INTERVIEW
Ups and downs across markets
by Alex Pullin
alex.pullin@iteuropa.com
As Toshiba announced the launch of products at the Toshiba World event in Barcelona, including five additions to the Satellite laptop portfolio range, IT Europa was keen to find out more about where it had been successful in 2009, how the market has changed, and its interest in the ecological aspects of things. We spoke to Thomas Teckentrup, General Manager, Product, Strategy and Development Division, Computer Systems Group EMEA and Alan Thompson, President of Toshiba Europe GmbH, to find out more...
players in the market was to review the size of the future assumptions,” says Thomas Teckentrup (right). “A lot of cash flow-related issues had to be considered. The scaling-back has been exceeding what the market was demanding. At the end of 2009 we were noticing that the supplier industry was much less prepared for providing for sufficient supply for the upside. Everybody had scaled down their forecast, and in 2009 we finally saw that the demand was still high but the supply situation became tense.” Things got difficult in some major European
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markets. “In the UK and a lot of the southern countries like Spain we have seen a very opposite picture,” said Teckentrup. “Spain’s high level of unemployment has had some impact on the quality of businesses and demand overall.” This also includes eastern Europe. Alan
Thompson (right), believes that while the eastern European market was hugely affected, things there have improved drastically, particularly in Russia where its economy had fallen away drastically. “We’ve made most of our growth and emphasis
in the last three years in emerging territories, Russia, Middle East, Africa, southern and eastern Europe, so we were particularly badly affected. The Russian market collapsed, and our business there went down by 75% in terms of product selling.”
30 APR 2010
In 2009, the first response from pretty much all
“We’ve done our best to keep going,” insists
Thompson. “Most companies involved widely in emerging countries would have felt this. I would say that from the end of Q3 onwards it improved. Q4 still had some issues to be resolved, but from Q1 2010 we’ve felt things are back to normal. Our business in Russia is up by 120% versus the previous quarter.” With the start of 2010, the industry, as well
as the global economy, is in a better state, and Toshiba is keen to take full advantage. “Since the end of 2009 people have begun to
expand their plans again,” says Teckentrup of the changes in mindset and economies. “Growth is continuous; it is not necessary to scale yourself down too much more. Most of the companies are now back on the growth trend and the industry continuously improves and is more stable.” Germany was one place seemingly unaffected
by everything. “When you look at the German market
you would almost not have known there was a recession; it would look like it didn’t happen because it continued to grow in the consumer space, though the business to business was a bit more affected. Germany and France remained at a high level,” said Teckentrup. “Germany had stood
up very well as they’d decided they’d had enough of a recession
because they’d already struggled for several years,” added Thompson. “Countries like Turkey have come back strongly, they went right down but have come back up.” “Poland held up strongly,” adds Thompson. “It
was quite noticeable. It’s got a strong underlying economy and we’re being well-managed. There’s relatively low unemployment and they’re seen as a low cost manufacturing route which means if companies are under pressure for costs they can transfer more activity there.” As well as this, Toshiba has had an encouraging
year relating to its environmental aspect. The technology manufacturer has managed to get a 48% reduction in packaging from 2006 to 2009. Its 2009 models use 29% less energy than 2008 which is 45% better than 2006, while its latest models are more than 10% lower overall than 2009. It certainly is exciting times at Toshiba. As
Thompson himself says: “We’re trying to create lots and lots of digital products that work together eas- ily. We’re on a journey, not a destination.”
www.toshiba.com
OUR ANALYSIS
2009 was problematic at certain points and certain places, but Toshiba knows what its road map is and is ticking off the signposts, including its environmental ones. The fact that it has increased in countries such as Germany and Poland, as well as starting to recover in the challenging markets halfway through 2009, plus some impressive figures, means it can look forward to 2010 and beyond more than some in the industry.
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