Kenwood Corporation (Kenwood), an operating company of JVC KENWOOD Holdings, Inc. (JVC Kenwood) is striving to expand its business of optical disk drive mechanisms for in-car AV equipment. Kenwood regards this as one of the key businesses in the car electronics OEM business alongside car navigation systems and car audios. It forecasts total shipments of CD and DVD mechanisms for fiscal 2010 to reach over 4 million units, up about 1 million units from fiscal 2009.

Positioning the car electronics business as a business to strengthen over the medium to long term, the JVC Kenwood Group is currently carrying out growth strategies in both the consumer and OEM businesses.

Against this backdrop, Kenwood positions the device business, centering on optical disk drive mechanisms for in-car AV equipment and tilt mechanisms, as one of the key businesses in the OEM business. It ranks alongside the car navigation system business and the business of car audios’ genuine products and dealer option products. Accordingly, Kenwood has expanded the device business by developing new products, expanding its production system and strengthening order-winning activities.

In 2005, Kenwood completed the extension of the Shanghai Plant to increase output of optical disk mechanisms, expecting greater demand for in-car multimedia equipment. At the same time, Kenwood transferred its production lines from the Nagano Plant in Japan to the Shanghai Plant to increase its vertical integration, and thus enhanced its cost competitiveness.

Kenwood also has focused on developing a new optical disk drive and expanded in-house production of optical pickups to improve its product competitiveness. In addition, it has commercialized the industry’s thinnest, lightest DVD mechanism and a high-quality CD mechanism with high cost-performance, and extended its order-winning activities into automobile accessory manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe as well as domestic automobile accessory manufacturers.

As a result of these efforts, Kenwood has won large orders for CD and DVD mechanisms from automobile accessory manufacturers in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, with shipments totaling 300,000 to 400,000 units in fiscal 2007 and 1.10 million units in fiscal 2008. Such shipments increased to 3 million units in fiscal 2009 backed by a recovery in automobile sales thanks to measures taken by various countries to encourage consumers to purchase the cars.

The sales ratio of the device business in the car electronics OEM business increased to about 40% in fiscal 2009 from approximately 10% in fiscal 2007. The growth in the device business substantially contributed to expanding the car electronics business.

For fiscal 2010, Kenwood expects to ship over 4 million units of CD and DVD mechanisms, up about 1 million units from a year earlier, and thus further contribute to the development of the car electronics business.

• 
  High-quality, reliable CD mechanism
• 
  DVD mechanism which can boast of being the thinnest and lightest