Peter van Dijk, EMEA business manager at Mitsubishi Electric, has confirmed that production of projectors and LCD displays has ceased (apart from super narrow bezel models) and that European VIS operations will be centralised at the company’s office in Mijdrecht in the Netherlands. Speaking to Installation, he said: “The Mijdrecht office will have a central function in this – the warehouse will be there, procurement and marketing will be done there, but we will have sales presence in various countries around us.” This sales presence will be from other Mitsubishi Electric divisions, with Mijdrecht as “the central hub, so to speak”.
He added that the company had looked at “every single option” when considering the future of these parts of its business. He said that decision was due to the worldwide economic picture, the level of competition in the markets and price erosion, leading to lower profitability. “The decision was taken to redirect the organisation and start to put [these] resources towards display wall cubes and super narrow bezels,” he said.
Van Dijk stressed the company’s credentials in the cube market: “We are one of the world leaders in terms of display wall cubes, we have a very strong position here, and we feel very strong in building that position to a high level.”
He confirmed that there would be redundancies as a result of the company restructure, but did not name a figure. “We are looking at all kinds of options for keeping people within the Mitsubishi group,” he said. This, he said, was likely to mean redeploying people in their own countries elsewhere within Mitsubishi, rather than relocating people to the Netherlands.
PR and marketing budgets are not affected by this announcement, he said. “More than ever we have to show the world that we are still alive and kicking and that we really intend to build this business to a higher level.”
Mitsubishi Electric’s plans for upcoming tradeshows InfoComm MEA, Integrated Systems Russia and Integrated Systems Europe are not affected, he said. “[At ISE] you will find us at the same location as the years before, with the same size booth as you can expect from Mitsubishi.”
