At the GoFast Mobile Expo distributor show this week, Sony Head of Sales, Aftermarket Car Audio Rick Kojan spoke on the company’s choice to sell through distributors and what it’s like to be a small part of a major company such as Sony.
“It’s a $130 billion company that owns a music company, a motion picture studio; we have a gaming platform and for 2025, we have a partnership with Honda to start making electric cars. We have to be a 12 volt company in a big company,” said Kojan.
Kojan came to Sony’s car audio division 11 years ago. As he’s spoke of in the past, at the time he arrived, Sony car audio in trouble. “It was a dumpster fire.” There were constant rumors of Sony exiting the car audio business. “I’m just being honest,” he told the audience. “We had transshipping distributors, it was a mess, product was moving out of the country. We were, I’m going to say the word, ‘exploding.’ out of the business. This still follows us to this day but we’ve come a long way and that’s why they have me up here talking.”
The company has since won Mobile Electronics magazine Vendor of the Year awards for the past five consecutive years.
Like many other vendors Sony Car Audio enjoyed record sales in Japanese fiscal year 2020 (April 1, 2020- March 31, 2021). Kojan said the company would have seen further increases in 2021 but for product shortages. “I don’t even want to think about how much business we turned away,” he told us.
Kojan advocates the distribution model, one reason being fair allocation and pricing, he said. All distributors get the same amount of product allocations, regardless of territory, and they are compensated on the same scale. Sony has 10 distributors in the US and Canada. When a shipment comes in, it goes to a warehouse in Carson, CA and then it’s shipped to 15 to 20 distribution points.
Last year, the company took a chance and returned the high end Mobile ES line to market including a Hi-Res Audio-streaming deck, the XAV-9500ES at $1,299. Six to eight additional models will be coming out this year, mainly amplifier and speakers. “It’s not the Mobile ES from days gone by when it was very head unit based. This is amplifier and subwoofer based,” said Kojan. That decision came out of Japan to “future proof” the brand as cars become less integration friendly.
Features from Mobile ES are expect to trickle into the basic Sony line. In head units this includes wireless CarPlay and Android Auto and Maestro capability, said Sony National Product Trainer, Team Lead, Car Audio Kris Bulla.
Photo: Jacob Gromovsky, Sony Account Manager (left), Rick Kojan (center) and Kris Bulla.
We and many shops are Loosing Thiusands and thousands of dollars because radios are not being manufactured. Something needs to step up and take place. You have the low end brands popping up with their undependable products but Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Alpine single din, double din cd or non, Car Play or android Auto or combo units that are basic to mid level units are no where to be found. It’s killing retail and even so customers will not be used to the new problems with increased pricing which may kill sales also. Some changes need to be made asap.
The industry has changed for the worst and the higher ups need to look into change to assist distribution and sales. Rich stays rich and the low and mid income people is getting beat up worse than the so called average. We love what you create but when is change going to make us retailers be proud to sell the product and support our families better.