Outgoing Panasonic Australia director of consumer electronics, Paul Reid, has expressed his concerns about the sustainability of the local retail business landscape, saying that retailers and suppliers needed to maintain collaborative relationships to ensure longterm success.
In an interview published this week in Appliance Retailer magazine, Reid, who is moving to Stockholm in Sweden to become the new managing director of the Nordic Region, said the fundamental relationships between retailers and suppliers has changed.
“We are nothing without our retailers,” Reid told Appliance Retailer. “In my mind, the fundamental relationships between suppliers and retailers were adversarial, but these days, it is very much a collaborative partnership where we are working together for mutual benefit.”
Reid does not underestimate the importance of these relationships, nor did he downplay how fierce the consumer electronics market is.
“The market is more competitive now than it has ever been,” he said. “The level of competition is extremely fierce. What we are seeing is unsustainable and something will have to give.”
To read the full story on Paul Reid’s past in Australia and future in Sweden, pick up the July issue of Appliance Retailer magazine.