Panasonic Broadcast Europe (PBE) is to close its UK headquarters, moving its sales, service and local marketing business into its national sales company in Bracknell, writes Sam Espensen.

Panasonic Broadcast Europe (PBE) is to close its UK headquarters, moving its sales, service and local marketing business into its national sales company in Bracknell, writes Sam Espensen.

PBE managing director Ted Taylor explained that previously the company had two European HQs, in Wokingham and in Wiesbaden, Germany: "I admit it was a curious set-up. It wasn't terribly efficient trying to run an organisation with two HQs? a proper restructure was needed."

Taylor added he was under pressure to address "various issues of the market. We needed a clearer sales route because the customer base is changing - broadcast and pro-AV are getting blurred, because the equipment is used by both. I also wanted to find a way to reduce back office overheads."

Panasonic has a UK national sales company that deals with consumer and business products. So sales, service and local marketing divisions are to be relocated from Wokingham to Bracknell. Taylor revealed that the German HQ is to stay because "the expansion in Europe is happening eastwards. We see a lot of potential business in that direction, and to have the HQ on the western side of Europe did not seem logical. Separating the two means we have a clearly defined technical and sales function." Five people, all back office admin staff, have lost their jobs as a result of the restructure.

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