Sharp set to swing the axe on 5,000 staff

Sharp is to make cuts to its workforce for the first time in 60 years as it reacts to significant losses and looks to trim its cost base.

The vendor will bid farewell to 5,000 staff, the first time since 1950 it has swung the axe in that fashion, as its losses in the first quarter ended June topped £1.1bn.

At the same time Sharp warned that its losses for the full year are going to be close to 250bn Yen compared to its previous forecast of 30bn.

The reasons for the decline are fairly obvious with the weak economic conditions impacting the demand for its numerous products, ranging from TVs to printers.

Sales of audio visual and comms equipment were down by 54.9% and sales of LCDs dropped by 18%. Smartphones and tablets did help the electronic devices increase by 33.7%.

"Overseas economy showed a slowing pace of recovery due mainly to a rising sense of a European financial crisis and a slowdown in the growth of China and emerging countries," stated the vendor.

Sharp also used words like "extremely severe" and "great than expected demand decline" to describe what had happened in its main markets in the Far East.