A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats, Now Polish Ones
Sharp Electronics of Japan is a fascinating success story. Founded in 1912, it derived its name from one of its first inventions, the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil. Almost 100 years later, it's one of the leading electronic companies in the world. And now it's decided to speak Polish, too. They held an opening ceremony for their new and huge manufacturing plant for LCD TV production near Torun in north-central Poland yesterday.
Europe has been experiencing vibrant demand for LCD TVs these past years. It is estimated that in fiscal 2011, demand will grow to 36 million units, accounting for 30% of world LCD TV demand. And now that the timeframe to phase out terrestrial analog broadcasts has been decided on in Europe, there will definitely be robust demand for large full-HD LCD TVs on the continent in the near future, according to Sharp.
In order to meet this active demand, Sharp will gradually increase production capacity at SMPL, with plans for 10 million LCD modules a year in 2011. In addition to the integrated manufacture of LCD TVs, SMPL will also supply LCD modules for the large LCD TVs made at Sharp's plant in Spain and at Loewe's plant in Germany.
1300 employees, 420,000 units per month capacity by the end of next year. Whenever a free-trade conference is held, there always seem to be protestors present. Maybe they should go and see Japanese businessmen shake hands with Polish workers over a ribbon and scissors instead. And then watch it all that night on the news on their new LCD TV.
