Sony Mobile Communications AB says it’s relocating its corporate headquarters from the Swedish city of Lund to Tokyo in October this year; a decision that will see around 15% of staff - approximately 1,000 people - losing their jobs by the end of March 2014. Lund will remain as a key Sony Mobile site with a new focus on software and application development.
The restructuring is designed to improve time-to-market efficiency, to streamline supply chain management and to drive greater integration with the Sony group.
Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile, said “Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide. We are accelerating the integration and convergence with the wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile’s costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength.”
Around 650 of the redundancies are expected to come from employees working at the former Sony Ericsson HQ in Lund, with most of the remaining job reductions involving consultants also based in Sweden.