Japanese giants look to create next generation optical discs to help businesses archive data.

The fire will almost certainly have an impact on supply of Sony entertainment products in the U.K. and Ireland.

Price cuts by Toshiba on its HD DVD players in the U.S. earlier this month may prove to be "useless resistance" in the battle against the rival Blu-ray Disc optical disc format, according to Gartner.

Electronics manufacturers in China may be gearing up for another attempt to establish a proprietary optical disc format, although some analysts said such a move is unlikely to succeed.