Kenwood now is ‘a very healthy’ company following worldwide restr...
Kenwood now is “a very healthy” company following worldwide restructuring and massive work force reductions in last year, CEO Haruo Kawahara told reporters at Las Vegas CES. Kenwood is “going forward to improve the business” in its core areas…
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of home and car electronics and land and mobile communications, he said. As result of significant reductions in head count and other restructuring steps, Kawahara said, Kenwood reported $8 million profit for 6 months ended Sept. 30 following 3 consecutive years of losses. He said Kenwood also had divested itself of loss- ridden personal communications product business, including cellphones, because it no longer could weather risks of business in which development costs were excessively high for product lifespan that was so short. Losses in that business were main contributor to company’s financial woes, he said. Kawahara, ex- Toshiba executive, said Kenwood was on course to $40 million profit for fiscal 12 months ending March 31. He said U.S., which generated 1/3 of worldwide revenue for Kenwood and thus was on par with Japan in that category, was company’s most important market. As such, he said, how to promote Kenwood brand in U.S. was “our most urgent priority.”