Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.
三洋電機株式会社
File:SANYO wordmark.png
Company type	Kabushiki kaisha TYO: 6764 Nasdaq: SANYY
Industry	Electronics
Founded	April 1, 1950
Headquarters	Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan
Key people	Toshio Iue, Masatoshi Iue, Tomoyo Nonaka
Products	Semiconductor, Consumer electronics, Dry battery, and Cellular phone
Revenue	1,353,400,000,000 Yen (2006)
Number of employees	14,137 (2006)
Parent	Panasonic
Website	http://www.sanyo.com/

Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. (三洋電機株式会社, San'yō Denki Kabushiki-gaisha) (TYO: 6764, Nasdaq: SANYY) is a major Japanese electronics company and Fortune 500 company whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan targeting the middle of the market, with over 324 offices and plants worldwide and about 100,000 employees.

Sanyo was founded by Toshio Iue (井植歳男 Iue Toshio, 1902 - 1969), the brother-in-law of Konosuke Matsushita and also a former Matsushita employee, in 1947 and was incorporated in 1950. The company's name means three oceans in Japanese, referring to the founder's ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

History

File:Sanyo logo.gif

Old logo

Sanyo got its start as a manufacturer of bicycle lamps. In 1952 it made Japan's first plastic radio and in 1954 Japan's first pulsator-type washing machine.

Technologically Sanyo has had good ties with Sony, supporting the Betamax video format from invention until the mid 1980s (the best selling video recorder in the UK in 1983 was the Sanyo VTC5000), and later being an early adopter of the highly successful Video8 camcorder format. Lately Sanyo and Sony have seemingly had a technological falling out, with Sanyo backing HD DVD and Sony backing their Blu-ray Disc. As of 2006 this format battle has not been resolved.

In North America, Sanyo manufactures CDMA cellular phones exclusively for Sprint-Nextel corporation's Sprint PCS brand. Sanyo has for three years consecutive years received the J.D. Power and Associates award for having the highest overall satisfaction out of 8 of the most popular mobile phone manufacturers.^{[citation needed]} However in 2005 Sanyo tied with LG for this position.

The 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake severely struck Sanyo's semiconductor plant and as a result Sanyo recorded a huge financial loss for that year. The 2005 fiscal year financial results saw a 205 billion yen net income loss. The same year the company announced a restructuring plan called the Sanyo Evolution Project, launching a new corporate vision to make the corporation into an environmental company, plowing investment into strong products like rechargeable batteries, solar photovoltaics, air conditioning, hybrid car batteries and key consumer electronics such as the Xacti camera, projectors and mobile phones.

File:SANYO Evolution Project.png

Sanyo's 3-year restructuring project

Sanyo posted signs of recovery after the announcement of positive operating income of 2.6 billion yen. Sanyo remains the world number one producer of rechargeable batteries. Recent product innovations in this area include the Eneloop battery, a "hybrid" rechargeable NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) battery which, unlike typical NiMH cells, can be used from-the-package without an initial recharge cycle and retain a charge significantly longer than batteries using standard NiMH battery design. The Eneloop line competes against similar products such as Rayovac's "Hybrid Rechargeable" line.

Tomoyo Nonaka is the current chairwoman of the company, a former NHK anchorwoman. The President is Toshimasa Iue who is the grandson of Sanyo's founder Toshio Iue.

In January 2006 Sanyo received a massive capital injection from Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Daiwa Securities which resulted in five members of the banks represented joining the nine-person Board of Directors.

On 24 November 2006, Sanyo announced heavy losses and job cuts.[1]

Fisher Electronics which was purchased by Sanyo from Fisher Radio Corporation in 1975, is a Sanyo US subsidiary.

Solar cell plant

Sanyo Electric opened its solar cell plant in Hungary in 2004, and in 2006 it produced solar cells worth $213 million. In 2007, Sanyo completed a new unit at its solar cell plant in Hungary that is to triple its annual capacity to 720,000 units in 2008.^[1]

Plans to expand production were based on rising demands for Sanyo Hungaria products, whose leading markets are Germany, Italy, Spain and the Scandinavian countries. The plant at Dorog, outside Budapest, will be Sanyo Electric's largest facility producing solar cells in the world.^[2]