UK distributor Midwich has said that it believes Panasonic’s decision to withdraw the Sanyo brand at the end of March 2012 – Panasonic acquired Sanyo in December 2009 – will have many positive implications. Midwich distributes both brands.
“I firstly want to reassure customers that a source at Panasonic has informed me that the new extended Panasonic line up for their FY 2012 will fill all the voids left by the withdrawal of the Sanyo product range,” said Darren Lewitt, AV director at Midwich (pictured). “There is no doubt in my mind that Panasonic wants to become the largest projector brand and one plus one most definitely needs to equal more than two moving forward. This decision was kind of expected and we have seen both Sanyo’s and Panasonic’s projection businesses grow again this year, so the potential of a new Panasonic line-up from 1 April 2012 using possibly the combined technologies from Sanyo and Panasonic will be very strong indeed. If they get this right, Panasonic will become the UK’s largest projector brand. I would urge resellers to continue to sell both brands in the short term and then migrate over to the new extended Panasonic line up from April. As yet, there has been no official press statement other than the statement that came from Sanyo. This action may represent an opportunity over the next four months for resellers to pick up some lucrative Sanyo deals in Q1 from Midwich and we will keep the channel posted on this.”
“People have quite rightly raised concerns since Sanyo issued its statement but I would urge them not to worry,” continued Lewitt. “Sanyo has been a great partner to many in the channel over the years, so now is not the time to jump ship. If resellers are patient, then I believe that they will be rewarded when Panasonic reveals possibly the strongest projection brand line-up in 2012. We also have to remember that this migration process actually started a while back and the Panasonic PTVX400/W330 range is pretty much identical to the Sanyo XU4001/WXU300 products. I am confident that we will see a stronger line-up from Panasonic moving forward and one that represents a good profit opportunity for resellers. As soon as we have an official Panasonic statement we will share it with our customers. We have been told that all Sanyo products purchased up to 31 March will be fully warranted for their lifetime by the Sanyo service centres along with a Sanyo service team for the majority of 2012.”
“It’s the end of an era and very sad to see our sixteen year relationship with Sanyo come to an end,” concluded Lewitt, “but it’s also the start of an exciting new era with a new look extended Panasonic range.”
