Hitachi European AC Businesses Merged Apr 3, 2012

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Hitachi, Ltd. will establish a new company in Europe to incorporate all activities for air-conditioning products, including sales, manufacture, and service operations in the European market. The new company is called Hitachi Air Conditioning Europe SAS.

Hitachi and Hitachi Appliances, Inc., which operates the air-conditioning business in the Hitachi Group, will reorganize the air conditioning business in Europe to strengthen its operation base in this market.

Previously, Hitachi's air conditioning business operated as two separate entities in Europe with manufacturing based in Barcelona (Hitachi Air Conditioning Products Europe, S.A.), and sales, marketing, and other operations run from the central office in Velizy, Paris (Hitachi Europe Ltd.'s Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Group), with additional sales offices covering major European territories. The new Hitachi Air Conditioning Europe company will comprise these different operations under one management and leadership team.

Kenichi Munakata is president of the newly formed Hitachi Air Conditioning Europe SAS. He commented, "Whilst the operations will not change from a geographical standpoint, this unification of our businesses will deliver further benefits to ultimately leverage the economies of scale and scope that such a change will deliver."

Hitachi and Hitachi Appliances are conducting similar strategic reorganizations in its Indian and Chinese air-conditioning business, pursuing a strategy of globalizing its operation through localization.

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