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 As one of the top sponsors of the Games since 1988, Panasonic has
mainly supplied TV screens to host venues.
But with the event coming home, Panasonic sees the Olympics-related
technology and infrastructure contracts up for grabs as an
opportunity to expand its other businesses as it seeks to reduce its
reliance on the highly competitive consumer electronics segment.
"The Olympics will without a doubt spur the development of new
businesses," Masahiro Ido, the director of Panasonic's Olympic
Enterprise Division, told Reuters in a recent interview.
"Panasonic is not just a home appliance maker, we have all kinds of
technologies, including ones related to social infrastructure," he
added.
Panasonic renewed its sponsorship contract with the International
Olympics Committee in February, even as most of its divisions were
cutting spending amid a company-wide restructuring drive to recover
from net losses of 1.5 trillion yen ($14.6 billion) over the two
years to March 2013.
The company said it expects to earn at least 150 billion yen, or
$1.5 billion, from contracts related to the Games. The total
potential revenue, including earnings from new ventures following on
from the Olympics, is seven times that amount, it added.
COOL SPOTS, SOLAR POWER
Some of the ideas Ido's division is proposing include a payment card
to be used in trains, shops and restaurants across Tokyo,
eliminating the need to carry cash, and systems to prevent traffic
jams or control self-driving vehicles.
Panasonic would also like to invest in charging stations at
convenience stores for environmentally friendly cars, Ido said.
Iwatani Corp opened Japan's first commercial hydrogen fuel cell
charging station last month.
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Many of the projects Panasonic is proposing, like its plan to create
'cool spots' around town with solar-powered fans and mist-spraying
jets, would utilize existing technology, Ido said. The government
has made cooling Tokyo a priority during the Olympics, which will be
held at the hottest and most humid time of the year.
Panasonic is also hoping its local connections will help it win
Olympics business in Tokyo beyond the contracts for TV screens and
surveillance cameras it got in the London and Beijing Games.
Ido said Panasonic could leverage ties with Japanese construction
firms if it won the contract to supply appliances for the Athlete's
Village in Tokyo Bay. The company is also banking on selling
existing products like lighting, air-conditioning systems and TVs.
"There are 87,000 hotel rooms within 10 kilometers of the Olympics
center, and several thousand just for the International Olympics
Committee," Ido said. "The TVs in their rooms can't be made by
Samsung, of course."
($1 = 102.5600 Japanese yen)
(Editing by Edmund Klamann and Miral Fahmy)
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