The Sanyo brand name is set to disappear in Australia after Panasonic said that they will end sales of new Sanyo products to retailers at the end of March, 2011, when Sanyo Electric will become a complete subsidiary of Panasonic.Panasonic claim that by unifying all its products under the Panasonic brand the company is aiming to strengthen the brands value. In Australia the move will see the Panasonic brand expanded into mass retail stores like BigW and Target where Sanyo has had a lot of success in the past.
Panasonic says it will give retailers a one-year grace period to sell off their left-over Sanyo-branded inventory, after which all products must be sold under the Panasonic name. In Australia Sanyo staff has been restricted from incurring any expenditure with several projects already put on hold until the New Year.
Overseas Panasonic is, considering continuing use of the Sanyo brand name for areas such as Indonesia, where Sanyo is better known than Panasonic, and for products such as batteries where the Sanyo brand has strong market penetration.
It’s also tipped that Panasonic will merge some of its existing 16 product categories, including kitchen and laundry appliances and digital entertainment appliances, into nine product categories in preparation for business restructuring scheduled for January 2012.
