Recent reports have revealed that Japan-based company, Sharp Corporation, is most likely to expand its alliance with Samsung Electronics and will supply appliances to the South Korean company. Sharp is aiming to expand the sales of “white goods” including washing machines, refrigerators etc.
The electronic items will be supplied in South Korea and other areas and will be marketed under the brand name of Samsung. This move will also help Samsung to diversify its business utilizing Sharp’s products. Sharp, considered to be the fifth largest maker of digital multitask copiers, accepted an investment of about ¥10.3 billion from Samsung in March 2013.
The company is also considering a business tie-up, but it rejected an offer from Samsung for a copier operation. The South Korean company perceives the copier business as having the potential to succeed its mainstay smartphone business, which is likely to slow down due to heavy global competition.
The appliance division of Sharp, which is focusing on health care and environmental features, generated about ¥290 billion sales in the fiscal year of 2011, amounting to ten percent of its group sales. Now Sharp is looking forward to making operational profits of approximately ¥150 billion every year and annual sales of more than ¥3 trillion.
