Panasonic cuts losses as global sales rise

PANASONIC, the world's biggest manufacturer of plasma televisions, slashed its final-quarter losses as it benefited from a recovery in global sales.

But its president yesterday acknowledged that the company had fallen short of profit targets in recent years and needed to revamp its strategy.

Fumio Ohtsubo said the company must shift its focus to growth areas such as green businesses and health care services while moving out of unprofitable sectors over the next three years.

He added the business also needs to become more global, focusing on emerging markets such as China and India, and raise its overseas sales to 55 per cent from the current 48 per cent.

Panasonic said its loss for the January to March fourth quarter of its financial year was 88.9 billion (300.1m) down from a 379bn loss a year earlier. Quarterly sales jumped by 16 per cent.

The Japanese company behind a vast range of consumer products including Viera televisions said it was cutting costs, focusing on emerging markets and banking on 3D TVs for new growth.

The company is also seeking to adapt to a global shift toward cheaper gadgets, including new strategies that it's developing after adding rival Sanyo as a subsidiary.

Sanyo's strength lies in cheaper home appliances as well as in solar-panel and battery businesses which are expected to benefit from greater consumer enthusiasm for energy-efficient technologies.

Like other Japanese electronics makers, including arch-rival Sony, Panasonic is struggling against competition from newcomers and formidable players from South Korea such as Samsung which leads the Japanese in flat-panel TVs.

Panasonic is expecting to return to the black for the financial year to March 2011, but warned that prospects remained shaky because of the possibility of a strengthening yen and intensifying global competition.

The group plans to be manufacturing 30 million flat-screen TVs a year by 2013.