Panasonic Says It Wants to Be Top Green CE Company By 2018

Panasonic expects “unpredictable” business conditions in the year ahead “despite a recovering world economy,” the company said Friday. Still, despite the uncertainty, Panasonic issued robust forecasts for the year ending next March 31, saying it expects total sales to jump 19 percent and operating profit to rise 31 percent. Panasonic wants to be the world’s top green CE company by 2018 when it marks its 100th anniversary, the company said.

For the year just ended, Panasonic sales fell 4 percent to $79.8 billion ($1 = 93 yen, the rate in effect at the March 31 close of the fiscal year). Operating profit improved “significantly” to $2 billion, “due mainly to restructuring initiatives such as streamlining material costs and reducing fixed costs,” the company said. Panasonic’s year-end net loss narrowed 72 percent from a year earlier to $1.1 billion.

In Panasonic’s core CE sector, digital AVC networks, sales fell 9 percent to $36.7 billion, the company said. Though sales of flat-panel TV and Blu-ray recorders jumped in Japan, overall sales declined due to a weakness in laptop PCs and mobile phones. Still, operating profit in the sector improved 2600 percent to $938.7 million on “comprehensive streamlining efforts,” it said.

Panasonic aims to become the electronic industry’s top “green innovation company” by 2018 when it marks its 100th anniversary, the company said in its “new midterm management plan” released with the fiscal year earnings report. “As the first step toward the goal, Panasonic will devote the next three years to making group-wide efforts in shifting its paradigm for growth and laying a foundation to be a green innovation company, while integrating its contribution to the environment and business growth,” the company said.

The management plan said Panasonic “will strengthen competitiveness of its flat-panel TVs.” It plans to produce 30 million units of flat-panel TVs in fiscal 2013, compared with 15.8 million units produced in fiscal 2010, it said. The company “is determined to make the Panasonic brand synonymous with 3D TVs and increase the ratio of 3D TVs to 70 percent of the total flat-panel TVs in fiscal 2013, it said. “With regard to LCD TVs, the company will emphasize its LED-backlight TVs, introducing this year LED models that offer the industry’s top-class power-saving performance.” Panasonic executives said the bigger emphasis on LCD TVs with LED backlight in no way means that the company will reduce its commitment to plasma.