South Africa Proving To Be A Strong Region For Sony

Sony released it’s top line earnings late last week and they reported a push past the one trillion Japanese Yen (¥‎) mark for the first time in the company’s history, with South Africa as one of its top drivers. The company recorded ¥‎1.011 trillion (R131 billion) income before tax for the year ended March 2019, a 45% increase compared to the previous year.

During the period, the company recorded ¥‎8.7 trillion (or R1.1 trillion) in revenue, which was 1% higher than the previous year. It’s income attributable to shareholders (after tax and deductions) almost doubled to ¥‎707.7 billion (R92 billion), due to significant reductions in cost of sales across several product divisions, such as the pictures segment, imaging products, mobile communications, game and network platforms, smartphones and televisions.

While no official numbers for South African were made public, Takakiyo Fujita, Managing Director at Sony Middle East and Africa said “During the year, the South African business very closely mirrored the global business in terms of performance trends.”

This was supported by a new range of audio products, including sound bars such as the CT290 and Hi-Fi products like the Shake Series X10, X30, X70 and MHC-M40D, MHC-M80D, have all been well received, helping consolidate market share leadership in the country.

Also, the global switch to Sony’s industry-leading full frame mirrorless cameras is gaining traction in South Africa, with a growing number of professional photographers switching from conventional SLRs to the Sony Alpha 7 series.

The headphones category is also doing well thanks to the global success of the highly rated WH-1000XM3 noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones.

Meanwhile, Sony’s mobile arm (Sony Mobile) has repeatedly been rumored to be exiting markets, especially emerging ones where activity has already been limited, just as it had closed up shop in the US a few years back. It could continue to sell its phones in those markets via retailers like Amazon. But without a strong and visible presence, it could well be on its way to obscurity and irrelevance.

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Papi Mabele

Papi Mabele has a marketing background, he is a digital marketing expert with extensive experience in launching and building global brands in the emerging markets. Papi is also an avid tech writer, enthusiast and all round tech junkie. As a freelance writer and analyst he has been numerously published in Popular Mechanics (SA), GQ South Africa, Premier Magazine, Driven Magazine, Bloem News, Courant, The Weekly, Enthooze Magazine and PiE magazine amongst others.