 billion)
compared with a year-ago net loss of 58.3 billion
yen ($721.3 million).
The company’s two main business segments –
home electronics and the combined OEM and aftermarket
car electronics segment — posted operating
incomes of 2.54 billion yen and 14 billion yen, respectively.
The segments’ 2010 operating losses were 9.2
billion yen and 7.3 billion yen, respectively.
Consolidated sales rose 4.2 percent mainly because
of Blu-ray Disc drive-related products, whose
sales growth offset the negative impact of Pioneer’s
withdrawal from the plasma display business in fiscal
2010, the Japanese yen’s appreciation, and the earthquake,
Pioneer explained.
Sales in the car electronics segment posted a 1.9
percent gain to 254.1 billion yen, with OEM accounting
for 43 percent of sales, down from 44 percent in
fiscal 2010. Aftermarket sales rose by an unspecified
amount, mainly due to growth in aftermarket sales
in North America and Europe. OEM sales were also
up an unspecified amount because of gains in North
America and Japan, offsetting a decline in China.
Home electronics sales rose 16.2 percent to 157.6
billion yen because of a “large increase” in Blu-ray
drive-related sales resulting from the launch of operations
in an optical disc joint venture factory in the second
half of the previous fiscal year, Pioneer said.
Separately Pioneer Electronics (USA) has named
Junichi Naito as its new president and COO.
Naito replaces Kenji Murai, who has returned to Japan
after six years with Pioneer Electronics (USA).
Naito will lead Pioneer’s business operations for branded
products in the U.S. region, including car electronics,
home electronics, DJ and computer drive products.
Since joining Pioneer in 1984, Naito has headed
sales operations in other regions of the world, including
Malaysia for six years and Hong Kong for
five years.
