Realignment Is Part of Reviving the Sharp Consumer Brand, Says Sanduski

Sharp’s new Sharp Home Electronics Co. of America (SHCA) division announced Wednesday is an extension of Foxconn’s two-thirds investment in Sharp, which is about “reviving the Sharp brand and putting Sharp on a solid financial footing,” SHCA President Jim Sanduski told us Thursday. SHCA integrates Sharp’s SEMCA (Sharp Electronics Marketing Co. of America), SMCA (Sharp Manufacturing Co. of America) and SSG (Services and Solutions Group), into a single division, headed by Sanduski, formerly president of SEMCA. SSG, now split between a facility in Montvale, New Jersey, and a Sharp microwave drawer and steam oven assembly plant in Memphis, handles servicing of Sharp TVs from model 2015 and earlier, before Hisense’s buy of Sharp’s TV business (see 1508030046) in what has been said to be a five-year deal. The Foxconn infusion of $3.5 billion-$3.9 billion will allow Sharp to “expand the assortment of products that we have in the marketplace,” said Sanduski. With Foxconn’s investment and the consolidation of production, sales and marketing and servicing, Sanduski’s charge is to take what today is primarily a microwave oven business for Sharp and continue to expand it. That includes: “How do we look at other segments in the home appliance space that would make sense to extend the Sharp brand to?” When we asked Sanduski about expansion beyond appliances into areas where it already has expertise, he said it would be “foolhardy” to speculate beyond the Hisense TV deal because “right now there is no TV business.” He highlighted the new division’s name with its focus on home electronics and said, “Appliances are not our only mandate,” but they’re the "single consumer-oriented business today.” Sanduski also referenced Sharp’s business-to-business operations that includes copiers and professional displays, which are outside the coverage of the Hisense TV agreement. Microwave ovens are the consumer division’s focus today, but “nothing is ruled out for the future in terms of segments of electronics outside of home appliances, but for now it is home appliances,” he said.