By Chris Nicholls
MELBOURNE: Pioneer Australia has confirmed it will seek more OEM navigation and car audio business in Australia, following the parent company’s global announcement last Friday it would focus more on car audio and navigation due to its strength in those markets.
Speaking to Current.com.au, Pioneer Australia managing director Yasuo Sakuma said the company would seek to use Pioneer’s strength in the sector to seek more OEM contracts, both here and back home in Japan, on top of their hevay commitment to the aftermarket.
“Navigation is a very strong category and we have a strong background in it. We will seek to use our advantage [in this sector] and focus on OEM.
“If we are going to expand the car audio business here in Australia, we have to negotiate with the parent companies, which are all related to each other, rather than focus on the aftermarket business. So we have to negotiate and discuss with the Pioneer Mobile Entertainment business group [in Japan].
“In our group we have branch offices in Nagoya for Toyota, and Tochigi for the Honda branch. Our people are working very close to car manufacturers, so we have to negotiate our direction and objectives.
Sakuma said while Pioneer Australia had worked with Toyota and Holden in the past, it would seek to strengthen ties with both automotive companies, as well gain new clients, such as Mazda.
However, Sakuma said while they would focus more on OEM as a result of the announcement, the initial decision to put more strength into car audio and navigation did not come as a result of the parent company’s announcement last Friday, but came a year ago.
“We are going to make a better balance [between car audio/navigation and home electronics]. This is not happening because of last Friday’s announcement,” he said.
Sakuma did admit the OEM business was “very difficult”, though, and would seek to improve relationships with car makers both here and abroad to gain more business.